A strong sense of well-being and stability is derived from learning how to earn, spend, save, and invest wisely – however, not everyone successfully manages money, making financial literacy the key to changing this dynamic. Learning to manage money when you’re young translates to greater stability as an adult. Recognising this, Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Berhad and PINTAR Foundation curated a financial literacy programme for youths to close the knowledge gap among kids in Malaysia.
60 selected students in Form 4 at Taman Maluri, Kuala Lumpur were the beneficiaries of this programme – learning the basics to be financially empowered, instilling a habit of spending wisely, and basic entrepreneurship skills that will help them cultivate creativity and innovation to source money in multiple avenues.
The interactive sessions were split in two: the first session touching on dreams and goals, along with budget and saving plus several exercises for students to have a deeper understanding of these concepts. The second session had students learning how they could monetise their talents and interests, potentially leading to starting their socially conscious project using the Do-Good Make Profit model.
Of course, when it comes to finances, nothing comes without risks and the PINTAR facilitators touched on the importance of keeping themselves safe online, considering the worrying fact that Malaysians have lost RM302 million to scams between 2021 to 2023 on social media platforms.
Participants of this session then selected their groups and got a head start to the final portion of their module – preparing a concrete business plan, and roughly two months to implement their ideas to their target audience.
