In honour of World Children’s Day being celebrated this month, the United Nations has urged the world to keep in mind that, “Investing in our future means investing in our children.” A noble and true sentiment, certainly. But what does investing in our children practically look like?
For Sanlam, it means teaching our kids about financial literacy from a young age to give them a head start and a better chance of having a healthy relationship with money later on in life.
“Our early years set us up for life,” says Sanlam’s Chief Executive for the Brand, Sydney Mbhele. “Particularly at this early childhood development stage, which lays the building blocks for future success to learn, earn and contribute towards the sustainability of our country.”
To this end, Sanlam believes it’s never too early to instil good money habits in our children. That’s why they’ve invested in teaching kids the value of saving and setting them up for success for over 20 years – having brought the ground-breaking edutainment series, Takalani Sesame, into South Africa two decades ago, and through Satrix, a pioneer in the South African index-tracking landscape having launched South Africa's first ETF in 2000.
Here are two inspiring examples of how Sanlam is helping families to invest in their children, and more impressively, getting children interested and invested too.
A fantastical world of saving
To help teach children about the wonder of saving, Sanlam will soon launch an innovative first: a free, interactive savings app for kids called the Savings Jar. Aimed at children between the ages of six and nine, the app enlists the help of a virtual dragon to bring the wonder of saving to life.
Kids take on the exciting role of young dragon masters who embark on a quest to save shiny golden coins into a virtual jar. As their treasure grows, their dragon grows too. Through augmented reality, the Savings Jar catapults kids into a world of imagination and fantastical fun where they can learn the value of setting goals and working towards them.
Set to launch in early 2021, parents and caregivers can preregister at savingsjar.co.za to be the first to know when their child’s dragon egg is ready to hatch.
SatrixNOW
SatrixNow is an online passive investment platform that gives South Africans access to all Satrix index-tracking products, with no minimums to allow you to invest any amount you choose. The platform also makes it easy for kids under 18 to have their own account, allowing parents or guardians to open an account in their kids name and enabling any person with a SatrixNOW account to contribute at any time via gift vouchers - providing loved ones with the opportunity to give a child a gift that’s guaranteed to keep on growing.
“Quite simply, we want to revolutionise the way families put money aside for their children’s future, giving parents and their children the opportunity to learn about saving through passive investments,” comments Helena Conradie, CEO of Satrix.
SatrixNOW aims to encourage families from all walks of life to invest in their children’s future in an inclusive, easy way. Which makes it no surprise that Satrix has been voted the People’s Choice among South African investors for 3 years in a row.
In conclusion, while not many parents will be able to leave their kids with a significant financial inheritance, all parents are free to give their kids the gift of a healthy, grounded attitude toward saving and investing. In the words of Conradie: “Only through investing time into our children’s understanding of savings, can we enable a generation of financially independent adults.”
PERSONAL FINANCE