When it comes to understanding what other people know about finances, Nanoose Bay’s latest author is on the front lines.
Working in the financial industry for about 20 years, and currently a bank manager in Qualicum Beach, Holly Van Schouwen said there’s a lot for people to learn. She hopes they’ll start young — as early as three-years-old.
To instill kids with some basic financial lessons that she believes will last a lifetime, Van Schouwen has two children’s books published this spring — the first two in the Ant & Bumpy series.
“We’ve got to change the perception of kids and money now, because it’s just not translating well in terms of the eduction these kids have when they’re through to high school,” said Van Schouwen. But parents aren’t exempt either, she said.
“I deal with the parents, obviously, when they come into the banks to get help from me, and I’ve gone and I’ve taught in high schools and seen how bad the financial literacy is.”
The result of this poor financial literacy, said Van Schouwen, is seen in Canada’s household debt, at an all time high, she said, with about $1.70 owed for every dollar of household disposable income.
“I think… there was a real change in the ’80s to instant gratification in our society,” Van Schouwen said by way of an explanation for this debt.
“Credit became much more easily available to people, and so there was less emphasis put on saving to buy things,” she said. “We fell into the trap of wanting to give our kids more than what we had, and doing that in the extreme, and it sort of just spiralled, I think, from there to the point where we now are just trying to tread water in our own finances as Canadians, and that is proven by us having the highest debt load in the developed world.”
As a mother of two, Van Schouwen also wants to make sure her kids have what they need, and financial literacy has been near the top of the list.
Having co-authored a financially literacy book for adults before, Van Schouwen said she thought she could share the lessons she was teaching her kids with others in a book form, and thereby give kids a strong base for understanding money matters.
So she created Ant and Bumpy, so named for the nicknames she’d already given her children, Adam (now seven-and-a-half years old) and David (nearly five years old).
This ant and turtle pair have adventures that delve into three important aspects of finances, said Van Schouwen.
“The first one being save a portion of what you’re earning (via chores in this case) for long-term. When you’re three years old, long term can mean a pretend digital camera — six months from now, that’s going to cost $30. As they get older, save means if you want a new bike, something like that.”
Next is learning how to intelligently spend some money on what you need or want in the short term.
“When you’re a child, that’s candy or something at the dollar store or in Adam’s case, a small Lego set. And of course as you’re an adult, it’s you’re staples: rent, mortgage, that type of thing,” said Van Schouwen.
The third thing is learning how to give back, she said.
“We derive self respect, we derive pride and we derive satisfaction from going outside of ourselves and helping others,” she said. “When we forget about doing that and we concentrate only on ourselves, then we’re losing a piece. And you know, it’s important, I think, in today’s global world that’s readily available to us, to feel that we are a part of change or giving back or helping the community around us, or globally.”
Van Schouwen’s first two kids books aimed at teaching those subjects, as well as an allowance tracker kit, are now available on her website (www.antandbumpy.com) or on Amazon. She said she hopes to get the books into local bookstores as well.
Asked what her kids think of the books they helped to inspire, Van Schouwen said they’re wondering when they’ll become famous and need to sign autographs.
The books are also helping them to better understand her lessons, she said.
She added she hopes the lessons also filter through to parents, too.
“It’s simple ideas they can watch their children do and that they can model themselves, and see that it’s easy,” said Van Schouwen.