Teaching kids the value of saving
Ramotswa-born Gopolang Mekgwe has been an educator for 15 years, a vocation she “didn’t go into by mistake,” she says she loves it.
Based in Molapowabojang, the soft-spoken Moral Education teacher is indeed passionate about this once noble profession as she recently published a children’s colouring book titled ‘Money Smart Gang, A Savings Challenge for Kids’.
In this conversation with Voice Woman, the 40-year-old shares the journey to financial freedom. She says after several years of drowning in debt due to mishandling money through frivolous and impulsive spending, instead of wallowing in her woes about the financial challenges she and her family faced, she determined to change her relationship with money altogether, a wisdom imparted during her formative years by her thrifty mother; invaluable lessons that have now inspired her to publish a kiddies book dedicated to teaching children the value of saving.
Mekgwe admits several factors led to her years of living pay cheque to pay cheque, a total departure from her proudly prudent mum’s teaching.
To start with, she began working immediately after writing her O’Levels while awaiting her results, which meant she grew accustomed to making her own money from a young age albeit without responsibilities to take care of.
“While awaiting my Form 5 results, I got a job at HIFI Corporation and even when I proceeded to tertiary, I continued to work at the store during semester breaks. So, you see, I was financially independent as a teen. But, even then, my mum continued to guide me,” she says.
However, despite the financial literacy her mum taught her, she began to splurge on trendy clothes once she’d entered the civil service and became independent.
“Prioritising debts, careful budgeting, investing, and living within my means, all that was forgotten. I think society can put one under pressure. I wanted to look the part, maintain a certain standard. But my salary didn’t match that lifestyle. At the time, I had one child, and I wanted his appearance to match mine; for him to be as well dressed as I was, be it during civvies day at school or any occasion, we had to dress to the nines. I didn’t even have a savings account, let alone an emergency fund. Whenever emergencies arose, I’d rush to apply for a loan through BOSETU, quick cash! This, unfortunately, is what obtains in our society. You want to look good and take snapshots for social media. I was one such victim until one day I decided enough!” she recalls.
So, in 2021, the mother-of-two began to introspect thus resolved to find a way out of her financial difficulties; she decided to step back revisit lessons from her childhood.
“I was always broke, but then one day I recalled my mother’s tips on saving. My mum was fantastically frugal! She had a payday routine that she remains loyal to this day. Unlike my resilient mum, when payday came, I’d go reward myself till I spent the last of my cash reserves. She, on the other hand, would settle bills and attend other important commitments first. She had money allotted to various expenses, e.g. utilities, groceries, emergencies, etc. I had to downgrade; dealt away with unnecessary luxuries like Netflix, DSTV, turned down invitations to go out, the same I’m broke I’d say to my children and husbands, I would say to friends. I decided to now clear debts and my husband eventually supported me albeit reluctantly,” Mekgwe explains, adding they realised that they actually had enough money all along, “Our money management was dismal.”
With these new measures in place, the young family is now better. “I don’t ever want to return to that life. Emergency funds are important, especially during these uncertain times. You have to wonder, what will happen should my hubby or I lose the job? Today, we’re both striving towards an emergency fund that can sustain us for 6 months (your monthly income for six months) should any one of us lose their job, God forbid. We used to do takeout a lot, bake for the fun of it etcetera, that has stopped. I was never one to buy ‘combos’, nowadays they are my go-to because I have to stay focused,” she says, adding, “Identifying basic needs and ignoring everything else is paramount. You have to know what you can do without.”
Two years later, Mekgwe has now recovered from a spendthrift life after applying all the principles of money management. She went further to take financial literacy courses, thus was inspired to publish the kiddies book.
“With the cash-based budgeting system, which my mom practiced even though she didn’t call it that, I use clearly labelled cash binders to allocate my money to different needs. So, I started a savings challenge where I saved a lot of money, and I’d show friends how I did that. Subsequently, I was inspired to come up with this book to teach children these principles. I started with mine; my daughter likes to remind everyone that in this house we don’t spend money, we save it. The book is designed in a fun way that encourages kids to own piggybanks. The book engages kids in that it’s a coloring book with a rewards system; they only get to color when they save. Kids do enjoy coloring, and they will only get to color in once they’ve deposited a sum into their piggybanks. Parents can monitor this exercise as they’re the ones giving the kids money,” she explains.
The book begins with an age-appropriate introduction to saving and activities or exercises that test their newly acquired knowledge.
“It also teaches kids to make goals, like what are they saving for. I have prepared my eight-year-old lass to understand that we won’t be celebrating Xmas like before, so if she wants to enjoy fun holiday activities, like going out to the lions park, she needs to start saving for that now. Though I will take care of her Xmas shopping, it’s just a limited budget, therefore if she needs anything extra, she’ll have to save for that. They do understand why it’s important to set goals. Is it possible to teach an 8-year-old to set goals, though? Mekgwe agrees, her daughter chips in. “I am also saving for my church dress!”
Published in May this year, the book costs P150 and is available by order. Mekgwe says they printed the first 20 copies to test the market, and they have been doing well, “We will be printing more copies to distribute countrywide. I’m currently working on marketing it through family fun days, at malls, going to primary schools, etc. Target is 7 to 14 year-olds. I realised even preteen kids still enjoy colouring. The book is currently available in Ramotswa where my husband is based, Lobatse, Gaborone and will be in stores soon. My cousin, Seipati Madube, did the illustration. She’s actually the one who inspired me to turn it into a book.
With almost 3k followers on TikTok where she shares financial literacy tips, Mekgwe has indeed harnessed the power of social media to also market the book and sells budget binders, piggy banks to help organise cash. “You must discipline yourself to note all your expenses, cash the sum total and allocate it accordingly. If you go shopping and find that you’ve exceeded you budget, when you swipe, you’re likely to just be casual with overspending, but when you have hard cash, you’ll return some items to stay within budget. Debit/credit cards are most people’s downfall.”