Editorial: Financial literacy has long-term benefits

Kelly Makiha

If anyone caught Nigel Latta's documentary the other night on television about the state of our economy, you'd probably be feeling pretty depressed right now.

But it got me thinking. We really have become a society of people who tick things up and pay later.

What is needed is better education when we are younger of the value of money. Too often we are given easy credit options without having to work hard for our rewards. Before we know it, we're in financial strife.

Today we report on calls for school children to be taught financial literacy at school. It's amid a wider problem that too many youngsters are working too hard in part-time jobs while trying to meet the demands of school life.

John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh said having a part-time job was only acceptable if students limited the number of hours they worked. He said some students were working more than 25 hours a week and simply couldn't cope with school.

Rotorua financial adviser Tom Davies said there needed to be more time spent educating school students about their finances. He suggests financial literacy should be taught in schools - a great idea if you ask me.

I pride myself on having picked up on my parents' careful financial management.

I'll never forget asking my late father what he thought when I was thinking of buying a house in Rotorua.

It was priced around $160,000 and would cost $11 more a week in mortgage payments than what I was paying in rent. He told me to be careful and that I was setting my sights a bit high. Nowadays, that seems funny.

He was also the same man who encouraged me in my first job - quite the lucrative chicken poo business at the tender age of 10.

It wasn't glamorous, and it was damn hard work, but just quietly, I made a killing.

Right until I started working full time, I had jobs - washing dishes in restaurants, cooking fish and chips at the local shop and babysitting.

One summer holidays I spent six weeks working full-time picking apples - it was enough to fund a return trip to Auckland from Timaru to see Garth Brooks live in concert (yes, I said that out loud).

While it's not about being rich (I'm certainly not), it's about knowing when to recognise you don't have the means to get something you want.

If we all learned that lesson, New Zealand's economic state would be in a much better position.