“It’s all about money, money, money,” a schoolgirl sang the famous lyrics of Abba at the launch of the Rethink Rands programme this week – a programme that aims to reinvent money habits for the youth to foster financial freedom.
The Rethink Rands campaign was launched to much fanfare at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The financial education initiative, which is the brainchild of Primestars and The YouthStart Foundation, targets embedding entrepreneurship and financial literacy in private and public schools via a financial roadmap focusing of the psychology of money.
Key partners in the initiative included MTN, FNB, EOH, the JSE, among others.
Martin Sweet, managing director of Primestars, called on the public and private sectors to embed the newly-launched Rethink Rands programme in schools.
He said, “This movement will reach thousands of young people by meeting them wherever they are on their financial journey, ensuring they have access to and understanding of the knowledge, tools and resources they need to make informed financial decisions.”
The Rethink Rands programme includes an edutainment feature film, a practical illustrated guide, e-learning, social media engagement, as well as sessions with money mentors.
Sweet said, “The knowledge we want our children to invest in, is all aspects of money management: earnings, budgeting, saving, investing, assets, and liabilities, income and expenditure, the impact of inflation on our money and understanding financial products like loans and credit cards.”
Money is an emotional subject.
“Many of our money troubles are caused by behavioural traps like the lack of self-control, impulse spending and peer pressure that keep us locked in a cycle,” he added.
Rethinking Rands focused on psychology, behavioural economics and a system of understanding behavioural change that anyone could follow to take control of their finances. It would encourage learners to change their earning, spending and saving habits, based on managing their emotions and behaviours.
“If we understand the emotional, psychological reasons behind how we behave with money, only then can we learn to act differently. We can break bad habits, overcome our thinking biases, and stop self-sabotage such as procrastination.
“For instance, one way to boost self-control and change bad habits is to sign commitment pledges. These pledges are set up so that a bad decision is not even an option,” Sweet added.
South Africans spend 75% of their take-home pay servicing debt. According to the latest10x Investments Retirement Reality Report, only 6% of South Africans can afford to retire comfortably. Among those surveyed, 70% of people could not afford to save money at the end of the month.
JSE CEO Leila Fourie said the power of financial inclusion allowed South African youth to escape the harsh realities of socio-economic challenges, and transcend the cycles of poverty.
“Financial literacy serves as the cornerstone of creating an inclusive economy by providing our youth with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate a complex financial landscape, and secure their financial future,” Fourie said.
Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training Buti Manamela, said the government fully supported this programme.
“There is a problem around people not investing and not saving. It needs both the government and private sector to come to the party to ensure that we reinvest into the country’s economy. We give people the chance to build capacity to be able to spend and grow our economy,” he said.
Manamela said financial literacy was not just aimed at the poor, but should target the culture of consumerism.
“We’ve seen people who are super wealthy, but who have no sense of financial literacy. People think money leads to fame, not bankruptcy. We see people leading this glamorous lifestyle on social media. Posting pictures with themselves and a bottle of champagne,” he said, warning of the dangers of this type of thinking.
PERSONAL FINANCE