The nation may acknowledge “Teach Children to Save Day” today, but at ESB Financial, it’s something a trio of employees works on year ’round.
The team is made up of Kim Parks, retail manager; Leslie Seeley, personal banker and branch manager of the bank’s Industrial Road location, and Brenda Peres, personal banker.
The bankers are available to talk about money and finance to students in classes and at career fairs in the surrounding area, from elementary through high-school age and beyond.
They recently made five presentations in one day to Lynette Yevak’s Consumer Living class at EHS. It was a return home for Parks, who said she found a career she loved when she was an EHS senior in Mrs. Bradburn’s consumer education class.
“That’s actually where I began my love of banking,” said Parks, who confessed she loves “playing with numbers.” She was interested in what she heard “and that just stuck with me. That made an impact with me.”
The presentations are geared for the audience age group.
EHS students heard about common investment mistakes, what to look for in a bank, and 10 common savings mistakes, in addition to being provided a glossary of terms to help them understand banking better.
“It’s amazing what young people at that age are asking,” Parks said. “I’d have never thought of it at that age.”
Seeley and Peres emphasize the importance of starting a 401(k) or IRA at an early age.
“They think they have to have $1,000 when they only have to have $25 a month,” Seeley said of IRAs.
IRA owners need to have income, but it can be from a typical teen-age employment, such as operating a lawn service.
A Roth IRA can be used for education, first-home purchase or if the owner becomes disabled.
Parks said the students who soon will enter college and the job market will have experienced a broad range of investment and banking changes.
“Yes, things have been rough the last few years,” she said. “We’ve seen the lowest lows; they’ll see some of the highest highs.”
High-school students also hear more from the bankers about establishing credit. For young people, that can be at Catch-22 situation.
“It’s hard,” Parks said. “You have to have credit to build credit.”
Seeley said she tells students that they can obtain loans by using their savings accounts for security, or can get credit cards with parents as co-signers. Use that credit card to pay for books, she said, then repay it at $50 a month until the balance is zero. That can establish a student as credit-worthy when he or she graduates and goes on to a job.
And, Peres added, parents and grandparents can open 529 accounts to help pay for education after high school.
The point of the presentations about banking for high school students is to prepare them to be adults who are savvy about handling money well.
For younger students, the programs also talk about the importance of saving money and other topics that educate and inform as well.
The women enjoy bringing in classes to tour the bank and watch its automated equipment in action.
“Their biggest thing is to get to the vault,” Parks said. “Their little eyes just go huge.”
While the cash kept in the bank vault doesn’t approach the stacks and stacks seen in vaults on television, Seeley said, it is enough to make the children want to touch it — not something that is allowed — and to ask how much money is there.
“We just tell them for security reasons, that’s our secret number,” Parks said.
The younger groups also hear stories about the history of money.
“We talk about bartering, how it all started,” Parks said.
Saving money is a primary topic, as is knowing the difference between what to save for and what to buy now.
“We talk about wants and needs. They understand that,” Parks said, using a bicycle as an example of a “want” that can be achieved by through saving.
The education team simplifies the routine with three simple tips for handling money:
• Pay yourself first.
• Give some of your money to charity.
• Splurge a little sometimes.