It’s a subject not many high-school students think about: how to manage your personal finances. If Andrea Millett and Linda Kon have their way, that’s about to change.
Millett and Kon, both long-time ATB Financial associates, began teaching money- management skills in Edmonton-area high schools last year.
“We both have kids who were graduating from high school and we realized how ill-equipped they were for the future as far as making good financial decisions,” said Millett, the Jasper Place branch manager. “We thought it would be an awesome opportunity to extend an invitation to high schools that might be willing to educate their students with financial awareness and savvy.”
“We see way too many young people come through the doors of our branch who didn’t get good advice and they’ve ruined their credit,” added Kon, a personal banking manager. “Now we’re credit counselling them and trying to get their credit back on track. It’s really sad.”
Millett and Kon took the initiative to create a one-hour presentation for students as part of a required high-school course: Career and Life Management (CALM). CALM was introduced to help students learn to manage their personal well-being, from physical and emotional health to career development. In essence, it helps students prepare themselves for the “real world.”
Five high schools enthusiastically accepted Millett and Kon’s proposal and invited the duo to speak. In most cases, they spend an entire day at a school, speaking to several classes. They teach students about deposit accounts, why it’s important to protect your PIN, different methods of saving for the future, and how to establish and manage credit.
“Those are the platforms from which a young person builds all the rest of his or her financial needs,” said Millett. “We wanted to create some awareness and also protect them and inform them of potential pitfalls. We want to make sure these kids get off on a sound financial footing.”
To date, the presentations have been well-received by teachers and students alike. “We’ve had classes with some students sitting on the edges of their seats and they’re very interactive,” said Kon. “They’re asking question after question.”
The lectures were such a success that all of last year’s participating schools have invited Millett and Kon back again this year, starting with Jasper Place High School. “They did a superb job in presenting the information,” said teacher Lance Adamson, who recognizes the benefit of having financial experts offer advice in the classroom. “They (students) may not use these skills for five or 10 years. Then all of a sudden when they start looking at investing, using credit or getting a mortgage, they’ll remember what we said.”
Reshial Nath, a grade 11 student at Jasper Place, doesn’t plan to wait that long. He’s already started a savings account and has a new appreciation for money management. “They (Millett and Kon) were telling us mostly about savings because we are about to go to university and whatnot,” said Nath, who plans to study medicine at the University of Toronto. “They were telling us about how we need to save early because it will help us in the long run.”
Stories like that offer encouragement to Millett and Kon, who hope to expand their program to every high school in the Capital Region. “My passion is to do my part to educate students how to manage their money. It doesn’t matter how much they have, but what they do have can be managed in a way that can help them meet some of their dreams,” said Millett.
“Some of the younger people on staff said to us that they never had anything like this in high school,” added Kon. “They wished they had been given this information. They would have made some different choices.”
