by SC Feature Writer Reanna Haase
You are never too young to build a strong foundation in financial literacy. That’s the message Robin Cook, Senior Vice President and Financial Advisor at Captrust, brought to an eighth-grade home economics class at The Sanibel School in the final weeks of the school year.
“You’re never too young to learn about these kinds of things,” Cook said. “I can remember my aunt and uncle, when I was a kid, taking me to the bank with my piggy bank to put the money in.”
She joined the class, which already focuses on fostering real-world skills, and taught the importance of not only saving and budgeting, as she learned when she was a kid, but also investing – a lesson many assume should come later in life.
“The difference is when I was a little kid, I was taught to save, which is important, but I never learned about investing in stocks and things until I was much older,” Cook said.
Along with the lessons she shared with the young class, she gave examples of how this knowledge could create real change in their lives.
“I gave an example of a young guy who was 16 years old, and during the summers he earned money as a lifeguard,” she said. “He worked during the summers during college, and he saved a relatively small amount of money consistently over that six-year period, and when he turned 65, it was worth over a million dollars.”
She told the students that if they start setting aside a little money now, it can really compound.
She also discussed ideas that will soon become a reality for these students – student loans and credit card debt. Things stack up quickly, and her biggest tip for remaining financially sound is simple: live below your means.
“There are too many people who are living above their means,” she said. “I have over 40 years of experience, the first 20 years were in banking – I was a branch manager, and I’d have people coming in and applying for loans that were making double or triple what I did, and they had no money, all they had was debt.
No matter how much money you make, you’ve got to budget. You’ve got to live within your means. You’ve got to save for a rainy day.”
She shared that not every kid is getting lessons on saving and budgeting at home, and she wants to help build a foundation that will set them up for future financial success.
“If I can get through to one or two kids and make their life better – that’s my goal,” Cook said.
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