Employees may need their Employer or Manager to be more than a Death Care mentor

August 24, 2026/Business/

I feel very fortunate that I grew up in a household that valued knowing what was going on in the world around us. We always were encouraged to watch the national evening news to understand that the world was bigger than our community. . . .And, in my day and age, before the repeal of the FCC “Fairness Doctrine” in 1987, the national news was a much more balanced presentation of current events.

I also learned “Financial Literacy” by just being at the dinner table with my mom and dad and hearing them talk about what was going on in our family business. . . . . As I’ve went through life, I’ve counted myself very blessed for those lessons as I’ve learned that many people never got them.

At my very first meeting of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents in March 2015 student leaders asked the Board to make “Financial Literacy” a part of their education requirements for all University graduates. The students’ plea was very simple, “We get out of here and get good paying employment, but nobody is advising us on how to wisely spend and invest the money we make.”

We are twelve years past that plea and I’m still working as an advisor to a group trying to get more Financial Literacy to the students. Here’s a link to what some at the University are doing to try to raise awareness of the need for Financial Literacy.

That’s a long preamble to why I’m writing this article today that asks for funeral home owners and managers to be more than just a teacher/mentor in funeral service to young employees. Recently, I’ve came across some articles and surveys that indicate that many young people are trying to “take a shortcut” on their way to retirement security.

This recent article from Yahoo Finance tells of Generation Z (Gen Z) adults who are taking this shortcut by “investing” in sports betting. According to the article, it makes this comment about the Gen Z age group, “More than half of Gen Z adults ages 18 to 29 put money they had intended to invest for retirement into sports betting over the past year, according to a recent survey by the investing and financial advice app Betterment. And quite a few — 14% — said they’re doing so several times a month.”

Here’s the complete Betterment Retail Investors Survey.

I’m not trying to specifically pick on Gen Z here as the Yahoo Finance article also makes this comment which includes other age groups, “About 26% of Gen Z investors said they treat sports betting as a “deliberate, ongoing part of their long-term financial strategy,” according to the survey. That’s compared with roughly 14% of millennials, 6% of Gen X, and 1% of baby boomers.”

And, I’m not condeming ssports betting as a fun recreational activity either. However, the idea that sports betting, prediction markets, and retirement savings are mentioned in the same sentence for asset building is somewhat incongruous.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: The purpose in writing this article today is not to denigrate sports betting or prediction markets as wrong or evil. It is simply to say, because of the highly speculative nature of “winning” consistently with those methods they should not be used to build retirement nest eggs.

I also believe that employees will be better employees if their finances are not top of mind worries each and every day. That starts with paying fair salaries for the work being done, but I think it also creates an obligation from employers to help your employees know about retirement investments for the long-term such as IRA accounts, 401k accounts, life insurance options, and more.

It’s my opinion that if you can keep employee’s on a long-term retirement savings perspective they will be better off and your business will be better off by having those employees feel secure in their financial matters. Maybe it takes an introduction to a financial planner or a employer paid financial planner visit to get started. . . . even so, it may be well worth it for your business.

Here’s a couple of other publications that I’ve recently uncovered that deal with financial subjects that you may want to read: