Do Local Good

Did you know that

1 in 7 people in Canada
are living in poverty?

Poverty
can and does affect individuals across

all ages, education levels and cultures.

And empowering financial security
is a core part of how we can ensure

that no one in
our community is left behind.

Hello folks, and welcome to Do Local Good,

a podcast created by United Way
of the Alberta Capital Region

and the team of volunteers
on the GenNEXT Cabinet.

We feature stories and people
from the Edmonton region to inform,

inspire and invite others to join us

in building resilient
and thriving communities.

This podcast is recorded
in Edmonton, Alberta,

and we're grateful that we get to have
this conversation on Treaty Six Territory

and the Métis Homelands
and the Métis Nation of Alberta.

I'm Shawn Singh and I'm Vasu Aggarwal.

And today we want to talk to everyone
about financial literacy

and share information
on the important work

that United Way is doing in the region

to help empower folks
to achieve financial security.

We'll also get a chance
to do some financial myth busting

to help you with your finances right away.

To do that, we're thrilled to have
a special guest, Ashley Tillenius.

Ashley has been with TD for over 17 years

and works as an Operations Manager
in Merchant Solutions.

She's also heavily involved
with the United Way's Each One Teach One

initiative, helping to bring financial
literacy to underserved communities.

Ashley, welcome to the show
and thank you for joining us today.

Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.

Yeah.

So, Ashley, when I think about money,
I had a very,

let's say, love and hate relationship
with money growing up.

And we as a family, we didn't talk
very much about our financial situation.

And how was the like, money
looking like for us in the family?

I know we are going to talk
more about Each One Teach One program,

but as a resident expert, how was your
relationship with money growing up?

Did your family talk about money
and how has it evolved over the years?

That's
a great first question to dive into.

I think your experience is not unlike
many others, especially those,

perhaps in our generations or generations
before.

It wasn't, you didn't
really talk about money with your family.

You didn't.

You didn't broach
the subject of finances with your parents.

They kind of handled it.
And that was that.

Of course, not everyone's experience,
but that is a very common one.

For myself, there was absolutely no way
I was talking about money with my dad.

That was like a taboo subject.

He went to work, he made money.

He always joked
that he made like $7 an hour.

It was like an ongoing joke in our house.

And but, you know, I had a really great
childhood, like, I never -

Budgeting never crossed my mind if,
you know, we always had food on the table.

In the summer, we'd go camping,
we'd go skiing and stuff.

Right.

So just the idea of managing my own money
never really crossed my mind.

And it wasn't until I, I'll say,
entered the real world

that I thought, oh, I'm making an income.

I also need to pay my bills.

How do I do that?

What does it mean to save?

Like,
why are you telling me, as an 18 year

old kid,
that I need to save for retirement?

You're giving me a credit card.

Like, what do I do with this?

And of course, then my experience
working at TD,

I started working at TD when I was, 20,
I think.

And, it was a similar experience
that I heard

from a lot of other people
there too. Right?

So young folks would come in
who just got their first credit card

and they'd ask
just very basic questions like,

What do I do to make a payment?

What does that mean?

How do I do it?

How do I,
how do I get the money on here? Right.

So all of those things kind of together
made me maybe change my perspective

on financial literacy and realize
we probably need to do a better job

teaching
just even the basic stuff to youth.

Starting, of course, with families.

But what else can we do
to get that information out there

and hopefully spark conversations
with families

and make make those kinds of things
happen?

And now, of course, over the last 17 years
that I've been working with TD I’ve seen

various, various
different interpretations of people

come from all different backgrounds.

Some people do talk money
with their parents.

People have different, lifestyles.

People grow up in, in different classes
within society.

Right?
So everyone has different experiences.

So it's been interesting
to learn about more of them.

And then through Each One Teach One,
share a little bit

more with the community
and especially focus on the youth.

So, yeah, I think both of our experiences
are common.

Yeah, I can probably say mine's
very similar as well.

I know growing up I never really had
that conversation with any of my parents.

And then all the vacations are paid for.

And now I get older and like how’d
you support all of us?

When the bills start rolling,
like at the end of the month.

And I’m like, okay.

And suddenly
gotta pay for - pay for your own vacation.

That’s
a real wake up call as an adult too.

Yeah. It makes me appreciate
what my parents have done.

So yeah, right about
if only we could tell those teenagers.

Yeah.

And also, like, I know you're married
and have wonderful children, so.

Yeah.

How do you, like, kind of convey
those values?

That's,

that's good, I, I do.

My oldest son is 12.

He's just entered junior high school
and so he's asking questions all the time.

He has his own bank account.
He has his own debit card.

But I think also influenced by my own work
at the.

