April is financial literacy month, and as we wrap up the month, it’s a good time to point out the importance of managing your personal finances.

Hill Harper plays Dr. Marcus Andrews on ABC’s The Good Doctor. When he’s not saving lives on TV, he’s fighting to save your financial future in real life.

“In school we teach math from K-12 but we don’t teach money. I would argue with you that money and your relationship to money actually impacts your life more than your ability to do long division. Math teachers out there don’t hate on me but it’s true, we have to actually teach it, we have to let people know they can take control of their finances. They actually have the power but if they’re not equipped with the tools they can’t actually do it,” said Harper.

Financial literacy has become especially important during the pandemic, which has seen millions of Americans unemployed.

“Folks have actually been at home and used the tools that are available to them to learn more and understand where they are and understand making better choices. Actually paying down debt and doing the things that can actually make folks feel more secure,” Harper said.

Harper has always been interested in financial literacy, and he even wrote a book about it called “The Wealth Cure.”

“If we don’t help people with their financial capacity, it’s very difficult to change the big things that we want to change in society. I truly believe you cannot have social justice without economic justice.” Hill says these tough conversations are needed.

“I just really want people to understand hey money is a tool, nothing more, to be used to build the life you want and if you can use that tool effectively there are different things you can do and experian.com has a lot of information about that,” he said. “That’s a good point, no matter who you are you have to deal with money in some shape or form so taking that stigma off is so important. And as it’s more digitized in so many ways our relationship and knowledge of where our money is going and where it is and how it’s moving is really critical as well.”