Dear Reader,

I am Susan Beacham, the working mother of two twenty-something women and the co-founder of Money Savvy Generation. Before creating Money Savvy Generation, I worked with adults and helped them make good choices with their money. In my corporate life I was repeatedly moved by how painful and difficult it was for my adult clients to deal with even the most basic concepts of personal finance. In 1999 I decided to do something about this and co-founded Money Savvy Generation with my husband, Michael. My vision was to reach and teach children about money at a time in their lives when they were shaping their behavior, when they were open to the message, and most importantly, early enough for them to practice good money habits that they could rely on throughout the many stages of their lives.

At Money Savvy Generation, we are focused on the goal of helping kids get smart about money so they can not only survive but, more importantly, so that they thrive. We have taken the time and made the effort in the development phase of our products to optimize them. Optimization is not just about making sure something “works” right, but also making sure our products touch kids emotionally and change their behavior.

We teach money management basics to very young children – starting as young as age four. We find our audience in Pre-K and elementary school aged children, a segment of our educational system virtually without financial education because of the perceived complexity of the subject matter. Our goal is to get out in front of money management behavior before bad habits set in.

I began this company by teaching in our local schools on a volunteer basis. After teaching for several years, I had a dream and it was a four-chambered piggy bank – four tummies, four slots at the top and four plugs at the bottom, see-though with one ear up and one ear down – now known to millions as the beloved Money Savvy Pig. Armed with the Money Savvy Pig and our success with these local school children, along with the responsibility I felt toward my own children, the Money Savvy Kids Basic Personal Finance Curriculum came into existence.

Our first class of first grade students is now out working in the real world. Consequently, as these students grew, our curriculum grew along with them. Today we have a Kindergarten through College set of tools to help keep the money-savvy generation we helped launch, smart about money!

We started as, and continue to be, a mission-driven company. Money Savvy Generation products are distributed around the globe in schools and toy stores and through financial institutions and a variety of other organizations. We’d be honored if you bring our products into your household or organization and join us in the shared mission of Helping Kids Get Smart About Money.

Sincerely,

USA Today included a good article in today’s paper that offers a strategy for how college students can start building a good credit history and score.  I thought this was pretty good advice, so I thought I’d pass it along to you as well.  College is an excellent time for young adults to use credit carefully and wisely and in a manner that will serve them well after they graduate.  Here’s the article:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/06/15/credit-cards-college/28742151/

Life has a way of surprising us – and our last 13 years as entrepreneurs did exactly that!  Always appreciate a good journalist who really listens like Bill Fay and helps us get our message out about the importance of reaching and teaching kids about the choices they have for money!

Former Bank Senior Vice President Teaches Kids Basics of Finance – Debt.org

It is amazing what mimics children are. Even as babies, they learn to smile and say their first words from our example.  So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our children’s money management will generally reflect our behavior.  From Day One we are teaching our children our attitudes about money through our actions—as well as through the influences we allow in their lives.

Toys teach lessons, too.  As parents, we are the teacher who will most impact our child’s life. But watch out for interlopers—such as toys and advertisements—that will try to teach our children bad money habits.

Years ago, I was in our basement with my girls and spied two “Shopping Barbie” dolls. Each doll came with all the shopping essentials, including a Barbie-size credit card.  It was a tiny—but very realistic—MasterCard. Each time Barbie swiped her card through the cash register, you would hear: “Cha-ching. Credit approved.” (I guess credit cards are never rejected in Barbie’s world.)  It still gives me chills thinking about the message this “shop til you drop” doll portrayed.  I used one of these Barbies in a keynote I did a few years ago to make the point that marketers aren’t waiting to reach our kids with a message about spending, demonstrating how essential it is that parents begin a conversation about money early so the right message gets through.

Let me know if this message resonates with you and your family too.

Have a great weekend!