Yeah, at the bank.

But he just recently asked me
like this week if he could have Apple Pay.

And I thought like, well, then
I can't control the money or spending.

It's new to him.

He's just recently got a cell phone

and now, you know,
he wants to have all the features. But,

in the, in the current tech world, there's
so many more options

on how you can spend money
and also be scammed and lose money, right?

So you got to be careful
and makes me a little nervous as a parent,

to give those sort of freedoms
to my children.

But, you bring up a good point too,
because my background

growing up with money was significantly
different to my husband's background.

I could maybe compare our parents to
say my parents were frugal.

They say frugal.

I might say cheap.

But you know what?

They earned a good living,
and they saved money.

They were very practical with their money.

They, you know, only spent money
on what they could afford

within their lifestyle,
where my husband's parents, they, like,

you know, they earned money
and then they spent money,

and they lived life to the fullest.

And neither one of those options is wrong.

Yeah, it's just different.

And you just need to make sure
that you're planning

to cover what you need to cover, and
you’re planning to cover your priorities.

And if your priority is to travel now,
then you do that.

And if your priority is to travel later,
then you do that right.

But because we have those
different experiences, sometimes we have,

sometimes what you might think

your partner would just know
or understand, they don't,

and it's different
to what you know or understand.

A good example - we just recently talked

about buying our children
a vehicle for their 16th birthday.

So I live rural on an acreage,
and so it's a little bit,

you can't just,

you know, get on your bike and ride

to all your friends houses
or to the grocery store or wherever.

And when I was 16,
there's absolutely no way, there's,

I didn't expect that for my parents.

I knew it wasn't happening.
I wouldn't have even asked them.

But my husband, his parents
bought him a car when he was 14

so that he could learn and drive
that car when he was 16.

And so when we both come
into a relationship and start a family

with those kind of different values,
sometimes you see clashes and just

different ways and, and different values
that you might have from growing up.

That's interesting.

So they get to go like experience
both sides of the world.

And that's right.

You kind of know how
they are going to like live their life.

Yeah.

It's like when mom says, no,
you can go to dad and he'll say, yes.

Exactly right. Yes.

They don't even bother asking mom first

because they're just ask dad first
because they know he'll probably say yes.

And then I have to come and be
the practical one about them and say no.

And then also,

you know, try and teach them
some sort of life lesson about finances

where they're not interested to hear.
So I can imagine.

Yeah, yeah.

I want to get

into a little bit
about Each One Teach Ine.

It's initiative with the United Way
that you personally are involved with.

So pretty general question,
what is Each One Teach One.

Who's it for and how did you get involved?

Okay, so Each One
Teach One is an initiative

that was created by,
a local credit union in BC.

And they developed,
or they identified, 12 topics

that would be great to talk about
financial literacy in their community.

So they developed these,
and then they kindly let us use them.

So, through our Financial Collaborative
Pathways,

in partnership with United Way,
we facilitate each one of these 12 topics.

So it's called Each One Teach One

and our partners in the community would,
you know, come to our,

I'll say to the facilitator to say,
hey, we've got this group or we have this

need for this financial literacy,
can you book us a session?

And we've
got quite a long group of volunteers.

We're getting new volunteers every year.

They go through
three days of training, and,

each of the volunteers then would sign up
and host these sessions.

So we've got all sorts of topics,

and we run sessions
all the time, every week.

We've,

like I said, we’ve
got a big group of volunteers.

So there's a lot of stuff going on, and,

the topics are for everyone.

So they're mostly geared towards adults,
as the Each One Teach One workshops,

and they start from
just your basic banking

all the way to maybe some more complex
investment ideas.

And, we've recently
created a more youth focused workshop,

that focuses more on youth, in junior

high or high school so that they can,
you know, prepare themselves for,

like I said, entering the real world
and not have such a shock,

when they start getting a job or
they have to learn how to save long term.

Yeah. Okay.
I think you asked me one more thing.

What are some of the communities
that are directly involved

with Each One Teach One that are receiving
some of the workshops? Yes.

Oh, how did I get involved with Each One
Teach one.

Right.

Let me tell you about the communities
first.

So I think any community in Edmonton,
we do a lot.

There is quite a few that consistently
come back to us.

So we've done quite a few workshops with
any of the newcomers to Canada groups.

Right. Because it's an entirely new
banking system.

They they need to learn a little bit more
about the Canadian banking system.

The Edmonton Public Library
puts on quite a few sessions,

so those ones that they host are public.

I’m sure they have a listing
on their website.

You could check it out and, you know,

check out your local library
to see if they're hosting any sessions.

Or maybe if you're listening now,
you know, ask your library to

host one of the sessions.

