Students to get tips on finance

TRANSITION year students across the country will receive a free copy of a bestselling money advice book from Ireland’s top financial expert to make them more savvy when it comes to their cash.

As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, top-selling author John Lowe insists it is more important than ever that schoolleavers are equipped with the tools to help them manage money.

The Money Doctors 2022 e-book is being rolled out to over 48,000 Transition Year students nationwide for free – a year after a pilot scheme saw 3,000 hard copies of the 2021 edition delivered to 30 Dublin schools. Dubliner Lowe’s ‘gift to tomorrow’s leaders’ was prompted after his 19-year-old son asked what an overdraft was. ‘Something needed to be done to arm young people with practical money advice that’s useful in their day-to-day lives,’ he said. ‘The 2022 edition of Money Doctors covers everything you need to know about personal finance in Ireland, and contains a chapter aimed specifically at TY students and their money.

‘As many start earning with part-time jobs in transition year and take their first steps in handling personal finances, it is important for them to understand how money works and how to make, manage and spend it responsibly.’

The TY chapter was written with UCD’s Dr Rachel Farrell and James Doyle, the TY co-ordinator at St Andrew’s College in Booterstown, Dublin. It covers advice on how to make money, young people’s rights as part-time workers, managing money, opening bank accounts, getting the best return on savings and being credit wise.

Lowe, whose 2023 edition of Money Doctors is due out in December, insists there is no ‘ulterior motive’ to the gesture other than ensuring the next generation is clued in to finance.