Money-savvy Beach kids learn to save
As we get older and reflect on our youth, what is the one thing that most of us wish we had when we were growing up? Most of us wish we had learned early on about money -specifically how it worked, how to save and or how to set short-term and long-term spending goals for its use.
Well our Fort Myers Beach Kiwanis Club felt that our fourth and fifth graders needed a little push in the right direction with learning about money, its origins, uses and how it works. They asked club member and our local Edward Jones Financial Advisor Eric Tibbs to come in and spend a couple hours teaching our beach kids about money. The club also provided each 4th and 5th grade student with a Money Savvy Piggy bank and workbook to help them in their learning experience.
Eric spent a little over an hour teaching the students about how money originated from the barter system, how money is different all around the world, company stocks, bonds and loans, interest on lending money, credit cards and their pros and cons, banks and how they work, small business ownership and charitable activities including volunteering our time and money. During each part of the lesson Eric explained how they could use their special piggy banks, which are unlike any other piggy bank in that they have four different chambers for storing money and each one of the feet open a different chamber.
The first chamber of the bank is labeled Save, which Eric explained is for short-term goals of less than a year or about $50 to $100. The students came up with Saving goals of video games, bikes and the like. The second chamber is labeled Spend, this is used for very short term goals of less than a month. The students thought of candy, soda and used video games for this category. The third chamber is labeled Donate. It’s amazing how many different areas our Beach kids have donated their time and money too. Some of these areas include beach cleanup, donating money to help starving people in Africa, serving at the local animal shelter and helping feed at our local soup kitchen. The fourth chamber is for Investing, or for long-term goals of more than 10 years. Cars and college were the main topic of discussion during this section, our kids are big dreamers, wanting Ferrari’s and monster trucks.
With the help of their parents and grandparents and continued practice our beach kids will be money savvy in no time. Won’t it be great to have them stand on our shoulders and reach higher than we did when it comes to money and saving. Thanks again to our local beach Kiwanis club for providing this wonderful opportunity.
-submitted by Eric Tibbs