I’ve got an idea I want to share which
was my experience but I think it will
help others and it begins here in
Argentina in 1985 that is me and I still
have those shorts so my idea is this
that financial responsibility and
teaching our children financial literacy
is as important as ever and growing up
in Argentina was a tough country we just
moved there from the UK my mum and dad
were teachers earning a salary and pesos
the local currency which proved to be
challenging but it was this challenging
experience that meant my sister and I’d
learned an invaluable lesson and
experienced about money which I’d love
to share with all of you the first of it
was how to earn it so at the time
Argentina was a poor country through an
almost non-existent middle-class my
sister and I had no pocket money and yet
every day I’d come home from school with
a few pesos in my pocket how did I do it
at lunchtime I’d wait for the older boys
and girls to finish drinking their
coca-cola bottles and Fanta bottles and
just before the school bell rang I’d go
over and collect them all up because I
knew if I took them back to the
shopkeeper giving him those bottles he’d
give me just a few pesos and that was my
first lesson how to earn it the truth is
there are opportunities everywhere to
earn money
we just need to spot them and work hard
for them so I think and I believe that
financial responsibility and financial
literacy is as important as maths and we
need to start teaching our children now
so once we figured out how to earn money
many of us struggle how to keep it and
my experience of keeping it was born out
of my experience in Argentina so at the
time the economy was really struggling
what this meant was the prices were
going up every single day
prices were going up 30% a month but my
sister and I experienced it in a
different way because at the end of the
month on pay day my mom and dad would
round us up and drive to the supermarket
and we play what we would call
Argentinian supermarket sweep because my
mum would give me and my sister a
shopping list we’d have to run round the
supermarket as quickly as possible to
get hold of all the goods we needed
before the prices went up that day when
we got home that night and we done all
the shopping we needed for the month
my dad would meet up with his best
friend and drive to a black market
dealer to exchange those pesos for
dollars because if we didn’t we risk
losing all of our money to the ravages
of inflation I still remember my dad
saying to me
Rob Argentina isn’t a country where you
fall asleep on your money because if you
if you wake up it might not be there
that experience has stuck with me
forever and it was my second lesson how
to keep it I believe we need to teach
all of our children how to keep hold of
our money because the truth is there
were things outside of our control
working against us to take away our
money but I wasn’t to learn the magic of
the third lesson until a decade later I
was lucky I got a job working in a
Bureau DeShawn’s in the south of France
and it was with this experience I was
fortunate enough to get a job here in
the city advising companies on how to
manage their foreign exchange risks just
a few years later I graduated to
advising those same companies on how to
look after their pension funds and here
I learned that magical skill how to grow
it what people call in the city
compound interest Albert Einstein
supposedly called compound interest the
8th wonder of the world and he said this
he who understands it earns it he who
doesn’t pays it think about it
do you understand compound interest
are you earning it or maybe you don’t
and maybe you’re paying it more
importantly what about your children
wouldn’t you want your children to learn
about the eighth wonder of the world
compound interest how to grow money how
to make money from money so it was with
this experience of growing up in
Argentina that my sister and I learned
how to earn it how to keep it and how to
grow it but how many of us got any
financial education at school and the
reason why I think it’s so important
right now is that because without these
skills we have a real problem just a few
months ago the UK government announced
that there were 25 million adults in the
UK who are financially vulnerable that’s
probably some of us in this room and let
me really spell out what financially
vulnerable means 17 million of us adults
don’t have a hundred pounds in savings
which means one overdue bill a broken
down washing machine pushes us over into
debt four million of us are one month
away from bankruptcy this problem is
compounded further because it turns out
that money is a taboo subject and we
don’t like talking about it and parents
would rather talk to their children
about sex than about money
so if financial and educational is so
important why have we been so bad at it
I have three reasons the first is when
we do teach it we make it too boring
until Victorian the second reason is
it’s just too complicated and we make it
too complicated and the third reason is
we don’t start early enough so a few
years ago at a charity we found they
called red starts which teaches children
financial literacy we thought how can we
go about designing a game that gives
those children the experience the
emotions of earning money of keeping
money we even get them to lose some
money and crucially the magic of growing
their money and I wanted to share what
that experience looked like I wanted to
share with you
money matters so all of the children are
given 500 pounds and they’ve got to play
this game and there are opportunities
everywhere there’s a station called
fighting fit where literally they get
down and do 20 press ups or a few star
jumps and just like that they can earn
money because that’s the first lesson
the ability to spot how to earn money
and learn that through hard work they
can earn more money but my favorite game
is when I get a call from rich Ricky
bare with me yeah yeah good news
Rick’s Ricky has an offer to make to all
of you he has promised that if you
invest with him right now
he will double your money by the end of
the game at this point loads of kids
hands go up this is a trap we are
scamming your children rich Ricky is a
scam yes you heard me
we are deliberately scamming your
children a bit later he calls back
investments have been going really
really well in fact he needs more money
and he needs it now who wants to double
their money by the end of the game
something magical happens the
conversation starts can we trust rich
Ricky who is rich Ricky one wise boy
comes up to me and says is it a Ponzi
scheme
sadly for that poor boy the lure of
doubling his money was too much and just
a bit later he comes to me really
excited and he pulls me down he says Rob
I figured out how to win the game and he
gives me all of his money to rich Ricky
sadly I get another call it’s rich Ricky
again the investments haven’t gone so
well he’s not coming back all the money
is gone the kids are devastated that
poor boy is on the verge of tears and
yet I promise you he learned the most
valuable lesson that day the ability to
spot are too good to be true scam and
the reason why this is important is
every single day including today we lose
two million pounds to financial scams
and fraud
wouldn’t you rather we taught your kids
the experience of rich Ricky rather than
waiting until they graduate from school
or university and meet a real-life rich
Ricky but the magical station is one
called built to last and here the
children if they spot it have the
opportunity to invest fifty pounds to
play and the game is simple you build a
tower out of blocks of wood the taller
the tower the more interest you earn
they have two strategies one strategy is
to build a really tall tower and earn
lots and lots of interest another
strategy is to play it safe
build a smaller Tower collect the
interest and go again earning interest
on your interest what do you think the
kids do I wonder what would you do well
most of the kids fall for the trap of
building the taller tower because just
as you go to put that brick on top you
risk
knocking down all the blocks of woods
and losing everything because actually
building smaller towers is easier it’s
less risky and once you start to build
and on top of each other you start to
this magic feeling of growing your money
or earning interest and crucially the
more you practice the better you get
so we’ve played money matters now with
over 500 pupils and the results are
fascinating over half of the children
end up with less money than they started
a handful of them like that poor boy I
mentioned earlier end up losing almost
all their money and yet every time we
have a handful of winners and we’ve had
20 to 30 pupils who’ve more than doubled
their money to get a thousand pounds how
did they do it turns out that these
young boys and girls they’re not Richard
Branson
I want to taught them the rules to the
game they experienced it they learnt it
they watched other boys and girls losing
money to rich Ricky putting money in the
bank
playing built to last building a tall
tower and figuring out that that doesn’t
work but there’s enough time in the game
to figure out the rules of the game now
wouldn’t you want your children to know
the rules of the game to feel confident
about managing their money well I’m a
dad and I have two young daughters and
this is me playing built to last with my
three and a half year old daughter now
just a week ago we had some friends over
and they bought her a cupcake and it
made me very proud because about halfway
through she stopped eating her cupcake
and she said daddy I’ve had enough I
want to keep it till later now delayed
gratification is a foundational habit to
financial responsibility and financial
literacy and we can start at a young age
but my contention is this let’s not wait
for the government to put financial
education on the school syllabus let’s
start having a conversation with our
children now about money let
not finding fun and engaging ways to
allow our children to experience how to
earn it how to keep it and how to grow
it because it turns out I was very lucky
growing up in Argentina because I got to
experience things that most people don’t
and I had parents who taught me about
budgeting and saving because it turns
out we learn on money saving habits by
the age of seven
so I dare you to take action and have a
conversation with a child or a
grandchild because I promise you this
will have an impact that will compound
forever thank you
[Applause]
was my experience but I think it will
help others and it begins here in
Argentina in 1985 that is me and I still
have those shorts so my idea is this
that financial responsibility and
teaching our children financial literacy
is as important as ever and growing up
in Argentina was a tough country we just
moved there from the UK my mum and dad
were teachers earning a salary and pesos
the local currency which proved to be
challenging but it was this challenging
experience that meant my sister and I’d
learned an invaluable lesson and
experienced about money which I’d love
to share with all of you the first of it
was how to earn it so at the time
Argentina was a poor country through an
almost non-existent middle-class my
sister and I had no pocket money and yet
every day I’d come home from school with
a few pesos in my pocket how did I do it
at lunchtime I’d wait for the older boys
and girls to finish drinking their
coca-cola bottles and Fanta bottles and
just before the school bell rang I’d go
over and collect them all up because I
knew if I took them back to the
shopkeeper giving him those bottles he’d
give me just a few pesos and that was my
first lesson how to earn it the truth is
there are opportunities everywhere to
earn money
we just need to spot them and work hard
for them so I think and I believe that
financial responsibility and financial
literacy is as important as maths and we
need to start teaching our children now
so once we figured out how to earn money
many of us struggle how to keep it and
my experience of keeping it was born out
of my experience in Argentina so at the
time the economy was really struggling
what this meant was the prices were
going up every single day
prices were going up 30% a month but my
sister and I experienced it in a
different way because at the end of the
month on pay day my mom and dad would
round us up and drive to the supermarket
and we play what we would call
Argentinian supermarket sweep because my
mum would give me and my sister a
shopping list we’d have to run round the
supermarket as quickly as possible to
get hold of all the goods we needed
