EP73: Interview with Maya Corbic

In this episode, I interview Maya Corbic a CPA who leverages her CFO, auditor, and tax accountant expertise to educate kids on financial literacy. She founded Wealthy Kids Investment Club and has inspired thousands through her Instagram account, Teach Kids Money.

I cover the following topics in this episode:
- Why did Maya decide to write the book "From Piggy Banks to Stocks"?
- Why investing isn't complicated
- Why is it important to teach financial literacy to kids?
- How did your background shape your understanding of financial literacy?
- When it comes to financial literacy, what is missing in the current education system?
- Why did you decide to write a workbook instead of a traditional textbook?
- Why start teaching about dividends sooner than later?
- The importance of dividend growth
- What are Dividend Aristocrats and Dividend Kings?
- Spending versus investing, how to make the right choices
- Why did you start the Wealthy Kids Investment Club?
- What do you say to parents when they say investing is too complicated?

Book: From Piggy Banks to Stocks: The Ultimate Guide for a Young Investor 
On Instagram: teach.kids.money
Wealthy Kids Investment Club: https://wealthykids.club

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

In this podcast we talk a lot about dividend investing and how to earn more dividends. We talk about the importance of starting early when it comes to investing. Today's special guest is on a mission to empower every child to become a financially independent adult. Hi, my name is Kanwal Sarai and welcome to the Simply Investing Dividend podcast. Our guest today is a CPA, a business owner, an educator and an author of a children's book called From Piggy Banks to Stocks the Ultimate Guide for Young Investors Maya Korbic. Welcome to our podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Thank you so much for having me, Kanwal.

Speaker 1: 0:42

We're so happy to have you here. I think we're going to have a great conversation about investing, about financial literacy, so I'm looking forward to it. Why don't we get started with the book itself, From Piggy Bank to Stocks? Why did you write this book?

Speaker 2: 0:57

So I actually wrote this book because I wish I had a resource like this. When I was growing up, I was always interested in learning how to invest, but I always found it very intimidating, and a lot of times people think oh well, you know, you're a CPA, this is easy for you, you were taught this in school and I can. I'd like everybody to understand that becoming a CPA has nothing to do with learning how to invest. It's kind of like, you know, when you're a doctor, you're not. You don't specialize in everything. You have your own area of specialty. For me it's accounting or audit or tax, but definitely not investing. So I was like most people. I had to learn this on my own, and once I learned that, I actually realized that it's not as complicated as it may seem to be, and I wish that I had learned it earlier, because obviously I would have made better choices, and so because of that, I am teaching my own children and I'm trying to help other children learn as well.

Speaker 1: 1:55

Oh, that's great. That's fantastic, and I say the same thing to my students that it's not rocket science, it's not that complicated, and folks who've listened to previous episodes will know I taught both of my kids when they were nine how to do dividend investing, and so that's how simple it really is, and they've been doing this for years and years. So why is it so important to start teaching kids Like, why not wait until they're in their 20s and 30s and then tell them about how to invest in financial literacy? Why do we want to start when they're young?

Speaker 2: 2:29

I think it's important to create good money habits when they're young. So they say that 95% of what we do, we do on autopilot. So when it comes to money, I think that it's important for us to instill good habits when they're young so that they can apply these habits when they're older and also when they're younger. They're like little sponges and we, as parents, we want to influence their belief, and they're thinking about money and about investing. Otherwise, you know, if we wait until they're adults, by that you know, by the time they're 20, you know they have been influenced by their peers, by social media, and then we have less impact on them and their way of thinking. And so I always think that it's better to start them earlier rather than later, even if sometimes you know what we're teaching them may go over their heads and they may not really understand everything, but over time they start to pick it up and kids are really curious about money. They want to learn.

Speaker 1: 3:32

Yeah, absolutely, and I agree 100%. I think it's like anything in life I find for me. I didn't learn how to swim when I was a kid, started late in my 2030s and it was so much harder versus having my kids getting them into the pool since they were like one years old, so it was a lot easier for them to pick it up. Same thing with downhill skiing and hockey and all these things. So I agree, I think it is a lot easier to get them started.

Speaker 1: 4:02

And I heard in your first answer is you said you know you wished you had started earlier, and I say the same thing to all of my students and anybody who wants to talk about dividend investing I wish I started 10, 15 years earlier and I would be in a much even better position today with our dividend income. So let's start. We're talking about starting in the beginning, starting early. So let's go back to your beginning. I know you had a challenging time when you were younger and coming to this country. Tell us a little bit about your background and how that shaped your understanding of financial literacy.

