As an all-state football player at Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Dale Morgan dreamed of playing in the NFL.
He saw it as his ticket out of poverty.
“Literally every month, I watched my mom sign over our check to our landlord. The check was only enough to cover the rent and the utilities, no extra. So, every month the check came. My mother was signing over (and) the landlord was taking. He took essentially all the money out of our house. Then we got food stamps, and that was how we were able to eat. I always had a roof over my head and food in my stomach, but I didn't get a lot of those extra things and those things that young kids wanted.”
Dale went to the University of Louisville to play football for the legendary Coach Howard Schnellenberger. But after a couple of years, Dale says he could see playing professional football was not likely to happen. He left school and got a manufacturing job that paid good money.
Soon he had a new house, a fancy car, and was enjoying lavish vacations. “I was living it up. I was living it up to my standards from the way I had come up, and but even in that, there was something that was missing in me.”
Dale went back to school. This time to Lexington to attend community college. He paid off his student loan debt after getting what he described as ‘a financial windfall of some money.’ It was an important moment for him.
“This is how my mind matured when it came to my finances. Instead of taking that big lump sum of money that I was about to get and go have a good time with it, I took that money and paid off my student loan debt.”
Eventually Dale graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a degree in accounting and finance. He was 40 years old. His persistence and drive for a better life had paid off.
“It just comes from wanting a better life. It comes from not wanting to be a statistic. It comes from seeing positive and bad things in my environment, in my neighborhood, and all around me, and deciding, you know what? I don't want that for myself.”
Today, Dale works in accounting for the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government.
Six years ago, he created a for-profit financial literacy program called Foundation 47. He uses it to teach people good financial habits and about his own experience of making poor money decisions. He speaks to groups of young people about his core beliefs.
“Everybody should be prepared to establish, particularly young adults, should be prepared to establish agency in life. What is that? Being responsible young adults. I didn't get that growing up. I made a lot of mistakes, and I learned it the hard way. So, what we hope to do is to go back and educate individuals so they're not 30 years old before they're figuring this out. They can get it figured out hopefully in their teens and at least in their early 20s.”
19-year-old Jayceon Jackson of Lexington didn’t want to go with his mother to hear Dale’s talk on financial literacy. But after listening to Dale’s message, something clicked with Jayceon and his sisters.
“A lot of information about stuff that you know you wouldn't even know at a young age, like because you know, in my age group, we don't really talk about that stuff. So, it's like we're not really you know putting it in our lives, you know what I mean? So, it helped us, you know, with my family, my sisters.”
Jayceon’s mother, Antionette Rodriquez, says she’s seen a change in her son. “Once he, you know, locked in with it, he was serious. He did more research. Oh my gosh, this is really good-not just for himself, for me. Like mom, let's write all the bills down. Let's do this together. I was so impressed, and I was so happy that they were soaking that information in. You know, not just for themselves, but for the family. You know, so that made me feel good.”
Dale also speaks to adults. Recently he talked to dozens of women in recovery from addiction at the Hope Center.
Chyanne Tucker just graduated from the recovery program and is a peer mentor at the Hope Center. She says Dale’s advice on how to pay off personal debt is very helpful.
“I owed $5,000 in student loans, and then upon being an addiction, I took out credit cards, which were never paid back. I'd say that's at least $1,200 plus interest. So today I learned about the importance of wants and needs, and stacking my payments so that I can, if I make a $300 payment, then once that debt's paid off, I'll have an extra 300 to save and then making an investment like a property or getting a car that is useful instead of pretty.”
For Dale, hearing that his message resonates with other people is the goal.
“I want to be a hub of information, a hub of opportunity, and a hub to connect individuals. I love doing this. It's a great feeling to wake up every day and love what you do. Know you're impacting people's lives in a positive light.” More information on Dale’s financial literacy program is at his Facebook page, Foundation 47, LLC.
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