Helping make Kiwis financially literate

Stephen Parr is aiming to increase financial literacy.

Tauranga's Stephen Parr recently won a ChildFund New Zealand auction for one hour's business mentoring access to Warehouse chief executive Mark Powell.

Mr Parr used the interview to obtain insights to round out a book aimed at increasing financial literacy that the former financial planner intends to publish this year.

"I chose Mr Powell as the chief executive to bid for, because I had read that The Warehouse was focused on upgrading their staff in terms of their financial literacy," said Mr Parr.

In June, The Warehouse put itself forward to take part in a pilot scheme run by the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income to transform the financial savvy of the country's workforce.

Like many countries, New Zealand is seen as having a population with low average financial literacy, and the commission is trying to drive that up, says Retirement Commissioner Diane Maxwell.

Mr Parr, who has been sponsoring children for several decades, was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and came across the Child Fund NZ chief executive auction while looking for a charity that had children needing sponsorship in Sri Lanka.

"I was intrigued by this innovative way of marketing fund raising," he said.

"I was planning to put money into sponsoring a child anyway and the auction was of interest to me in terms of my book."

In fact, Mr Parr decided to drop out near the top of the bidding, the chief executives were so pleased with the response to the programme that several had agreed to donate extra time to accommodate bidders who had come second.

"This was the first time ChildFund had run a CEO auction but, given its success, we may look at ways to repeat it in the future," said ChildFund communications manager Kiri Carter.

The 12 business leaders raised a total of $35,525, with designer Dame Trelise Cooper attracting the highest bid of $7000, with Moa chief executive Geoff Ross receiving the second-highest bid at $3500.

"I wanted to interview Mr Powell about the policies and attitudes of CEOs towards educating their staff about financial literacy and whether there was market for what I call applied financial literacy," said Mr Parr.

Mr Parr began investing in the New Zealand sharemarket as a teenager, going on to work as a financial planner and setting up Harmer Parr & Associates, which he ran for two decades before selling the company.

He now focuses on financial education through HighPoint Academy, which conducts a range of seminars, course and workshops for businesses and the public. HighPoint is one of only two organisations in the Bay of Plenty certified to teach Sorted NZ seminars. The other is Ochre Business Solutions.

"At the end of a course, people have knowledge, but they want to know where they go from there. I wanted to write a book that would help people to create their own financial plans."

The book

Stephen Parr's book, Take Charge of Your Money Now: The number 1 financial freedom plan, is being finalised for publication.