Speaker 2: 4:42

So I immigrated to Canada when I was 15 years old with my parents and my brother. We immigrated from war torn Bosnia and we lost everything in the war. We immigrated with two suitcases and $50 would live in, government shelters and government housing. I had two part time jobs when I was a teenager, so I was a hustler. But you know, I think all that has helped me become who I am and I watched my parents work very hard and my mom was really good at stretching the dollar and she was able to save money and feed us, you know, even though we were on welfare and didn't really have that much money to spend.

Speaker 2: 5:27

But one thing I did not learn from my parents was about investing, and not only because they didn't know it and because maybe, like it wasn't, because they were not interested in it. It's just simply that me, as an immigrant coming from a country that used to be a communist country and a socialist country, my parents did not get exposure to markets and we, you know, back in Bosnia, which used to be Yugoslavia, there was no stock market. You know, everything was owned by the government. So it was very different and I find that some, some other immigrants that come to Canada may have, may come from a different economic system. So you know me, coming to Canada, I had to understand exactly like how capitalism works.

Speaker 2: 6:16

And I remember even when I had my first job as an auditor straight out of university and I was working towards my CPA designation, the partner that I was working for kind of went over to my desk and I was working on this file and he looked at it and he said I can see that you really don't understand how leases work. Like that's such a simple thing. But you know, we were immigrants. We came to Canada, maybe you know, five, six years before that, and my parents could not afford a car, so we didn't have a car and so I've never seen a lease. I didn't even know what a lease was right. So it just depends on the background, where you come from, and it just you know it's not something that should hold anybody back. It just means that you have to learn these things.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Yeah, that's that's so interesting, and so it sounds like that's what your upbringing sparked your creativity and innovation to like. Okay, I got to learn this stuff for myself and I have a similar. You know, my parents came from India. They had $15. That's a story I hear all the time and one suitcase, and that was it. I came here when I was two and their priority was to go, get a job and make sure there was enough food on the table, and that was it. So they didn't have the time or same thing, right. They didn't understand anything about investing and you know we're going to talk about dividend stocks or even index funds, etfs or any of that stuff, right? So they didn't have any knowledge about that. So now we understand where your inspiration came from. But then where does the passion come from? Because I see it everywhere on your social media, on your website, that you're passionate about teaching kids and that inspired you to write the book, right?

Speaker 2: 8:07

Absolutely yes. So when I worked as an auditor and a tax accountant for 10 years after graduating from university and in that time I worked for a small firm, I also worked for a big firm like Deloitte and Touche, and I also even had my own small practice that I thought, maybe one day I wanted to open up my own practice I actually realized that wasn't for me. But during that time I actually ended up meeting a lot of different people and I talked to them. Some of them were very wealthy, some of them not so much. Some of them were making tons of money and yet they had nothing to show for that money. So through the conversations with them, I realized that these people especially people that made lots of money but had nothing to show for it I realized that their problem was that nobody ever taught them about money when they were growing up, and so I was worried about my own kids, because at that time my kids were, I believe, 6 and 4 years old and I wanted to know you know, what are they going to learn in school about money? Because I didn't even think about teaching my kids about money, because my parents didn't really sit me down and they didn't teach me. It's like I learned more by osmosis and observing what was happening around me, or you know, they would say things and you just kind of pick it up like that.

Speaker 2: 9:32

But so then I at the time you know, when my kids were little, I was looking at the curriculum for Ontario and back then there really wasn't much on financial literacy and even the books. I remember going on Amazon and wanting to order books. I was only able to find one book by Jolene Godfrey, who I call pioneer of financial literacy for kids, and it's called raising financially fit kids. And then the other book was by CPA Canada. I think it's called raising money smart kids or something like that. Those were the only two books out there.

