Back at St Philip's: Teaching Money Skills at the School Where My Own Money Story Began

A quick note before you read: this one is written by me, Yasmine, in my own words. Most of our updates come from the My Financial Future team, but this workshop was personal, so I wanted to tell it myself.

In May, I ran a FinReady workshop at St Philip's Christian College in Port Stephens for a group of Year 9 and 10 Commerce students. They were curious and engaged from the start, and we spent the session taking scenarios about goals, budgeting, saving and investing and applying them to their own lives.

I also went to school at St Philip's. Walking back in as the facilitator, I couldn't help thinking about where my own interest in money first started.

Where it started for me

In Year 5, our class ran a project where everyone sold items in exchange for fake money. I sold bookmarks. At the end of term, we could spend whatever we'd saved at a class auction.

It sounds simple, but it taught me the value of money and why saving matters. Every fake dollar I spent during the term was one less I could bid with at the auction, so I learnt to hold on to it.

In Year 10, I ran Cupcakery, a small cupcake business at school, for a term. It was part of the $20 Boss program, funded by the Foundation for Young Australians, where you get $20 of start-up money and turn it into a real business.

Before I baked anything, I surveyed my target market about the flavours they wanted and what they would pay. I promoted the cupcakes with posters around school, on social media and online, and donated part of the profits to ELIM Kids, a home for HIV-positive children in China.

Cupcakery won the Best Business Award at the 2015 NSW $20 Boss Awards, and the Port Stephens Examiner covered the win.

The students in that room reminded me a lot of my younger self. The values instilled in those classrooms, and the genuine guidance of teachers who invested in their students, laid a foundation I still draw on today. The lessons and support I had at school are a big part of why I want to help shape young people's futures through financial literacy, and they sit at the heart of what My Financial Future is trying to do.

Why money skills matter in Year 9 and 10

Most of the money habits we carry into adulthood start forming well before we earn a full-time wage. When students understand the basics early, they have more confidence to make their own choices, and a clearer picture of what they want to work towards. That was the goal of this workshop: practical skills they could use straight away, not theory they'd forget by Friday.

What the students learnt

At the start of the session, I asked the students to write down what they wanted to know about money on sticky notes. Their questions ranged from how to budget, save and invest, to how to find a part-time job, how to spend less on clothes and how to build a sustainable business.

We finished with a quiz covering debt, budgeting, investing and super. The 20 students answered 80% of the questions correctly overall, and some results stood out:

• Every student (100%) correctly identified the 50/30/20 budgeting rule: 50% of your income on needs, 30% on wants and 20% on savings.
• 90% knew that interest is the fee you pay for borrowing money, and 90% knew to check they could afford the repayments before using Buy Now Pay Later.
• 85% could explain what superannuation is, and 80% understood compound interest, which is earning interest on your interest.

When I asked what the most useful thing they learnt was, the same answers kept coming up: how to save, how to budget and how to invest, along with the 50/30/20 rule, payslips and working out their investing risk profile.

What they plan to do next

The last question asked for one action each student would take to improve their finances. 13 of the 20 students named a specific step: saving more, budgeting better, setting a goal, opening a new account or starting to invest.

Walking out of St Philip's, I thought about the Year 5 version of me, saving fake dollars for the class auction. Those small lessons stayed with me and shaped the work I do now. If even one of these students opens that savings account, sets that first goal or stops to check before tapping Buy Now Pay Later, they're starting out with a head start. And that head start will compound, just like the interest they learnt about.

Bring FinReady to your school

If you'd like to give your students a head start with their money, find out about our school workshops or get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.