And we also do a lot of student groups.

We've done some career groups.

We've done parent groups.

Just a whole bunch of different things.

We recently,
this past spring, were in a high school,

we've partnered with the YWCA, done
some sessions at their Yowochas

Camp, just, outside of Edmonton,
so kind of all over the place.

Any, anywhere that we can spread
that financial literacy to.

What impact are you trying to make
with Each One Teach One?

Or, what impact
do you think it makes on the community?

I think, I feel like
we probably already talked about it

when we all said
we never talked about finances growing up.

But what I hope that we can do
is, I guess, two things.

First, with Each One Teach One geared
more towards adults is just provide

a safe, inclusive place
where people can ask their questions.

I find even now when I'm hosting
the sessions, there's a lot of stigma

around
not knowing certain financial terms,

or certain things
to do with your finances,

but at the same time, there's a little bit
of maybe hesitance or embarrassment

asking the questions,
asking questions in front of your peers

or even in front of a group
that you might not be familiar with.

So that's definitely one of the goals.

If we're coming,
and we're saying or we're doing -

let's
say we have a session on credit cards,

I want you to feel safe to ask
whatever questions you have.

Right.

I, I would try to avoid
all of those young adults

that come into the bank and say,
what do I do with this?

Right. So if we could be a little bit

more proactive
and help them learn ahead of time.

But any impact that we can have,

in our community,
just increasing financial awareness,

if you help one member of the family,
hopefully

they go back and have the conversations
with the rest of their family.

They have conversations
with their friends and family right.

And, then the knowledge spreads
throughout the community.

And specific to youth, what

we've developed with our youth workshop
is some very basic, some very basic

financial concepts like,
what's what do I need a bank account for?

What's, what does savings mean?

What does compound interest mean?

How do I read a paycheck?

You know,
I know my parents have a credit card.

What does that even mean?

So some of

the really basic ones,
we can do with youth.

And when you facilitate a youth workshop,
I'm sure it's

not just my experience,
but they are no holds barred.

All kinds of questions you get from them.

But it's great because often if one has
a question, someone else has a question.

Right?

And, we can help everybody out
by answering those questions.

And, I feel like I still forgot,
but what got me into Each One Teach One.

But that's, all of those answers
kind of, paint the picture.

Like, really just knowing
there was a gap in financial literacy.

I was interested to get out there
and get in my community and then identify

that maybe we could further help the youth
and develop something for youth.

Like that was something
I was really passionate about,

and probably influenced by my own children
as well,

who I know are getting to that age
where they're going to be a little bit

more independent with their money. So,

youth financial literacy for sure is
something that I'm quite passionate about.

But whatever help

I can spread in the community
from my own knowledge and experience,

I'm happy to do that.

And I know we were talking earlier about,
the high school curriculum and,

taking a look at Each One Teach One
and what they teach.

There's a lot of stuff that

a lot of high schoolers don't get to learn
in high school and stuff that, you know,

I had to teach myself or, other people
had to hear from outside of school.

So it's really nice that we can have
workshops like this, teach

the youth directly,
core concepts about financial literacy.

What do you, what do you find unique

about teaching financial literacy
to different generations?

And, are there any specific challenges or
surprising moments that stood out to you?

It is

different,
teaching among the different generations.

Like I said, youth for
sure are my favorite because they

they're very engaged.

They ask a lot of questions, and sometimes
it's just, you know, what what an adult

or someone who maybe has a little bit
more experience might think, like,

what a crazy question to ask,
but they don't know.

And like,

good for them for feeling comfortable
and confident to ask those questions.

And help their help their peers out.

So, youth for sure are the most engaging.

And then on the flip side, I would say
just the general adult population is

a lot more of I'm going to listen
and absorb, and I don't want anyone else

to know what's going on in my life,
so I'm not going to ask any questions.

And we do also run a couple of workshops
specific to seniors.

And I would say seniors are, you know how
they say, like you get to an age

and you just it doesn't matter
what people think of you anymore.

And so seniors are sometimes direct
and they'll ask exactly what they want.

And they’ll
akt very personalized questions.

And I can appreciate and respect them for
that to get the answers that they need.

So, it's it's kind of all over the map,
but I find it's always better

when you have more engagement.

So one of the one of the things
I guess we're always working on is

how can you draw out more engagement,
especially from

maybe the adult group,
you know, like 30 to 50?

How can you draw out more engagement
and get them to be more involved

and ask more questions?

Was there any

surprising moments
that you had in any of your workshops?

I don't know if there's anything
really surprising,

like they've got a pretty good set up
with our

with our workshop, and they've got
a very thorough facilitators guide.

And we kind of go through and,

you know, get some engagement
from the room and answer their questions.