Speaker 2: 10:05

This is 11 years ago. We've come a long way. There are so many resources now to teach kids about money and that sort of gave me this inspiration. Like I wanted to do something different and I was also part of junior achievement and I don't know if any of your listeners have ever had their kids attend junior achievement. Essentially, junior achievement is a non for profit organization and they asked for volunteers to go into the classroom and teach kids about money and they give you curriculum and coming back from those volunteering sessions, I remember my husband saying to me he's like you are glowing, he's like I've never seen you come from your audit job or tax job, you know, with a big smile on your face like that. And I just love teaching kids. So all of these things combined kind of propelled me in that direction to open up my own company and start teaching kids about money.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Yeah, that's great and it's interesting. The job satisfaction I have the same thing, right. Like you know, my background is computer science. I've spent decades and decades working with software enterprise level software but the level of satisfaction talking or teaching somebody about dividend investing is way higher, right, and you see the look on their face when they finally get it. It's incredible.

Speaker 2: 11:20

Yes, it is incredible and you know, like today actually, I was a keynote speaker for CPA Ontario. They had an event called Dollars and Cents and they had university students attended and they wanted me to talk about financial literacy and I talked about passive income, I talked about investing, I talked about the cash flow quadrant and you know, the way like I left was, you know, after I left the conversation, I ended up one of the organizers emailing me and she basically like it's, it's she said that you know how much people loved it and whatnot but it's, it's that feeling that you know that you are helping somebody understand something that can potentially change their life If they actually take the time to implement the steps that you're teaching them. And to me there's like, once they get it, that satisfaction, that feeling, it's like that natural high.

Speaker 1: 12:18

Yeah, that is. That's incredible right To be able to change somebody's lives and change the direction when we're talking about financial literacy and understanding finances. That's incredible. Now I'm going to touch back on something you just mentioned previously, which was about the school system. Like not finding enough books out there. Right, you mentioned 1 or 2 books that you found that were very helpful. So and I know you do teach, go into schools today and teach children about financial literacy. What are some of the things that you think are missing in today's and we can just talk about Canada and the US, I'm sure it's similar what is missing in the educational education system?

Speaker 2: 13:05

Well, first I'd like to say that we've come a long way, Really. We have, like I've seen the change over 11 years and schools are incorporating more financial literacy, but a lot of them are still not teaching not a lot, actually. I don't know a single school that teaches investing. I mean, maybe there is a teacher out there who is interested in investing and that's the teacher that brings it to their student and maybe they'll do like a mock. You know competition or something like you know buying stocks and managing a portfolio over, let's say, a period of a month. So investing is definitely not in there. And I think investing needs to be part of our education system because the sooner our children start investing, the better off they will be, because their biggest asset is the time and we all know that time and the compound interest when they work together, they are the building blocks of the wealth creation. So I do believe that you know investing should be part of it. And it's a little bit tricky, I think, with, you know, having financial literacy in schools only because, over the last 11 years and I had a lot of conversations with parents and, believe it, believe it or not, some parents don't want schools to teach financial literacy. And yes, and I was very surprised, but their answer is really interesting and it basically said that you know, they don't know how the schools would be teaching it. So I kind of like have to say a little, I agree with them a little bit on it, because one thing that I've again, I've learned a lot over the last 11 years doing these workshops, talking to parents, implementing things.

Speaker 2: 14:50

So one of the things that I realized is that there is no, there's no one right way of teaching financial literacy. We have to start by understanding what our family values are with respect of money, because personal finance is called personal for a reason. So we are every time we are making financial decisions. They kind of go together with our values. So I know you talk about dividend investing, but let's say I'm just throwing this out there. But let's say you know you have, like you have a family that's very environmentally conscious and you know they just maybe want to invest in ESG and SRI type of dividends or stocks, stock, dividend stocks.

Speaker 2: 15:36

So our family beliefs and values and morals. They really shape how we're teaching, or should be teaching our kids about money, and that's why some parents don't want to see financial literacy in schools. However, my belief is that I think the schools should teach the basics and then we need to add the value. Whatever the values are, they need to come from home. So like, if you are teaching, let's say about budgeting, the schools just need to teach. Okay, what is the budget, how does the budget work? The mechanics of the budget, but what you are budgeting for, you know how much you're allocating to donating, how much are you allocating to saving. That needs to come from the family, from the family values. So if that, makes any sense.

Speaker 1: 16:21

Yeah, I agree, I think the basic foundations I think should be taught in school. But then the second part is, like you said, the families have to provide that additional education. I think that's easier said than done, right? Because if the families themselves don't know about you know well, I'm going to talk about dividend stocks but ETFs, index funds, how that works, how compound interest works then that'll be, it'll be challenging. Yes, I see that. Yeah, I had a conversation recently with David Delisle. We had a previous episode and I asked him the same question. I said why isn't this taught in schools, even the basic foundations? And his answer was interesting where he said a lot of the teachers themselves don't have this information or knowledge, so they're not comfortable teaching something that they don't know much about.

