Online course aimed at educating children
An Auckland financial adviser is on a mission to help educate the next generation about the importance of financial literacy.
Loan Market Central is sponsoring the MoneyTime financial literacy programme which is designed for children aged 10 to 14. The programme teaches children about smart spending, budgeting, banking and different ways to make payments so they feel confident about managing money.
MoneyTime is also designed to introduce children to the concept of debt, loans and repayments so they can get an understanding of responsible borrowing. It provides information on different types of investments such as term deposits, shares and property and shows children how to protect their money and assets and explains why it's important to save for retirement.
“The programme is a digital self-study course with no instructions needed and best of all it encourages ‘positive’ screen time,” said Loan Market Central financial adviser Karina Reardon (pictured above).
“With Loan Market’s sponsorship, the MoneyTime team has been able to implement its initiative into 736 schools with over 13,000 pupils (and counting). Plus, it has been translated into Māori, so the programme can educate many, many more children which is fantastic.”
Reardon said the programme would help the next generation with their financial literacy and resources such as attending a first home buyers' school as they progressed through life.
“The programme is educating children now about the conversations we as financial advisers are having with our clients right now in this current rising interest rate market,” she said. “This includes topics such as increasing your mortgage repayments if possible and not just focusing on your budgeting and finances today, but for the future.”
Reardon said financial literacy was an important topic and one that was not currently included in the New Zealand education curriculum.
“I believe schools need to take the initiative to teach children and promote financial literacy and this resource is a great way to do that,” she said. “Loan Market’s sponsorship helps make this initiative free for children, so schools do not need to allocate funding for this in their budgets.”
Reardon said the concept of money was different today given we now live in a “tap and go” society.
“Money is no longer physical or something you hold as we have transitioned into a cashless society where we pay for things with our debit/credit cards, which makes it much harder for children to understand the concept of money," she said.
“When using cash to pay for goods, you can see with your eyes how money disappears when you purchase something, however kids these days do not understand this concept, so they are already on the backfoot because they do not physically see money exchange hands.”
Reardon said the programme was designed as gamified education [which involves simulating game-like experiences] for children to interact with.
“This generation learns through gamified education and they have such a short attention span, so you need to keep them engaged,” she said. “The programme teaches life skills and sets children up now to help them get a head start for their future.”
Reardon said the course was completely online and had been designed as a self-study course with 30 different modules.
“Loan Market sponsors the property and borrowing module, which teaches children why it is more beneficial to own their own house rather than rent a home,” she said.
“By educating our next generation about financial literacy at a young age, when they finish school and are looking at buying their first home, they will understand their finances and how they work. These children might even want to become a financial adviser themselves one day – which is an exciting goal to work towards. Financial advisers are not just people who help people get a mortgage, we are here to educate and this programme is a great place to start.”
In October, the RBNZ revealed its monetary policy challenge winners, a competition for students in Year 12 and 13 across New Zealand to address and engage with the finance policy decisions facing the country. This year, 27 teams from all over the country participated in the challenge.
