Marsha Barnes Makes Financial Literacy Accessible to Everyone

Marsha Barnes Makes Financial Literacy Accessible to Everyone

After more than a decade of work experience as a corporate trainer for a major financial services company, Marsha Barnes decide it was time for a change.

She wanted to be able to use her years of experience to deliver personalized financial advice to as many people as possible. In order to make her services available to the utmost amount of people, Barnes opted out of renting space in a building complex and instead chose to revamp an old school bus for office space. To Barnes, a school bus symbolized the classroom environment that she hoped to provide for her clients as they learned new skills.

With this vision in mind, Barnes transformed her newly purchased bus into a financial literacy hub on wheels, The Finance Bar. The Finance Bar is a financial coaching non-profit that provides services to a diverse range of clientele. On the bus, Barnes offers workshops and seminars on a wide range of financial topics for small groups. She has worked with couples to develop money management skills and with college students to teach them about saving and spending skills. For $10 a month, individuals can join The Finance Bar virtual members club and access Barnes’ financial services anywhere at anytime

“I’m committed to the idea of being mobile and I’d eventually like to have a bus in several different states. I want to reach people that can’t travel [to] places. I want to be able to visit women’s shelters, domestic abuse shelters. I go to homeless shelters sometimes now,” Barnes told Yahoo! Finance.

 

Cover image courtesy of Shutterstock.