Speaker 2: 17:17

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 17:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:18

I think another thing too to mention, which is again something I've only come across in the last few years of me. You know, teaching kids about money is our money mindset. I used to really think this is like some fluffy thing that people just talk about and then, of course, you know, ended up reading some books and learning about it and I realized we all have money mindset that we grew up with. And, you know, let's talk about investing, for example. A lot of people, their mindset is that this is too complicated, this is for Brainiacs, this is for geniuses, it's not for me. Why? Because my parents never invested, Nobody ever taught me how to invest. So how can I possibly learn to invest and how can I teach my child to invest? So it's not. There's so many layers to this that we need to kind of evaluate and go through first before we can even start, you know, doing these things that we're supposed to be doing, like investing, like budgeting, and not to mention like teaching our kids and passing on good you know money habits and good money mindset.

Speaker 1: 18:25

Yeah, absolutely it is. There's so many layers to it and it's not going to be a simple solution, but I like your approach. You started with the book, the children's book. It is great. I think it's in terms of I was trying to figure out what is the age group, so who is your target audience here?

Speaker 2: 18:47

I get that question all the time, you know, and honestly so, the way it started it was supposed to be 10 year olds and up, but what happened during and I'm really laughing here because even the cover of the book looks very childish but what actually happened during the whole process was I had I called it my test families, so parents and kids that were going through the book as I was writing it and they would provide feedback and an interesting thing happened All these parents started reaching out to me saying thank you, I finally understand investing and I finally understand all these things they talk about on TV and what a bull market is and bear market and how the inflation actually works and why is only saving our money is not enough, why we need to invest.

Speaker 2: 19:38

And so I realized that, yes, I've wrote the book in a way that a 10 year old can understand. The language is very 10 year old friendly, but it's the language that a lot of adults need, because when they were 10 years old, they did not learn it. And so these other adult books which I've read myself and I find them, and I don't know, disrespect to anybody, but even me as a CPA, sometimes I you know, it's like they're a little boring. So I find that a book like this is a really good starting point for any adult who didn't learn this as a child. And it's not intimidating. It just makes everybody feel like they're a winner. They actually understand the basics.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's safe to say that it's for 10 year olds up to 85. As I was reading it, I felt the same thing. I was like this is good information. This is even for adults. I have some adult friends who would benefit from reading this, and so that great job in putting it all together and making it easy. Now the other thing that you've done is, instead of writing just a traditional book, it's a workbook. So it actually gets you to say, okay, here's a question, let's work through this. Or here's a simple calculation. You've got revenue, expenses. How do we figure out the profit? Why did you decide to do a workbook instead of a traditional book?

Speaker 2: 21:05

I think that a workbook gives people a chance to practice what they've learned and sort of reinforces that learning and a lot of. I guess the question in the book where I'm asking the reader to you know, do some mental math or whatever. It's not complex math. And I find that you know I didn't want people to get intimidated because oh, now we're doing math, but try to make it as simple as possible, use the easy numbers and of course you know there are solutions in the back so they can check their numbers. But I think it's important because it reinforces the learning.

Speaker 1: 21:43

Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's a great exercise for the parents to do it with the kids.

Speaker 2: 21:48

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Yeah, both of you are learning as you go through it and I really like the workbook part of it, which is great, because a lot of the books you'll read them, you put them away. You never go, come back to it, because the workbook, like you said, reinforces the ideas that they've just read. So that's really good. Okay, so this is called the Dividend Podcast, so I want to talk about Chapter 5, which is Discover Dividends. That was my favorite chapter in the whole book. So, similar question to what I asked earlier why teach children about dividends? Why not wait till later? Right, so what's the benefit of that?

Speaker 2: 22:31

I think it's for the same reasons as I said before, the sooner. First of all, my goal when I teach kids is to make them familiar with these terms and with the whole idea of investing. I want to normalize that, I don't want it to be taboo and I want them to feel comfortable with it. But also, again, they have this long time horizon ahead of them, so if they can start investing earlier, obviously they're going to have more money, but then they also can learn more. And one thing that I like to do with kids, I like to excite them about learning about dividends, because one thing that I always tell them is like hey, dividends can support your lifestyle. You don't have to work. I mean, that's not to say that people shouldn't work, it's more like it can be optional. Right, if you decide to work, you could be working on something that you absolutely love, that's your passion, and so if you actually invest enough money and you have enough dividend income, that can support your lifestyle and you don't have to work, or you can, if you want to.

