Kiwi kids’ attitude to money stems from home

Kiwi kids’ attitude to money stems from home – schools need to teach basics, says expert

This week 120 Wellington school students graduated from their ‘financial fitness’ boot camp with a new perspective on how to manage money and make it work for them, but financial planning expert says financial literacy is not commonplace in New Zealand schools and questions how the next generation will learn to be financially capable.

Director of financial advisory firm FoxPlan and boot camp coach Dean Blair, says for most Kiwi kids, financial habits are only being learnt at home, but parents are either not prepared to talk about money with their children or are ill equipped to teach them.

“It’s clear from the boot camps we ran here in the school that the students aren’t working through money management concepts at home with their parents like they would mathematics or English homework,” said Mr Blair.

He said that when he asked the students to create a hypothetical budget with their parents on how much it costs to run a household for a month he was astounded by the lack of engagement from the parents.

“I was surprised to learn that out of 120 kids we asked to complete the exercise that only 12 came back the next week having completed the task. Obviously some of the kids would have just not done it, but I think overall it shows parents aren’t talking about money with their children, and it’s something that needs to change."

Mr Blair said that from his experience it's difficult to get financial literacy taught at home, however parents can instil money attitudes and demonstrate smart money habits through real world budgeting exercises, so they still have a role to play.

A 2015 report by the Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC) showed that the demand for financial capability in schools is high. Teachers in the survey were nearly unanimous that it’d be beneficial to teach financial capability at school.

The report also showed that teachers believe that students’ money management skills are low, and that students themselves want to learn more about how to manage their money and see the value of obtaining advice on money issues.

Mr Blair said that the combination of financial literacy at school and smart money habits at home was the ultimate outcome for Kiwi kids.

Former Wellington Phoenix and All Whites defender Ben Sigmund was also in attendance at the school’s financial boot camp to help the students learn about what financial education and money management means to him.

Mr Blair said Sigmund is really passionate about financial literacy so his attendance was a "good fit” with what he was trying to achieve with the students.

“Ben [Sigmund’s] work in providing development support for rising sports stars includes work around encouraging professional sports players to get financial advice, so he’s a key advocate to the story for the next generation.”

The financial fitness boot camps were delivered across four weeks to 11 – 13 year olds free of charge. The boot camp curriculum is tailored from the original workshops designed to help parents, young professionals and business owners to take ownership and control of their money.

Dean Blair is an Authorised Financial Advisor from FoxPlan Limited. His advice while teaching the students was general in nature. A disclosure statement is available on request and free of charge.

© Scoop Media