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Teaching children to be financially savvy

KUALA LUMPUR: Fifty J&J International School pupils have now gained a better understanding of financial management, thanks to Prudential Assurance Malaysia Bhd.

The company held the Cha-Ching — Live In Malaysia school-based financial education programme at the school recently.

They learnt about the importance of money management skills  while having fun at  game stations. 

They watched cartoon videos, constructing mini buildings using Lego bricks and solved jigsaw puzzles with financial management as the basis for each activity.

The children laughed and cheered as they took part in the fun activities and even met ‘Zul’ the mascot, one of the cartoon characters they saw in the cartoon video about money management in the financial education programme.

Prudential chief brand officer Fiona Liao said: “We offer three financial education programmes. The Cha-Ching — Live in Malaysia programme  is aimed at kids aged 7 to 12. We also offer classes for kids aged 13 to 15 and classes for adults, specifically for those from urban low-income households,” she said.
  Seven Prudential employees and six volunteers from Generasi Gemilang conducted the programme.

 Generasi Gemilang is a non-profit welfare organisation which strives to build a better generation and shape stronger families.

 “Prudential employees who are running the Cha-Ching programme today are from our marketing, human resources, finance and other departments,” she said.

“Cha-Ching is the sound that the cash register makes when money is deposited into it. Cha-Ching is a regional financial education programme which Prudential developed with private child educationist Dr Alice Wilder.

 “We developed this programme to educate children in an entertaining way as they learn best when they are having fun. This programme teaches kids the importance of financial management, especially the four important basic concepts of money management which are earn,  save, spend and donate.

 “We believe that money management skills should be taught at a very early age.

“While this is the first time the programme is being conducted in this school, we have been conducting these financial programmes regularly at  local and international schools across Malaysia.

“The children are taught how to budget their money and learn about differentiating between needs and wants.

“Needs are things that we all require such as food, shelter, clothes and so on, while wants are things that kids do not necessarily need and can live without such as expensive toys, candy and video games.” By Naveen Mathew Menon

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