Reno woman creates financiallyfitemployees.com to help navigate inflation (PART 1)

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) - Dr. Kimberly Greenman Ph.D created a financial education program designed to help her clients overcome common barriers responsible for preventing proper budgeting, saving, and investing.

”Where do you see the Company in five years?” asked KOLO 8 Evening Anchor, Noah Bond.

“We have an overarching goal of being able to reach 10 percent of America,” replied Dr. Greenman.

“That’s about 35 million people,” said Bond.

“Yeah, it is,” replied Dr. Greenman.

The program has been converted into two different formats. One is called Financially Fit Me and the other is called Financially Fit Employees. Financially Fit Me is designed for individuals. Financially Fit Employees is designed as an incentives package for employers to give to their employees.

They’re both inspired by Dr. Greenman’s dissertation findings during her time as a social psychology Ph.D student at the University of Nevada in Reno.

FFE™ and FFM™ use what she says are proven methods to increase financial wellness.

Dr. Greenman spent seven years of her life to perfect the programs, but says she is continually working to improve them.

The programs have the support of a team of five University of Nevada Reno professors.

They include: Professor of Human Development Family Studies also with the Corporate Extension at UNR, Bill Evans; Business School Professor (not with UNR anymore), Alice Wieland; Professor of Human Development Family Studies and part of the Interdisciplinary Social Psychology Ph.D program and part of the Cooperative Extension (off campus arm of the University), Dan Weigel; Associate Professor School of Public Health Interdisciplinary Social Psychology Ph.D program, Paul Debereux; and Professor of Management Emerita, Yvonne Stedham.

Director of the UNR Social Psychology Program, Dr. Colleen Murray, introduced the professors to Dr. Greenman to help her find answers to the complex questions her dissertation research uncovered concerning the biggest stumbling blocks to financial wellness. Greenman pinpointed at least four. They include the conflict between honoring the current self versus the future self, the ability to manage shame while making and executing a plan to financial wellness, the ability a person has to gently and consistently make financial changes in their daily habits, and the ability to make and stick with a budget.

Greenman says FFE™ and FFM™ are designed to help her clients overcome these stumbling blocks to financial wellness.

Bond sat down with the team of UNR professors to ask them about their contributions to Dr. Greenman’s finance programs.

“Can you tell me about what you think this has become today?” asked Bond.

”Unbelievable. I want to tell everybody. She took her dissertation and made something very important out of it,” replied Professor of Management Emerita, Yvonne Steaham.

FFE™ and FFM™ blend many academic fields together, but mostly psychology and sociology.

Dr. Greenman also connected with a team of six advisors composed of attorneys and business people. They continue coaching her as needed to perfect the FFE™ and FFM™ programs.

This team includes: Founder and Director of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) LLC, Craig Macy; Director of the Sontag Entrepreneurship Competition, Richard Bartholet; Associate Professor of Marketing at UNR, Bret Leary; Entrepreneurship and Attorney and Adjunct Professor at UNR Teaching Entrepreneurship, Rusty Shaffer; Professor of Management Emerita, Yvonne Stedham; Service Core of Retired Executive, Kurt Frohlich.

“Kimberly’s enthusiasm was pretty infectious. She was going to plow through and figure this out,” said Service Core of Retired Executives, Kurt Frohlich.

“It’s a mission to help. It’s just one of those things you want to do,” Shaffer said.

Dr. Greenman opened up to reveal her passion for money management and her drive to create these programs.

She says her father was an accounting major and her mother was frugal with money. She says their guidance helped her to master money management skills and build wealth at a young age and this led her to question why some people struggle to do the same even when they mentally understand the steps they should take.

“Those fundamental principles went with me as I began studying social work and social psychology realizing that combination was so critical for the people,” said Dr. Greenman.

Once she discovered what she says are a number of complex problems preventing people from overcoming the hurdles to financial wellness she then created several educational tools to address those problems with the help of her academic advisors.

Then she tested her newly developed techniques on employees working for 15 different companies.

Explaining the results of her initial tests, Dr. Greenman posed the question, “Does it work?” She answered, “To be able to joyfully find, yes it does. We can move the needle in helping people feel more financially confident. In meeting their financial goals.”

”She really was more interested in the psychological side. Why are some people able to manage money fine and other people just can’t? Even though they may have the same resources? She really wanted to dig into that,” said Professor of Human Development Family Studies and part of the Interdisciplinary Psychology Ph.d program, Dan Weigel.

“Here we have something that addresses the individual. Solves problems for the individual and for the companies, which is great. So you get a joint solution, which then hits the economy so you get another side of the table. So you have this solution set that hits every side of the table and you don’t find that every often,” said Founder and Director of Steam LLC., Craig Macy.

Dr. Greenman and her team of professors and advisory board members say they are confident the concepts they collectively developed will improve budgeting and saving behavior, strengthen marriages, and strengthen the communities where it’s taught and accepted.

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