So this term I’m supposed to teach my form class financial literacy.
“Oh, I love talking about money,” I replied my colleague when she texted me the PPT slides.
Actually, I’m not very favourable about the trending of the metaverse. Today’s teenagers are submerged enough in their mobile games and social media platforms as it is. If schools start to employ the metaverse as a tool in their teaching and learning, I‘m afraid students wouldn’t know how to socialise with people in real life.
Still, I think financial literacy could benefit from a more experiential approach. I mean, financial literacy lessons, however well-meaning, relate to people on a cerebral level. I’m sure the kids know the difference between needs and wants as well as the importance of budgeting. But just because they know these things doesn’t mean they can ignore their impulses or discard their bad money habits. In an ideal world, I will like each student to be given $15 dollars. We could explore virtual lands in Decentraland independently and then congregate as a class at the end of 45 minutes. Then, we will share what they do with their $15 dollars. Who are the savers? Who are the spenders? Why do they save or spend their money as such? What are the values governing their money habits?
Nevertheless, I will deal with the cards that I’m dealt with. In order to value-add to the video they saw, I shared about many things. I thought it was quite commendable that many of them used a piggy bank to save their money - surely a best practice from my generation. Still, I couldn’t imagine them sustaining this practice when they grew up, so I introduced them to the Hugo app that enabled people to invest their spare change in gold. (No, I don’t have this app yet. It’s an avenue that I would like to explore, though.)
I also provided a good balance between low-risk and high-risk ways of investing. They must have been listening to my KFC stories after all, because some of them actually groaned when I spoke about how a portion of my salary was directly channeled into Central Provident Fund at the tender age of 7. Mentioned a bit about Singapore Savings Bonds and Bitcoin! I declared sagely about how there were always ways to make money and hopped over to my surveyon.com account (where I got fiat via PayPal) as well as Cointiply account (where I got Bitcoin - http://cointiply.com/r/VP28z)
Of course, I emphasised that Bitcoin was a risky asset class. Nonetheless, today’s kids seemed to have heard of Bitcoin already, so I thought it was my duty to educate them of its opportunities and risks. Someone raised his hand to ask if Cointiply was a scam. Great thinking! He was referring to the prevalence of phishing sites nowadays. Undeterred, I showed him my payment history for Cointiply and responded that I had verified its legitimacy before using it. It was cool that he was applying his knowledge of cyber wellness!
I also learnt something from them. Apparently, at least two of them were using the Yes Visa card. I have never heard of the Yes Bank prior to this, so I need to find out more.
Did I say that I love talking about money?