Speaker 1: 23:40

Yeah, absolutely, and I've seen it firsthand. I've been doing this for over 24 years now as a dividend investor and I can see the dividends. In the beginning they're very small and it takes years and years and years as the dividends, as the companies increase the dividend every year. Right, it takes time, but eventually you end up in a point where you're making double digit returns If you look at the yield on cost, and so I look at some of the investments I hold today and again I'm like well, I should have started 15 years sooner because the yields would have been even higher. So it's great to teach the kids.

Speaker 1: 24:16

I just want to share a quick story. I taught my kids when they were nine so my son is the eldest, so he got taught first when he was nine. His mind was blown when he first discovered what is a dividend and wow, I'm going to get money for doing nothing Like you don't have to do any chores or anything, you don't have to do any extra work and dividends. For those of you listening, if you're listening for the first time, I mean, it's the company sharing the profits with you, the shareholder, so all you have to do is own those shares, and every year. So my son was just like this is every quarter. I'm like, yeah, it's every quarter.

Speaker 1: 24:51

And guess what? Every year they probably will increase the dividend so you'll make even more money. So from nine till he's 21 now he's seeing for himself that the dividend income is growing every single year, and so I think that's a big surprise to most people who have never heard of dividends before.

Speaker 2: 25:10

Right and I mean, I think it's just truly magical because, when you think about it, it's a passive form of income. You had to work, right? So most of us exchange our time for money and most of us are thought that this is the way to make money and very few people talk about or learn that there are other ways of making money, like passive income. So, yes, you work once, but then, if you are disciplined enough and you invest that money, that money goes and works for you so that you can relax and take a break and you don't have to work. And that money, when it works for you, it can return back these dividends that you can essentially like, if you want to. You can live off of them or you can reinvest them.

Speaker 1: 25:56

Yeah, absolutely so. Let's finish off chapter five, because again, that's the chapter in the book. Can you tell our audience what is a dividend aristocrat and what is a dividend king?

Speaker 2: 26:08

Yeah, so actually there are. Sorry, I'm going to grab my book. So dividend aristocrats and dividend kings are companies that have been around for many, many years and they for dividend aristocrats. Not sorry, dividend aristocrats are companies that have been paying out dividends for the last 25 years, and so sorry, can you see me?

Speaker 1: 26:33

Yes, I can see you.

Speaker 2: 26:35

Okay, my Norton antivirus just popped up. And dividend, sorry. Dividend aristocrats are companies that have been paying continuous dividends for 25 years and they've been increasing dividends every year. Dividend kings are companies that have been paying dividends for the last 50 years and have been also increasing their dividends. And you know those aren't big companies that everybody knows and understands, like Coca-Cola, johnson and Johnson, trying to think McDonald's the household names.

Speaker 1: 27:10

Walmart the household names Absolutely, and so I already knew the answer to that because I've been an investor. But I wanted the audience to hear it from you because that is incredible. If you look at dividend kings, these are companies that have been consecutively increasing dividends for 50 years or more, and that is a long time. Think about how many market crashes we've had in the last 50 years, how many market downturns we've had, but companies like this continue to pay out dividends and increase the dividends every year. So that's a remarkable track record.

Speaker 2: 27:44

Right, and so that means that this company is solid and obviously they can do that kind of a thing. That means that they know what they're doing and their business is doing well.

Speaker 1: 27:57

That's right, it's stability Right, and that's a consistent growing income and passive income, like we were talking about. So that's great. So now in the book, I like the fact that, because you're teaching the kids the basics, the foundation, and you talk about not just dividends, you're also talking about interest, you're talking about loans, you're talking about financial statements, what they are and how to read them, which is fantastic. I think the side benefit is then I want to see if you agree with me or not.

Speaker 1: 28:29

I think the side benefit is then with kids, especially with teenagers, right? So now they have some money to spend and they may want to spend it on things, on what I call depreciating assets. So you might want to buy the latest iPad or the latest iPhone and these things. Nowadays they're I think they're all over $1,000 to buy these things, whereas if you made the choice to say, okay, well, maybe I don't spend as much. Whatever I save, what if I invested it over time? It will eventually, it'll grow right, it'll eventually double. Do you see that as a side benefit of teaching the kids the benefits of making the right choices?

