Hip-hop artists are notoriously focused on their “paper” – on their finances – so it’s fitting that Ted Thornton landed his job as a financial empowerment specialist for 1st Financial Federal Credit Union through a friend in the St. Louis hip-hop scene.
Thornton, 53, became friends with Alice Prince when she was a hip-hop promoter and he was a radio DJ, working under the handle “Tossin’ Ted.” But when she tossed him a tip for a completely new gig last summer, she was Young Adult Workforce Division manager for St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE), the City of St. Louis’ job training agency.
By then, in August 2015, Thornton had left radio after years on the grind for 100.3 The Beat and Magic 108. He did not like where the industry was heading, in terms of treating its on-air talent, and wanted to make more of a positive impact than spinning the hits of the day. He was teaching TV and radio at Roosevelt High School in the St. Louis Public School District when Prince told him about the new position at 1st Financial, a federal credit union based in St. Louis that started as an employee credit union at McDonnell Douglas, founded by the International Association of Machinists (District 837).
The new position appealed to him, he said, because the hours were more flexible than teaching high school (he and his wife, Elese Thornton, have a teenager and two young children) and because he had “the opportunity to help more youth from the area, not just the kids at one high school.”
At 1st Financial, he helps youth (and others) with their paper – their money. His core responsibility is to help youth getting paid through jobs via SLATE to open accounts at 1st Financial (in almost all cases, it’s their first bank account) and to explain the basics of personal finance to them. For most of the youth, this is their first experience managing money that does not involve a shoe box or a corner payday lender.
“These kids have been exposed to the more negative part of finance, to predatory lenders, and they don’t know the opposite side,” Thornton said. “Some of them have never set foot in a bank.”
A 2009 report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) showed that St. Louis had the largest racial disparity in the nation, comparing numbers of unbanked households, with more than 31 percent of black households unbanked. That sparked the creation of the St. Louis Regional Unbanked Task Force, of which 1st Financial is a member. Through the task force’s efforts, including 1st Financial’s partnership with SLATE, the percentage of unbanked households in St. Louis dropped to 29 percent in 2011 and to 13.3 percent in 2013.
Thornton’s selling point to his students is simple.
“I tell them, ‘I can save you money,’” Thornton said. “I tell them, ‘The payday lenders are there to rob you with their interest rates. They might charge you 400 percent. At a bank, you’re looking at more like 8.99 percent.’” He also tells them that if they keep their money in a shoebox and someone steals it, the money is gone, whereas bank deposits are federally insured.
Though teaching young people to move their money away from the shoebox and payday lender and into more credible financial institutions is Thornton’s main mission, as an employee of 1st Financial Federal Credit Union, he also advocates credit unions over banks. He explains that there is now a nationwide network of credit unions, making them more accessible than one expects from a credit union. That network extends to 30,000 surcharge-free ATMS and 3,000 branches.
Those who miss Tossin’ Ted should know that Thornton may have turned his back on commercial radio, but not on playing DJ. He continues to spin at clubs and parties. “DJ’ing is still my passion,” he said. I love music – all genres.”
For more information about 1st Financial, visit www.1stfinancialfcu.org or email Thornton at tedthornton@FirstFinancialFCU.org. For more information on Tossin’ Ted’s DJ services, email tossinted@gmail.com.