But I've seen I've seen a bunch of,

or experienced,
I suppose, a bunch of different things.

And some of the youth workshops,
sometimes people just,

you know, blurt out their questions. Once,

at one of the youth workshops,
I was talking about credit cards

and I was talking and one of them
just said, how much money do you make?

And I was like, okay,
how am I going to handle this question?

So I just turned it into like, well,
how much do you think I make?

What do you think
the average income is for an adult?

Like, you know, uh.

It was very interesting to sort of
flip it on them and ask the questions.

Luckily, they completely forgot about it,
so I didn't have to throw out any numbers

there where people would ask
more questions and have more conversation,

for perhaps
things they weren't quite ready for.

But I've also, experienced in

another group,
we were talking about budgeting

and I was co-facilitating
with someone else who was also very

heavily involved in, a veteran,
in the Each One Teach One space.

And we were talking about budgeting
and one of the questions was, well,

I'm on social assistance.
So it doesn't matter.

I'm going to get the same amount of money
every month.

And this particular participant

was almost like, why do I have to be here?

You can't help me, right?

And the question
almost is the answer in itself.

Like, well, you know
exactly how much money you're getting.

So let's make a budget

so that you don't overspend
or so you know, what you're spending on.

So sometimes people,
I think money is such a

still kind of taboo subject
almost to talk about with other people.

So sometimes we get, I think, nervous,
nervous questions and people

don't know how to ask what they do,
what they really want to hear properly.

Or maybe just too embarrassed to do it.

Yeah. Choosing not to hear it. Yeah.

In denial.

What inspired
your passion for financial literacy.

And what do you think is the most
rewarding moment that you've had teaching?

For sure.

I'm just inspired by
maybe the lack of financial literacy,

but I think all my experience,
working in the branches

and just hearing the different questions
that people come in from all ages.

Right.

And it's also a common subject
to talk about that.

Just the idea of financial literacy
is missing in the school curriculum.

So all of those things
kind of got me inspired to get involved

more in financial literacy.

And it was actually one
of the one of the leaders

that I used to work with who was part
of Each One Teach One and just suggested

I might be interested
in facilitating the workshops.

And that's how I originally got involved
and obviously really loved it.

Here I am today,
and I'm for sure most passionate,

about spreading the, spreading literacy
with the youth, and seeing them grow

and seeing sometimes like real,
real results, like real time results.

That's very, that's very exciting for me.

And I think that's
also the most rewarding.

We do

sometimes what's what we call ask
a banker booth.

And so we commonly do it at high schools,
career fairs, universities.

And we'll just be there and, you know,
have some, try and engage in conversation

and answer people's questions
and maybe have some prompts.

And we did one at MacEwan University,

and there was a student there,
and he has lots of questions,

and he was very interested in finances.
And he said, oh, you know what?

I maybe I'm interested
in getting a job at the bank.

And I said, hey,
I can’t get you a job, but I can

I can show you where to go
if you want to work for a bank.

Right.

So I, we just looked at some resources
online and how you might apply.

And then several months later
I was back at MacEwan

for another ask a banker booth,
and he was there and he recognized me.

He was so excited to tell me
he got a job at TD and I was like,

you can see
we're making real changes in the world.

Yeah, that can be,

so he learned so much about finances
in the short time, and it inspired him,

or he was so excited about it that he got
a job at a bank to learn more about it.

So it's things like that
when I can see the changes in real time,

because often we facilitate a workshop
and then we don't see those folks again.

So when we can see changes in real time
or we see those people again

sometime in the community
or in the future, then it's, just

feels very rewarding to see those changes.

Thank you for sharing that.

Like, it sounds like an amazing program.

And I'll definitely like,
sign up right away after this.

But like for the listeners,
how do they sign up?

Like is there a website
or who do they reach out to for that.

So a lot of our sessions
are run with partners in our community.

So partners will have groups or programs
that they're doing,

and they'll reach out to us and say,
hey, we've got this group.

Can you facilitate a workshop for us?

So some that I already talked about, for
example, like the Edmonton Public Library,

those those ones would be for the public,
and the Newcomers to Canada do some.

Right.

But if you if you are part of a group,
even a youth group, right.

If you've got something going on
and you're interested

in facilitating a workshop
or having a workshop facilitated for you,

you could certainly just check out,
the website myunitedway.ca.

And also, I know in the show
notes, we'll put some information on who

you can reach out to and more information
about the particular workshops.

So if you're a group,
you can, reach out and book something.

But if you're an individual,
maybe a little bit more resources

to where you could find
some of the workshops

or potentially join some of the groups
to go through some of the workshops

and thank you for that.