Speaker 2: 29:13

Oh, 100%. I think you know what I actually do with my kids and, especially since they were little, my goal has always been to teach them to save a portion of their income, which eventually gets invested. So now that they're teenagers, you know any money that they earn or any they don't get allowance anymore, but any money that they earn or any money that they get as gifts, I always still encourage them to save a portion and basically invest that. So I don't want them to spend all of their money on these, as you said, like depreciating assets, and we have conversations about it and I think I've got two kids, so things are a little bit different with each of them because they have different money personalities, but I find that over the years, like even the one that's more of a spender, she understands that, you know. Yes, the more I invest, the more of a benefit it is for me.

Speaker 1: 30:12

Yeah, it's almost. It's delaying the gratification for later, right? Sure, you get the latest toy now, or if you wait, you'll have more money and then you have more choices, and yeah, I think that's great. So then tell us a little bit about the Wealthy Kids Investment Club. Why did you start it and what is it?

Speaker 2: 30:33

Yeah. So the Wealthy Kids Investment Club I started because a lot of my followers on Instagram were asking me, okay, how do I do this? And I wanted to make it affordable for everybody. So essentially I was like, okay, let's do something where I can teach people about investing and just, you know basics of investing in a fun way. And so through Wealthy Kids Investment Club, which is a family membership club, so the whole family has an access to it.

Speaker 2: 31:02

Each lesson is a video, a shorter video like 10 minutes. You also get a workbook with that and there's a quiz at the end and the quiz is a kahoot and I don't know if any of your listeners have played kahoot, but you can play it with other people and compete against other people. And so the idea is that I take the members on this journey and they learn. First of all, they started learning the basics, which some of them are described in this book, and then they learn about investing in index funds and ETFs, and then they learn about other investment vehicles. And there is also a Facebook group that you know they can join and, you know, connect with like-minded people and ask questions. But the idea was to make this investing that people think investing world that people think is so complex, to actually simplify it and just explain to people that it's really easy to understand it.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Yeah, absolutely. That's fantastic, and I like the fact that you're getting the whole family involved and it's not just the kids, right? So the parents are involved in there too. What would you say to parents, even after everything we've talked about, right, and I have some within the family circle as well, where parents are like you know what this is it's too complicated. I don't understand what it is and I don't think the kids are gonna understand it, especially if they're in grade four, five or six, right, they're too young. So what do you say to parents when they say it's too complicated?

Speaker 2: 32:40

So I think it's too complicated because they don't have the grasp on it. I think that, you know, we have to be sometimes humble enough to say like, okay, maybe I don't understand this enough, and that's why it's complicated. And it's absolutely fine to learn something alongside your child and, you know, I think it's actually great for our kids to see that. You know, hey, my mom and dad don't really understand this, but my mom and dad are willing to learn how to do this so that they can, you know better, our wealth and you know, put us on generational wealth trajectory, that's, you know, going upwards, rather than, you know, not doing anything about it. And so when we learn, our children see us, you know, engaged, and then they are kind of coming along for the ride and, as I said, like I know, I learned biosmosis and also watching and seeing what my parents were doing. So I think the children who have parents, who are learning like that also, you know, pick up whatever it is that their parents are doing. But also, like in my book, I talk about ways of involving kids. So, you know, even somebody who is in grade four or five or six, they are things that they can do. So one of the exercises that I have them do is go through the house and see, you know, grab things that you have in the house, like, I have this running watch and I think it's by Garmin, but let's say, if it was Nike, a lot of kids have Air Jordans or whatnot.

Speaker 2: 34:17

So you know Nike, okay, that's a company that makes these things that we use. Are they a public company? Okay, let's look them up, that's easily. You know something that they can easily search, so go on Google. Is it a public company? Oh, if it's a public company, that means we can invest in it. Now, should we invest in it? That's a whole different story. We have to, you know, analyze the financial statements and understand the company better. But you know there are things that our kids can do and you know we can slowly, slowly involve them in this. You know, quest, or learning quest about stock market.

Speaker 1: 34:55

Yeah, absolutely, and we were chatting before we hit the record button and I can tell you from my personal experience. I've had the opportunity and the honor of teaching grade four and grade five. So go in, do an hour presentation, talk about dividend stocks, and so for the parents who are still on the fence, they think it's complicated. I can tell you from my experience the grade four and fives, they understood everything by the end of the hour. They were asking questions and they were using the same terminology. They understood what a dividend is, what a stock is, what is a profit revenue. So they were, they got it. And how was your experience? I know you teach in person as well. Right, the younger grades? Do they understand what you're teaching them?

