Barefoot Investor: Crucial lessons could help our next generation

Young people in this country have the financial odds stacked against them. But here’s how they can get ahead in the game.

Over the past few years, I’ve been on a bit of a journey and today I’d like to talk to you about it.

To be blunt, I see a lot of trouble brewing:

The rich are getting much richer … while the young, and the poor … are mostly not getting anywhere.

And I say that as a rich guy.

Yet I also say it as a volunteer financial counsellor. I regularly find myself sitting across from hardworking people, helping them create budgets that round down to the dollar (as in we literally talk about $3 purchases).

The guts of it is this: the current zero interest rate policy favours the rich who own assets and it penalises the poor … and young couples trying to save for their first home. They’re falling behind. And it’s only getting worse.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot.

Now, I’m not some do-gooder. And I’m not the smartest guy. And I certainly don’t have all the answers. Yet it seems to me that one of the most practical ways to at least try and balance out the scales of inequality is to teach kids the rules of the game.

How do you do that?

Well, not by theory, droning on to kids about stuff that isn’t relevant to their life right now. Which is why I created programs that got kids to roll up their sleeves and experience something, whether it be going home and teaching their parents about pocket money (in primary school), or landing a part-time job and saving up for something on their bucket list (in high school).

I didn’t get it right all the time. In truth, I stuffed it up many times (and thankfully I had a documentary crew capturing them). Yet in the back of my mind was the idea that many young people will have the financial odds stacked against them, so they need to know how the financial game is played – or it will be played against them.

That’s what the Money Movement is about. Based on my experiences in schools around the country, I’ve put together a manifesto which I plan to present to state governments around Australia.

So this week, I’m interrupting normal programming to ask a favour of you.

Have a read below and, if you agree, it would mean a lot to me if you’d digitally sign my petition.

Many young people will have the financial odds stacked against them, so they need to know how the financial game is played.

The Money Movement Manifesto

Our kids will be tested on money skills every single day of their lives.

Yet most of us had to learn these skills the hard way, because we were never taught them in school.

We need to do more.

Here are the five core aims of the Money Movement:

1. Implement a practical 4-to-6-week Money Challenge every year

When literacy rates were falling, the Premier’s Reading Challenge was set up to challenge kids to read – and it worked! In the same way I’m calling on state governments to get behind a Money Challenge – not just another requirement in an already overcrowded curriculum, but something exciting that schools take up because it’s important and fun!

2. Show primary schoolers the power of working, saving, spending and giving

Get kids excited and it’s amazing what can happen. During a pilot Money Challenge at a school in Hervey Bay (one of the poorer regions in the nation), the six-year-olds came up with the idea of using their class ‘Give’ money to feed homeless people in their community. It was a life-changing experience for them – and for their community.

3. Show high schoolers how to get a job and set up their savings ‘buckets’

You remember being a teenager in class thinking, ‘How will I ever use this in the real world?’ Well, at a pilot Money Challenge, I saw teenagers who were the first people in their family to get a job and set up their savings buckets.

Think what your life would be like if someone had helped you do that on your first payday. I want that for every Australian kid. Let’s set them up to win.

4. Commit to professional development financial education for teachers

Teachers aren’t in the job just for the money: it’s a vocation. Still, it’s hard to stand up in front of a crowd of year 9s and talk about the dangers of credit cards when you have credit card debt yourself. Bottom line: to raise financially fit kids, we need financially fit teachers.

5. Kick the banks out of our schools

Having banks teach our kids about money is like having Ronald McDonald teach them about nutrition. Our children’s financial education is too important to outsource. The government financial regulator (ASIC) is independent of commercial interests and should be the one to deliver the program.

This is something I truly believe in and I’ve been working on it – and piloting it in schools – for years. But now it’s time to take the next step and get your state government to take it on board.

I want every Aussie kid to learn this. If you do too, then I’d like to ask a favour:

Please visit change.org/money-movement and join the movement.

Together we can teach the kids … help the parents … and change the nation.

Tread Your Own Path!

P.S. For the record, I’m committed to working with any government that agrees to take this on – and I’ll offer my time and expertise for free.

P.P.S. As a result of my campaigning, the NSW government has committed to creating their own program to tackle this problem. I’m super excited to see what they come up with (I’m hoping they’ll follow the five core aims above) and to see the impact it will have on kids in NSW. That’s one (important) win in one state … now I need your help to take this across the nation.

Again, that website is: change.org/money-movement

Thank you.

Join Scott Pape, the Barefoot Investor, on his mission to help Australian school kids learn practical money skills. Foxtel’s three-part documentary series, Scott Pape’s Money Movement, starts Wednesday June 23 at 8.30pm – stream on demand or watch on LifeStyle.

Information and opinions provided in this column are general in nature and have been prepared for educational purposes only. Always seek personal financial advice tailored to your specific needs before making financial and investment decisions