Early education key to good money management
WINNIPEG, MB—A youth pastor-turned-entrepreneur wants to help parents educate their children about money.
David Senft, who started Wealth Skills Education Ltd. along with several partners in 2011, says children need a formal lesson in money management now more than ever because for the most part, they are not being taught about it in school, church or on TV. As such, it falls to parents to provide those lessons.
Wealth Skills Education aims to "help raise the next generation to be good financial stewards and save them from the perils of debt." The company does this by conducting educational seminars and producing hands-on educational materials.
"Nobody's teaching kids how to be good financial stewards," says Senft, a Briercrest graduate who worked as a youth pastor for eight-and-a-half years before starting the first of several successful companies in 1995. "Since the education is going to happen from the home, we thought we needed to develop a program to help parents."
The result is CA$H KIDZ, a package that includes a 42-page comic book parents can use to teach their children about money management.
The program, which uses material Senft created in order to teach his own children about financial stewardship, instructs children to divide their money into five categories that include money for giving, money for short-term saving, money for long-term saving and two different categories of money for spending.
Senft points out that 47 per cent of Canadian households spend more than their pre-tax income, and the average Canadian family is $96,000 in debt. By teaching their children responsible financial habits from an early age, parents can help them avoid becoming part of those statistics.
"You can go through the material with your child and have [the system] up and running all in 30 minutes," Senft says of CA$H KIDZ. "It's not hard."
This past March, Senft presented to a group of more than 100 people at Church of the Rock, as well as to group of more than 100 people at the Manitoba Association of Christian Home Schools Conference. Churches interested in hosting a seminar can visit www.wealthskillseducation.com for more information.
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