Teens learn valuable lesson about saving money
Educational movie to be screened around SA shows how to master using money
Young Perry Senona from Winnie Mandela Secondary School in Tembisa believes that saving the little money she has will take her places. Senona, 16, was one of the 200 underprivileged students invited to Johannesburg, on Saturday by the youth development company, PrimeStars, to learn about financial literacy.
“Life is hard; both my parents are unemployed, which means that we have to rely on my brother, who is in university. Sometimes I don’t have money for food or transport to go to school,” she said.
The Grade 11 pupil said that despite growing up poor, she now understood the importance of saving money and not being tempted by bad debt after watching the smart bucks movie, One Way to Graceland, that was shown at a Ster Kinekor theatre in Sandton City. “In life you need to be smart about your choices … I can still save the 50 cents I have,” she said.
One Way to Graceland is a quirky educational movie starring ex-YoTV star Candice Modiselle, who finds herself in debt because of her shopping addiction. The movie will be screened across 14 cinema complexes in SA to teach Grade 9s to 12s about the five financial concepts: earning, saving, budgeting, debt and investment.
Senona now plans to find a holiday job and open a bank account to start securing her financial future.
Her best friend and the star pupil of their school, Manthepa Setena, 16, has also begun her financial literacy journey.
The teen, who was a speaker at the event, has already managed to save R600 after watching a preview of the movie four months ago. “Now I know how important it is to save,” she said.
Martin Sweet, the managing director of PrimeStars, said: “Five years ago we had a goal to educate 15 000 learners from underserved communities about how to become smart with their money. I am proud to say that to date, we have reached over 75 000 young people.”