Dondreá Brown

Financial Services Professional & Financial Literacy Advocate

Personal Notes

How would you describe your relationship with your money? What did your family teach about money? I became an NFEC Certified Financial Education Instructor to help individual take control of their financial future. I grew up in a single parent household with five siblings. My mother worked longs hours, multiple jobs and made many sacrifices to ensure our needs were met. Witnessing my mother make these sacrifices for us, not only changed my life, but it laid the foundation for my desire to become financially independent and successful.

When I began my financial journey, I made many mistakes. First, I accumulated over $100,000 in student loan debt over five years. Second, I maxed out 3 credit cards on shoes, clothes, food, and miscellaneous purchases. Then finally, I spent over $20,000 on cars that I do not own to this day.

With over $120,000 in debt I was lost, frustrated, and afraid. It wasn’t until after I graduated from college that I learned that money does not grow on trees and I needed to pay back my students loans. I decided to educate myself on money management and healthy financial practices. I set financial goals, created a need-based budget, began paying off debt, while contributing to an emergency fund. This process has allowed me to save thousands of dollars, invest and gain the financial freedom I witnessed my mother strive to achieve.

As I continue my financial journey, I have developed a passion for educating and coaching individuals, families and communities to financial freedom. With each financial goal that is created, the scripture of Luke 14:28 reminds me that I must always count the cost.

Bio

Dondreá Brown has been committed to providing financial literacy since he graduated college. He first began educating himself, then his family and friends on the basic principles of money management. He quickly recognized that educating and supporting others to create and achieve financial goals was social justice work. That reality gave him the drive and motivation to create safe, motivational, educational, and fun environments to teach financial literacy.

Dondreá Brown is an NFEC Certified Financial Education Instructor, and holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from Kent State University. While pursuing his PhD in Cultural Foundations, he teaches personal finances courses at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dondreá is the CEO of 1428 Financial Wellness, a company that empowers and motivates individuals to utilize healthy financial behavior to achieve financial goals. He also partners with Colleges and Universities to help rewrite their financial literacy curriculum to improve their retention rates.

Dondreá is the Executive Director of Young Money Finance (YMF), a nonprofit he created to empower children and young adults to utilize healthy financial behaviors to become financially independent adults. YMF provides financial literacy summer camps, workshops, and educational materials to first-generation, low-income, and students with accommodations. He has also created the Financial Master Planner, which is comprised of practical spaces to track your spending progress, checklists to assess your financial health, and tools to help you develop healthy financial behaviors.

Dondreá believes financial literacy is essential to our development as a nation. We have to educate our communities and prepare our children to make meaningful decisions with money.

Book This Speaker