And now we'll move on to our next section,
financial myth busters. Yes.

And yeah, I'll get you started with the
this is, my favorite one.

I'm looking forward to it.

So we're going to have some true and false
questions, and I'm gonna ask you,

you don't have to give me true or false.

Okay? True or false, or maybe,

but feel free to spin with it
how you like.

First one here is
you need a lot of money to start saving.

Right,

that's going to be a false.

I know you said I could use

say, maybe, but that's just going to be
a straight false.

You need money to start saving.

You don't need any amount of money.

It could be whatever you've got.

So, Yes, of course
there's there's so much.

There's so much
we could talk about with savings.

And I know a hot
topic is kind of long term savings,

or what I'll call long term
savings, for retirement.

But it could also be for other things,
right?

It costs money to buy a house.

It costs money to buy a car, costs money
to start a family.

It costs money to pay for your education
and then maybe your family's education.

So there's a lot of milestones
in your life

which you might need
some sort of long term savings for.

And, this
might be my favorite piece of advice,

or my favorite thing I say in any workshop
is the best time to start saving is now.

So like if you, you know,

if we're talking about any sort
of budgeting or intro to basic banking

or it just anything to do with saving,
like the best time to start saving is now

and you can do it with any amount.

So whatever financial institution you use,

you know, check out their website, book
an appointment, talk to an advisor.

They can help you out.

There's just a ton of savings
options from savings accounts.

More complex investments and ETFs,
mutual funds, like bonds.

Just tons of stuff. Right.

And you can start with whatever you have.

If that's $5 a week, great.

If that's $100 a month, awesome.

If it's $1,000 a month, great.

Like, whatever you have,
whatever you have can work.

And, if you have kids
who maybe don't have bank accounts yet,

get them started thinking
about the concept of saving early, right.

So get out those piggy
banks, dust off those piggy banks.

Get them to put their money in there
if they earn something,

you know, from allowance or shoveling
the neighbor's walk, or they got something

from their grandparents
for their birthday, right.

Start them with the concept of saving.

I think

most experts would probably say saving 10

to 15% of your income is probably a target
that you want to achieve.

But even if you can achieve that,
if you can achieve 1% or less than 1%,

starting now is a way better option
than starting later.

So starting now with whatever you've got,
start putting it all in your piggy bank

and then before you know it, you'll have,
you'll have a lot of money in there

and you bring it to the bank
deposit in your accounts.

But yeah, start now.

That's, any amount of money.

Start now.

Next one we have
here is an interesting one.

All debt is bad debt.

How would you tackle that myth.

So that one, maybe, I will say maybe.

So the

statement itself is not necessarily true.

All debt isn't bad debt.

But maybe if I change it to, like, debt

that you can't pay is bad debt.

So having debt can certainly be a tool.

And a lot of people use it as a tool.

For example, if you want to buy a home,

you likely don't have that amount of cash
lying around.

And if you do, good for you.

Thanks for budgeting.

But for the majority of us who don't,
we need to get a mortgage.

And a mortgage is a debt, right?

It's money that you're borrowing
from a lender, likely from a bank.

But it's not bad debt when you consider
the trade off what you're getting for it.

Yeah.

So when you consider
what's good debt and what's bad debt,

something that you

need to borrow for to buy,

that is worth it to you.

And you understand
what you're paying for it.

Then you're using debt
as an appropriate tool, right?

Sometimes an interest
that you're paying on a debt

will be less than an interest
you might make in a savings.

So maybe it's worth it to borrow
instead of spend your own money.

But even on the basic concept, likely
what a lot of people in our community

have as debt are car loans
and or credit cards

and car loans,

I wouldn't consider it bad debt,
as long as the payment is

something that fits
within your budget every month.

So if you have a car loan
and you're expecting to pay $900 a month,

but you can only afford $400 a month,
that's a bad debt.

That's not a great choice.

But if it's in your budget for $900
a month, then great.

Awesome.

And the same thing goes with credit cards.

You should only spend on your credit card

what you know
you can pay off at the next time.

And if you can't pay it off,
then you just need to make sure

that you've made a plan for that.

Sometimes people use credit cards
to make big purchases, so let's say

you want to buy that fancy
new flat screen TV and you don't have...

I don’t know how much a tv costs, you

don't have $1,500 now to pay for that TV.

But, you know, I want to pay this off
$500 a month for the next three months.

You can use your credit card, right?

You you have to understand
you're going to pay some interest,

and it's going to cost
you more than $1,500.

But if that's worth it for you
and it's in your budget,

then that's a good way to use debt.

Credit cards also can have a slew
of other, features, right?

So a lot of them give cashback
or travel points.

A lot of them have insurance options
or extended manufacturer's warranty.

