Money talk: Educating kids about financial literacy
Hamilton entrepreneur Teresa Cascioli has partnered with First Ontario Credit Union to distribute her children’s book series
Teresa Cascioli mastered the ins and outs of personal finance early in life, thanks to some help from her mom and dad.
But not everyone is equipped with the necessary tools to have that conversation with their children, nor do they have the time to learn, the Hamilton business legend and philanthropist recently told The Spectator.
“I learned at a very young age because my parents taught me that you have to make your nickels and dimes count. You have to respect money. You have to work hard to earn it.”
To help parents along, Cascioli launched a publishing company and began authoring a series of children’s books titled “M is for Money” a few years back. It’s the first all-Canadian series of children’s books on financial literacy.
Following the adventures of twins Tessa and Benji, the books cover topics such as what is a loan, what is a budget and what are savings.
Those nine books are now being distributed through a new partnership with FirstOntario Credit Union, with anyone who opens a new account for a child under 10 receiving the first three books in the series.
Additional account transactions will be rewarded with the remainder of the collection, which is aimed at kids ages 5 through 9.
“Financial literacy is (as) important as reading, writing (and) math and teaching the children at the same time as they’re learning those other key life skills is really important,” Cascioli said, pointing to recent data from Statistics Canada indicating that for every dollar of disposable income, Canadians carry $1.71 in debt.
It’s a view with which FirstOntario is very much aligned, said James Lefebvre, senior vice president of business services.
The credit union — which supports youth health and wellness programs — wants to help provide children the information they need to become financially savvy adults.
“We want to break some of the cycle of having kids go through high school and post-secondary with very little exposure to what real financial literacy is,” he said.
It’s important to reach young people before they start thinking about major decisions like buying a home, Lefebvre said.
“If they’ve made bad choices along the line ... whether it’s not paying a credit card or a car loan, those are the choices that can haunt them for many years ahead,” he added.
The Ontario government recently took steps to make financial and digital literacy a mandatory part of the Grade 10 career studies course. While students start learning about financial literacy in Grade 4, the subject is most often not offered to them as a separate course — it is integrated into the existing curriculum, according to the province.
Locally, St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School offers a class for Grade 12 students called Money Management, which provides an introduction to financial planning, said Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board spokesperson Marnie Jadon.
The public board does not have any programs specifically dedicated to financial literacy, confirmed Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board spokesperson Shawn McKillop.
Moving forward, Cascioli hopes kids become equipped with the financial knowledge they need to help carry them into their careers.
Cascioli — best known for taking the former Lakeport Brewery from bankruptcy to a beer industry powerhouse that was bought by Labatt for more than $200 million — said it’s important for employees to
be financially literate.
“When an employee understands the value and the concept of money and how important it is to budget and save, they take care of the assets of the company equally well.”