Anthony Dodson is championing financial literacy aimed at expanding traditional education and access to financial information that has not been adequately accessible within inner city communities.
His main goal is to help create a legal and legitimate way to build generational wealth for minority families as a real estate agent, financial advisor and credit repair specialist under his company, Family is Forever.
Due to his parents’ incarceration, Dodson was raised by his grandmother in an underserved community and quickly learned how your surroundings can determine your outcome in life.
“Education is essential to close the wealth gap amongst minority populations. But when you are in an environment that doesn’t teach you the steps to building and maintaining credit, when you are faced with doing what you see the people around you doing, such as skipping school, being in the streets, you are not aware of the possibilities or how those decisions can affect your quality of life and overall well-being.”
After troubling encounters in his youth, including losing two of his closest childhood friends, Dodson moved to Charlotte, NC. From there, he continued his education and went off to college, joined a fraternity, and brought his daughter, Kaidyn, to the world.
Even though Dodson’s father was incarcerated much of his life, he reflects on the impact he made when transitioning to fatherhood.
“My father is one of the inspirations for me writing my books, “Bridging The Gap” and most recently “Finding 750”. He would send us videos of him reading books behind the federal prison. One of my ultimate goals is to get into the federal prison system to make sure these parents are in their kids’ lives because many kids feel that once your parents are incarcerated they cannot be there for you. My father never missed a birthday. Even though I didn’t see him physically, he never missed an important moment of my life. Any big moment, I got a call.”
Dodson learned the ins and outs of financial literacy including how to maximize credit potential and wrote his first book, “Bridging The Gap”, a financial literacy workbook to understand how to let the dollar work for you. This program helps people get funding, invest money, understand real estate, and finance cars. The amount of support he received inspired him to educate the next generation of children to get them a step ahead in understanding the importance of credit. This outcome led him to write his most recent book, “Finding 750”.
“Finding 750” is an interactive book written by Dodson and his daughter Kaidyn, about a little girl who learns the importance of credit and financial literacy. Written for readers of all ages and backgrounds, “Finding 750” provides real-life scenarios that are easy to digest for those who don’t quite have a grasp on the benefits of a high credit score.
“Finding 750 is a book series, with the next series launching on Black Friday. It’s an open door to show kids what they should be learning in addition to other elements that should be taught as well. If you learn early, you will not make those mistakes that will hinder your financial freedom. In the book, “750” is a magical animal. Each element has been broken down for parents to read with their kids to learn together with interactive games. It’s an easy way to teach parents who don’t know where to start when it comes to financial literacy.”
Written for ages 6 and older, the main character, Aliah, shares her experience trying to escape bad credit like 450 and find good credit through life-like scenarios helping readers understand the importance of credit and how different decisions impact your credit score. Readers can engage in word search, mazes and more while discovering ways to find 750.
“Finding 750” can be purchased on the Family is Forever website and Amazon.
“Helping other people is my passion. I want to be the person in my neighborhood to help other people become who they are destined to be with the right knowledge by changing the cycle and rehabilitation of the urban neighborhoods to make other opportunities visible. You don’t need to play a sport to be successful. I want to make it where it’s cool to learn and some of these schools are not equipping kids with things that they need as an adult. When you get out of school, you don’t know how to open a bank account, you don’t know what an IRA or an investment is, or even your credit. “Finding 750” is showing kids what they need to be learning now to invest in their future.”
Dodson’s daughter Kaidyn has helped co-author the book series, including the interactive games and concepts. The next series, launching on Black Friday, will focus on the main character Aliah and her investment factory. Readers will learn about different investments such as real estate, the carsharing company Turo and equities such as stocks and bonds.
“My daughter has stopped me from getting into trouble and making the wrong decisions such as giving up on myself. As long as I’m making her happy, I know I’m doing the right thing. Being a father at a young age, I didn’t have room to say no. When you want to give up, think about your child.”
You may check out more on Dodson from his company website and Instagram.