Right.

So you can definitely use that
to your advantage.

The flip side, bad
debt is just something you can’t afford.

So if you're taking out a loan
to go on a vacation,

maybe you should consider
budgeting differently so that you know

you're not just spending money
to spend money.

Yeah. Yeah, right. How do you find,

which debts you should pay off first?

Is there a specific, logic that you follow
or is it kind of?

I think if you're in a situation
where you maybe need to take a step back

and look at your over,

overall financial picture and think, okay,
I got myself in some trouble here

with my dad. What how do I tackle this?

There's many different options.

I mean, even a quick
Google would probably show you just

tons of different options, but there's
there's, two very popular options.

It's like the debt snowball
or the debt waterfall.

And both of them
look at focusing on one debt at a time.

One focuses on
the one that has the highest interest rate

and one focuses on
the one that has the lowest balance.

So it's just going to depend on your,
your specific situation.

Right.

But, I think the answer is the same
for both of them

that you need to understand what you owe,
what's your obligation to pay each month

and what fits in your budget,
and then make a plan.

Right.
So it can certainly be overwhelming.

Somebody, your financial institution
could help you out.

There's a ton of resources
available online.

You could use debt calculators,
and there's a ton of stuff on there.

But if you find yourself in that
situation, you know, just just take a step

back, look at the overall picture,
understand what you can tackle first.

And then if you need help,
go ahead and reach for help.

There's, there's no, there's
no shame in asking for help, right?

Like, if you need help, you need help.

It's just like anything else. Yeah,

I think you answered
like a part of it, part of this question.

But budgets are only for people
who are bad with money.

Yeah, right.

The, one of the Each One Teach One modules
that we do is called Intro

to Basic Budgeting, and it's
just my absolute favorite to facilitate.

And I've probably facilitated it the most.

And it's just very interesting
to see everybody's reactions.

So one of the questions
I always ask at the beginning,

at the beginning, you know,
like show of hands, who here has a budget

and you know, I'm pleasantly surprised
most of the time.

Some people would say
that they have some kind of budget.

And then follow up question, who here
reconciles their budget every month?

Most people put their hands down.

So a budget is a great tool.

I would recommend it for everyone
because you need to know

what money you're making
and what money you're spending,

and what money you have left over
to do something else with right,

or what money you don't have leftover.

And you need to make
some sort of adjustments in your budget.

So it's not just for people who don't have
money, it's for people who make money.

It's for people who have money.

Is what a budget would be for.

And, I mean, there's
a lot of concepts for budgeting,

but I think that
if you don't reconcile your budget.

So if you're not looking to say,

hey, I said this month
I would spend $200 on entertainment.

And then at the end of the month, you look
and you're like, great job.

Me, I spent $160 on entertainment or

I went over budget,
I spent $250 on entertainment.

Then you need to reconcile that
with the next month's budget.

Are you reducing that particular category?

Are you taking that money
from somewhere else? Right.

Otherwise you've just got $50 of,
let's call it debt.

Right. How do you
how do you reconcile that?

So I think a lot of people
do have an idea, right.

You've got some fixed payments.

Maybe you have rent,
maybe you've got a car payment, insurance,

your cell phone, utilities.

But it's the variable
spending that I think more people need to

keep a closer eye on and then

understand
where it's at at the end of the month.

Yeah.

So all those little trips to the store or

I'll buy myself this one thing as a trat,
those things can add up.

Right. So it's important
just to know maybe not this month.

Yeah.

It's important to know what dollars
you're spending on those things.

Yeah. We touched a bit about credit cards.

But a common thing that I hear is
you should use your credit card

for everything
because it builds a credit score.

Is, is that true?

Partially true.

Yeah.

So absolutely.

Using your credit card,

and paying off your credit card

or paying your credit card bill on time
is going to help you build your credit.

So what actually helps build
your credit is your payment history.

Well, that's one
part of your overall credit score.

But, but
your payment history is part of it.

Also something called utilization.

So what's your balance?
How much do you use that.

So if you have a credit card balance
that's

if you have a credit limit of $1000

and you carry a balance of $1000
every month, that's 100% utilization.

It doesn't look so great, month-to-month,
and it can affect your credit score.

But if you use your credit card
for everything

and you never pay
your credit card on time,

that's not helping build your credit.

Actually, it's doing the opposite, right?

But if you use your credit card
for everything and you pay at least

the minimum payment, so
at least your monthly obligation on time,

then it will help
build your credit score, right?

Because it's showing every month,
they're making their payments on time.

Yeah. Yeah.

And like what we did talk about before,

credit cards come with a ton
of other features and options.

Right.

