Mike Zisa
Mike Zisa is married to his wife, Kimberly, and has three sons, Robert, Jack, & Kyle. He received his Master's degree in Mathematics Education from The City College of New York and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Business Management. After 5 ½ years as a high school Mathematics teacher, Mike had a rewarding career as a Senior Financial Analyst at Bank of America. He was also a Financial Advisor for 4 years at Merrill Lynch in Princeton, NJ before joining Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. as an independent Financial Advisor. He holds the FINRA Series 7 and Series 66 securities registrations and offers financial planning services to his clients. Mike has been teaching Investment Management and Wealth Management at Pennsbury High School since 2004, teaches a Business Communications class at Bucks County Community College, and has developed financial education curriculums for various organizations. Additionally, he is a Certified Financial Education Instructor through the National Financial Educators Council (NFEC), a member of the Personal Finance Speakers Association (PFSA), the Global Association of Teachers of Economics (GATE), the National Business Educators Association (NBEA), and the Pennsylvania Business Educators Association (PBEA). Mike has published (through Amazon) the popular books 'The Early Investor-How Teens & Young Adults Can Become Wealthy' and 'The Family Investor: How Young Couples & Families Can Become Wealthy', has written financial literacy articles for various publications, been interviewed by Forbes and U.S. News & World Report, and has been a keynote financial literacy speaker at numerous conventions. He also owns and manages BecomeAnEarlyInvestor.com. His hobbies include playing the guitar, exercising, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.
As an educator of Financial Literacy, I have witnessed incredible maturation among my students that has helped them develop the concept of financial responsibility. With the implementation of YIS in my high school, I have taken students to the next level of financial comprehension. Students have received invaluable experience related to investing for the long-term and have even overcome their fear of speaking in front of an audience. They have such an advantage over their peers who have not been exposed to financial literacy and YIS. Evidence of this advantage can be seen through former students and YIS club members that are now in college. Many of them have contacted me to say that they are way ahead of their classmates in their business/finance courses. While their classmates struggle, my students already have a deep understanding about finance and investing. Some of them told me they opened up Roth IRAs and started investing in high quality stocks for the long term. As an educator, this makes my efforts throughout my career worth every second!