Speaker 2: 35:39

Oh, 100%. I mean, it's also how you teach them, and when I talk to kids of that age, I almost pretend that I am their peer, and so how would I explain a complex financial or investment topic? So I explain it the way a 10 year old would explain to another 10 year old, and they are definitely interested to learn and they actually are very capable of understanding what they're learning and they're really eager.

Speaker 1: 36:09

Yeah, absolutely so. I guess the message to the parents is it'll be fine.

Speaker 2: 36:13

Yes.

Speaker 1: 36:14

They understand it, and the parents can join in as well if they don't know the terminology or that. And again, I'm going to direct people back to your book because I think it is for 10 year olds up to 85, and people can grasp all of the foundations for sure. So that's what I'm asking.

Speaker 2: 36:35

Yeah, and I think, like when parents involve their children, sometimes I do want to say this as a parent, I remember teaching my kids about money, about investing and whatnot, and it seems like, oh, they got it. And then a month later I'm talking about it again and they have these blank stares and I'm like, okay, Guys, we learned this, like we talked about it and it will happen that they will get it. And then there are other more important things that they will go on and care about and they'll forget what you taught them. So some lessons you may have to repeat, but eventually it really sticks with them.

Speaker 1: 37:14

Yeah, absolutely, and we talked about this at the beginning of the conversation which is, the younger they are, the better they're going to be able to understand it and, like you said, just reinforcing the ideas over time. It's going to be so much easier than doing it when you're in your 40s, because by then you've probably got a busy life, you've got kids, a spouse, a partner, whatever, a day job, you got a mortgage to pay, and then, by then, it's overwhelming, like, okay, where do I start? What do I do?

Speaker 2: 37:44

Yeah, and you know, I had a conversation with Jeremy from Personal Finance Club I don't know if you know who he is from Instagram. He has a very popular Instagram account and Jeremy is a 40-something year old, but he became a millionaire when he was in his 30s. He's financially independent and he has all these investments and anyway. So he really shares a lot about his journey. And during one conference where I actually met him in person, I said to him you know, were you always this good with money, like you know? How did you learn to become good with money? How did you learn to start investing in ETFs and index funds? And he said well, it was my parents, and they started teaching him from a very young age. And when he got his first job, he started investing in 401k, which is equivalent to our RSPs, and he did like all these things that you know you are supposed to do when you're investing, right.

Speaker 2: 38:42

And when he was in his late 20s, he was having a conversation with his buddies and I don't know. He said something about his investments or whatnot, and his friend just looked like all his friends actually that were there looked at him and said, like what are you talking about? And he's like what do you mean? What am I talking about? And so it turns out that they first of all never invested, never knew that they had to be investing, never knew what to invest in, nobody ever taught them. And he said, he just sat there and he was stunned because he thought that this was common knowledge, that everybody knew what he knew because he grew up with this. This is what his parents taught him and of course, you know that set him up for you know his future he is doing really well. I mean, he's trying to teach other people and help other people.

Speaker 1: 39:29

Yeah, that's. That's an amazing story. That's so inspiring, right, and it's kind of funny because he grew up from his parents learning it, thinking this is normal.

Speaker 1: 39:38

Everybody knows this, and he realized that they didn't know yeah that's all the more reason to get the kids and I think that's the theme of today's episode is we want to get the kids, I was going to say, invested into this education early right to learn about financial literacy. So that's great. So, maya, where can people get in touch with you? Where can they if they want to buy the book? So how do they do all of that?

Speaker 2: 40:09

Yeah, so the book is available on Amazon. It's called from piggy banks to stocks the ultimate guide for a young investor. It's also available on Indigo online and Walmart online. I do have a very popular Instagram account. It's called from. Sorry, it's called teachkidsmoney and for the wealthy kids investment club. If you want to check it out, you just have to go to wealthykidsclub. So it's notcom It'sclub C-L-U-B.

Speaker 1: 40:40

Okay, great. We will put the links down below in the description with this episode. So, maya, thank you so much for coming on to our show today and sharing your inspiring story and your passion with all of our audience. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 40:57

Thank you so much for having me on.