So if you can responsibly
use your credit card for everything

and you know it's within your budget
to make the payment the next month.

Yeah.

Then not only
are you going to build your credit,

but also you'll get whatever the features

and benefits of the credit
card are as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So partially true on that one.

And I think that the next question
is really good.

You don't need to plan for your retirement
if you're not retiring anytime soon.

Yeah. How would you respond to that?

The best time to start saving is now.

Yeah.

Maybe
that's going to be my new catchphrase,

but for sure,

like, retirement is a long way off
for a lot of us folks.

I still have, like,
I don't know, at least 30 years.

30 years? Maybe not 30 years.

25 years of work left to do,

before the,
you know, typical retirement age of 65.

And it's going to be a lot easier for me
now if I start planning for retirement

now, putting away
whatever I can, whatever amount that is,

whether it's $20
or whether it's $200 or $2000,

whatever you can, right, it's going to be
a lot easier for you to do that now

than it's going to be
to try and spend a majority of your income

when you're closer to retirement
to save for retirement.

And you can also take advantage
now of the power of compound interest,

which I'm happy to say is a concept
they learn in school - compound interest.

But maybe not necessarily
in the financial world,

how it can relate to the real life,
but they do understand the concept, right?

So earning interest on your interest,

if you put in $100
and you get $1 of interest,

now you're earning interest on $101
and you didn't contribute that $1.

So over time,
it can make a significant difference.

Even somebody who saves $100 a month now

and stops saving $100 a month, versus
somebody who saves $100 a month later

and they save the same, you know,
they put in the same amount of money.

The person who started
now is going to have way more money

because of compound interest,
even if they stop contributing.

Right.

So it's always,
the best time to start saving is now.

Yeah.

And and I know I also talked about that
retirement isn't the only long term goal.

So buying a house or buying a car,
paying for education, starting a family,

those things cost money too.

And, it's important to plan
for those things and make sure that you,

you've you've got the money, you've got
you've got it in your budget, if that's

what you want to do. Yeah.

I know, one of the concepts in Each One
Teach

One is understanding contracts,
and I find that very interesting.

So the next one kind of falls in line
with that.

You don't need to read the entire contract
before you sign.

I feel like most people will know
that's false.

Yeah.

But, you know, also, sometimes contracts
come with a lot of legal

jargon and pages and pages and pages,
or they make it really easy on your phone.

They're like, agree to this, agree
to these terms and conditions,

and you can scroll forever.

Or you could just hit agree. Right.

So, am I guilty of signing contracts
without reading them all?

Maybe I shouldn't admit it out loud.

But of course it's important to read
what you're signing.

And, I mean, you can also consider
what it is that you're agreeing to.

So if you're, if you've downloaded
a new game on your phone

and they want you to read and agree
to four pages of privacy content,

you know, maybe that's not as important
to read in depth

as your mortgage agreement, right?

Because you want to understand

in a mortgage agreement, for example,

you want to understand what your
obligations is, what your interest is.

If you miss a payment, what are the
penalties or the consequences?

Can you pay off anything early?

Would there be penalties or consequences?

And you also want the opportunity
to ask for clarity if you need that.

So read over the contract for sure

and ask about - whoever
you're signing the contract

with, right, it's always two parties -
so if you have questions ask them.

It's important
that it's for sure important

that you understand what you're signing
before you sign it.

So that each person can hold up
their end of the bargain for a contract.

Yeah. Great. Thank you very much.

That's the last question
we have for financial myth busters.

Great.

If there's one piece of financial advice
that everyone listening

today, should take away,
what would your advice be?

I feel like I'm sounding

like a broken record,
but the best time to start saving is now.

But even you know what?

Even if I remove that saving piece,
maybe just the best time to start is now.

So people have questions
about their finances.

The best time to get those answers is now,
just, you know, ask a friend,

go to your financial institution,
ask your advisor, Google it,

whatever, whatever step
you need to take now to start

for whatever you need to do in your future
for your finances.

So if you're thinking, oh, you know what,
I'm going to buy a new car next year.

The best time to start looking at how much
that's going to cost is now, right?

If you're thinking I might start a family
in a couple of years, the best time

to start understanding
how that's going to impact you

financially,
among other areas of life, is now right.

So just like anything,
the best time to start is now.

But, I'm going to boil it
down to my favorite new catch phrase.

The best time to start saving is now.

So if you've got something in your piggy
bank,

put it in a bank account
that's earning some interest.

And I had one question for you too.

So thinking, like going back to your life,
like when you were like 16 or 18,

when you came out in the real world,
right.

What was one thing you wish you had known

about, like financial literacy
or something like that

going back, like to your 18 year old self,
giving that advice

or like to our listeners today?

