Susan: You’ve also been working at the other end of the age scale – teaching school kids?
Scott: This is one of my real passions – financial literacy for young people. ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission) asked me to develop a program for schools, called MoneySmart Teaching. It’s now up and running.
Susan: How does it work?
Scott: The trick is, finance shouldn’t be taught once a week in a specific class – it needs to be integrated into the curriculum. So MoneySmart is taught as part of English, history, science, maths – that way kids get to learn about finance without really realising it – they just ‘get it’. But we’ve taken it one step further by educating teachers about money as well. For it to work, teachers need to feel confident about managing their money so they can share it with the kids.