My husband and I run a bank, but our kids still make financial mistakes. Here's what we're teaching them about money.

Teri Williams has run a bank for 30 years. Courtesy of Teri Williams Teri Williams' great-grandmother was a business woman in the segregated south. Williams and her husband have run a bank for 30 years, while raising two children. She says building financial literacy can be challenging, even in her family. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Teri Williams, president and chief operating officer of OneUnited Bank. It has been edited for length and clarity. Growing up in Indiantown, Florida, I used to follow my great-grandmother around, whom I called Ma Honey. Ma Honey owned a penny candy store, a barbecue place, and a juke joint, where I learned how to play pool. She also owned rental properties, and I'd go with her to collect the rents. Ma Honey's businesses shielded her family from the dangers of a segregated southern town. Her money also gave our family opportunities: she paid for my grandparents to move so that my father could attend high school, since there wasn't a Black high school in their town. She also built houses, one of which my parents and I still lived in when I was growing up. Teri Williams followed her great-grandmother around. Courtesy of Teri Will