Money Matters Program Spreads Financial Literacy Year-Round

Immediate Past President Connects With Own Community While Volunteering

PayrollOrg’s Money Matters program (now year-round) equips teens and young adults with essential money management skills as they prepare to enter the workforce. Created in conjunction with the Council for Economic Education, the curriculum covers essential topics such as filling out Forms W-4, understanding tax withholding, and evaluating different payment methods such as direct deposit, paycards, and earned wage access (EWA).

In 2025, 259 payroll and finance professionals volunteered for this program to help spread financial literacy, reaching 20,504 students. The National Education Champions Contest recognized Region 2—which consists of 13 affiliated chapters in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin—as the region with the most outreach.

In March 2025, Grandville High School in Grandville, Michigan, hosted a very prestigious volunteer: PayrollOrg’s Immediate Past President Jim Bolek, CPP.

Back to School

For Jim, teaching Money Matters was both a return to form and a way of making a deeper connection with his community. He had taught the program years earlier when his older children attended Kenowa Hills High School on the northern side of the greater Grand Rapids area. Now, he would finally be able to teach the Money Matters course to his younger children.

Though Money Matters offers resources to help volunteers reach out to local schools and market the program to educators, Jim discovered he already had the right connections once he decided to get started.

“.... my youngest son, who’s 11, played on a basketball team coached by someone who teaches in the business department at the high school,” said Jim. “I mentioned it to him in passing, and then it just kind of went from there.”

Jim was put in touch with Parker Stewart, business teacher and manager of the Dog Den, the student store at the high school. As it turned out, Jim’s stepson Kaleb was in one of Stewart’s classes.

In her Introduction to Business classes, Stewart teaches a budgeting unit where the students examine the impact of different incomes, careers, and budgets throughout life. Jim shared the “Bringing Home the Gold” lesson plan volunteers receive with Stewart, and she decided Money Matters was an ideal fit for the unit and a perfect chance to talk to students about paychecks and pay statements. Arrangements were made for Jim to teach a day’s worth of classes.

Head of the Class

“I taught the lesson five times that day, two classes that contained high school freshmen all the way to high school seniors,” said Jim. “We kind of had to adapt it as we went, but it worked out really well.”

Despite his time away from teaching Money Matters, Jim fell back into the groove very easily. Jim speaks before many audiences through his involvement in local conferences and PayrollOrg, so teaching again was like riding a bike … though not without its challenges.

“It’s always harder to be in front of teenagers, because they seem to be the biggest critics,” said Jim. “I had a pretty good connection with them. I knew a bunch of the students because I have a senior, an eighth grader, and two sixth graders in the school.”

Overall, it was a wonderful experience for both Jim and the students. Over the course of five 45-minute classes, Jim spoke to almost 150 students. In fact, one of the students in those classes was Kaleb.

“It was fine for me,” said Jim. “It was a challenge for him, because they all knew it, and so we made some jokes about it, and I probably picked on him more than I should have … But we had some fun together. Plus, because I was teaching five classes that ranged all through the day, he and I were able to go and grab lunch at a local place together.”

Student feedback on the Money Matters program was overwhelmingly positive.

“I wasn’t so sure my students would share the same excitement about filling out paperwork, but Jim as a guest speaker was just what my students needed,” said Stewart. “The day after Jim’s visit, I had several students come up to me and tell me that they learned a lot about how payroll works and starting those first job steps.

“I even had a student who was no longer in my class but heard about the guest speaker [ask] her teacher if she could come to my class to get help with her W-4 form for her summer job. She was able to attend my class with Jim as a guest speaker and left with all her questions answered. It was a great experience for all my students and bringing in a professional like Jim made the kids all the more interested.”

The interest in an outside perspective did not surprise Jim.

“They enjoy having someone different come in,” he said. “The teachers like to be able to give a different perspective to the kids and have them just ask different questions, because they’re going to ask me a different question than they probably would have asked her, just because of my experience.”

Make a Difference

You too can make a difference in the lives of young adults about to enter the workforce. You can volunteer any time throughout the year. Visit the Money Matters webpage on the National Payroll Week® (NPW) website and submit the short sign-up form. After signing up, you will receive access to the Money Matters teaching materials to help guide your planning, including the teacher’s guide, student lesson, and PowerPoint presentation. PayrollOrg rewards 1 RCH and a citation of recognition to each Money Matters volunteer.

As Jim knows, getting started is easier than you think.