Learning to be smart when dealing with money is one of the best life skills that one can get, and the earlier in life you become financially literate the better.
Little by Little, the second book in a series of illustrated picture books does just that by teaching children about the importance of saving and investing. The recently launched book is available to the public free of charge.
The book, launched by Foord Asset Management, follows the first book, More Than Enough. It is part of the company’s Teach Your Child to Invest series. The books aim to teach children (and their parents) the basic concepts of investing.
Authored by communications manager Christina Castle and illustrated by Carla Kreuser, Little by Little, tells the tale of Anele, a young squirrel, who learns that saving and investing takes time, and lots and lots of patience.
Foord Asset Management director Brendan Africa. said: “These books make it so easy for children to understand the core principles of investing. They explore concepts such as time, saving, income generation, compounding, diversification, risk, patience and investing for the long term, without the use of jargon.”
In the first book, Anele learns about the importance of saving enough to eat, to enjoy, to share, to save and to grow for the years to come.
According to Africa, research shows that by the age of three, children can “grasp basic money concepts”.
“And that by the age of seven most children have already established lifelong money habits. By starting young, we have a greater chance of creating a culture of saving and investing among South Africans.
“We have come to realise that we are not the only ones who believe just how important it is to start the conversation with children about investing from a young age. We are committed to ensuring that all South Africans learn this valuable life skill, and have to date distributed over 80 000 books across the country.”
The new book will be translated into Afrikaans, isiXhosa and isiZulu.
The books are available free to schools, libraries and community centres in South Africa, as well as anyone else who is keen to create a culture of investing for their children. Both books are available in hard copy from the Foord office in Cape Town.
You can also access the PDF version here.