Sure.

There's it's
all going to be about credit cards.

And I think there's two things. Yeah.

So the first is a 20% annual interest

rate is way more than you think it is
because you don't calculate it.

Right. You're just like, oh, 20%? Cool.

So that's a lot
that can be a lot of interest.

And if you carry a full balance
on your credit card,

it can turn out
to be a lot in a monthly payment.

And so I know from my own experience,
I was surprised

when I, you know, didn't understand
the concept of, I have

to pay the full balance off each month
to not be charged any interest,

but also just from my experience as seeing
other people do it, in the branches.

So understanding what dollar amount
and interest rate translates into

is probably something I would have
appreciated knowing, when I was young.

And the other one
is, about credit card balances.

So sometimes people will offer you
a credit card and they'll say, hey,

I have this credit card
with a $10,000, $15,000 limit.

And you're thinking, that's great.

Think of all the things I could buy.

But you don't necessarily
consider the impact of paying it back

or how long that will take you
if you were to spend it all.

So I've definitely seen my fair share

of customers in, stressful situations

or maybe in tears thinking,
oh, I'm, I have to pay all this back.

That's going to take me forever.

And it's now going to cost me.
So much interest.

So both of those things together,
I know we talk

that credit cards can be a great tool,
and they absolutely can.

But you have to understand how it works.

And how it fits into your budget.

Yeah, yeah, when I was young, like,
for me, credit card money,

it seemed like some invisible
or magic money that came into my hand.

I could, like, buy all the video games
and clothes and shoes and be like, okay.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

That's a common experience
for a lot of people.

They're like,
oh, suddenly I have an extra $5,000.

What am I going to do with it?

And I think that's also something
that evolves over your life.

Is $5,000 as a fresh university student

or somebody who's just graduated high
school and is getting their first job,

that's a lot of money. Yeah.

And then when you get older, you're like,
oh, $5,000.

That feels like my weekly grocery bill.

Like, it's not as much money,

as you get older over time.

Right.

But it can be significant and like,
it can make a person feel pretty,

pretty bad,
or it just can just make them feel,

like they have a situation
with their finances.

Yeah.

Great. Yeah.

I know when you turn 18 years old or,
you know, 19, 20, whatever,

as you become an adult, you start to learn
about the world of financial products,

and there's so many products out there,
whether there's good or bad, money,

loans, mortgages, credit cards, it's
a lot of overwhelming information.

So Each One Teach One is a great,
great tool for communities to host.

And I think we want to reiterate
where can we learn

a little bit
about Each One Teach One? Yeah.

So, I think
a lot of information in the show notes,

so we can check that out.

You could also check out
myunitedway.ca And, you know,

I can't say for certain, but I'm sure
if you checked out your, local library's,

events calendar or what they might have,

you might see some sessions on there
as well.

And, we talked a lot about Each One

Teach One, but we didn't necessarily
talk about all of the topics.

Yeah.

But there's a lot of it ranges from,
you know, intro to basic banking.

So quite literally,
what is a checking account?

What is a savings account.

And then we talk a little bit
more about budgeting.

We talk about credit cards and loans.

We also talk about
if you're in a situation

where your debt is a little bit
too overwhelming.

We talk about what steps, what's what,
what supports

and what steps you could take.

We talking about contracts?

There's a couple that talk
about financial wellness for seniors.

You know,

what to do, with, money
or talking about wills.

Power of attorney,

how to avoid some of the more common scams
that are happening now.

And we also have a popular one
for new parents that talks about RRSPs.

So Registered Education Savings Plans
and, TFSA - Tax Free Savings Accounts.

So there's 12 in total,
but I'm sure there's a topic that will

that, anybody would find interesting
or want to learn a little bit more about.

So yeah, definitely.

Check out the show notes

for how how you can be involved
and how you can get a session.

Okay. Thank you.

That's our show for today.

Thank you, Ashley, for joining us.

Thank you and sharing your insights
and your experiences.

I think we all learned a lot
about financial medicine.

I'd like to keep asking you
a bunch of questions,

but I don't think we
have the time for that today.

Thank you as well to the United Way

of Alberta Capital Region
for making this happen.

Doing Local Good starts with you.

To find out how you can help build
thriving, resilient communities

head to myunitedway.ca/GenNEXT or

check out the links in the show notes.

Together, we can make sure
that no one is left behind.

If you enjoyed the episode,
make sure to like, share, and subscribe.

On behalf of myself, Shawn,
and the whole United Way GenNEXT Cabinet -

thank you for listening to Do Local Good.

I hope you enjoyed listening to it
As much as we enjoyed recording it.

Thank you.

And thank you for being here today. Yeah.

Thank you.