before the prices went up that day when
we got home that night and we done all
the shopping we needed for the month
my dad would meet up with his best
friend and drive to a black market
dealer to exchange those pesos for
dollars because if we didn’t we risk
losing all of our money to the ravages
of inflation I still remember my dad
saying to me
Rob Argentina isn’t a country where you
fall asleep on your money because if you
if you wake up it might not be there
that experience has stuck with me
forever and it was my second lesson how
to keep it I believe we need to teach
all of our children how to keep hold of
our money because the truth is there
were things outside of our control
working against us to take away our
money but I wasn’t to learn the magic of
the third lesson until a decade later I
was lucky I got a job working in a
Bureau DeShawn’s in the south of France
and it was with this experience I was
fortunate enough to get a job here in
the city advising companies on how to
manage their foreign exchange risks just
a few years later I graduated to
advising those same companies on how to
look after their pension funds and here
I learned that magical skill how to grow
it what people call in the city
compound interest Albert Einstein
supposedly called compound interest the
8th wonder of the world and he said this
he who understands it earns it he who
doesn’t pays it think about it
do you understand compound interest
are you earning it or maybe you don’t
and maybe you’re paying it more
importantly what about your children
wouldn’t you want your children to learn
about the eighth wonder of the world
compound interest how to grow money how
to make money from money so it was with
this experience of growing up in
Argentina that my sister and I learned
how to earn it how to keep it and how to
grow it but how many of us got any
financial education at school and the
reason why I think it’s so important
right now is that because without these
skills we have a real problem just a few
months ago the UK government announced
that there were 25 million adults in the
UK who are financially vulnerable that’s
probably some of us in this room and let
me really spell out what financially
vulnerable means 17 million of us adults
don’t have a hundred pounds in savings
which means one overdue bill a broken
down washing machine pushes us over into
debt four million of us are one month
away from bankruptcy this problem is
compounded further because it turns out
that money is a taboo subject and we
don’t like talking about it and parents
would rather talk to their children
about sex than about money
so if financial and educational is so
important why have we been so bad at it
I have three reasons the first is when
we do teach it we make it too boring
until Victorian the second reason is
it’s just too complicated and we make it
too complicated and the third reason is
we don’t start early enough so a few
years ago at a charity we found they
called red starts which teaches children
financial literacy we thought how can we
go about designing a game that gives
those children the experience the
emotions of earning money of keeping
money we even get them to lose some
money and crucially the magic of growing
their money and I wanted to share what
that experience looked like I wanted to
share with you
money matters so all of the children are
given 500 pounds and they’ve got to play
this game and there are opportunities
everywhere there’s a station called
fighting fit where literally they get
down and do 20 press ups or a few star
jumps and just like that they can earn
money because that’s the first lesson
the ability to spot how to earn money
and learn that through hard work they
can earn more money but my favorite game
is when I get a call from rich Ricky
bare with me yeah yeah good news
Rick’s Ricky has an offer to make to all
of you he has promised that if you
invest with him right now
he will double your money by the end of
the game at this point loads of kids
hands go up this is a trap we are
scamming your children rich Ricky is a
scam yes you heard me
we are deliberately scamming your
children a bit later he calls back
investments have been going really
really well in fact he needs more money
and he needs it now who wants to double
their money by the end of the game
something magical happens the
conversation starts can we trust rich
Ricky who is rich Ricky one wise boy
comes up to me and says is it a Ponzi
scheme
sadly for that poor boy the lure of
doubling his money was too much and just
a bit later he comes to me really
excited and he pulls me down he says Rob
I figured out how to win the game and he
gives me all of his money to rich Ricky
sadly I get another call it’s rich Ricky
again the investments haven’t gone so
well he’s not coming back all the money
is gone the kids are devastated that
poor boy is on the verge of tears and
yet I promise you he learned the most
valuable lesson that day the ability to
spot are too good to be true scam and
the reason why this is important is
every single day including today we lose
two million pounds to financial scams
and fraud
wouldn’t you rather we taught your kids
the experience of rich Ricky rather than
waiting until they graduate from school
or university and meet a real-life rich
Ricky but the magical station is one
called built to last and here the
children if they spot it have the
opportunity to invest fifty pounds to
play and the game is simple you build a
tower out of blocks of wood the taller
the tower the more interest you earn
they have two strategies one strategy is
to build a really tall tower and earn
lots and lots of interest another
strategy is to play it safe
build a smaller Tower collect the
interest and go again earning interest
on your interest what do you think the
kids do I wonder what would you do well
most of the kids fall for the trap of
building the taller tower because just
as you go to put that brick on top you
risk
knocking down all the blocks of woods
and losing everything because actually
building smaller towers is easier it’s
less risky and once you start to build
and on top of each other you start to
this magic feeling of growing your money
or earning interest and crucially the
more you practice the better you get
so we’ve played money matters now with
over 500 pupils and the results are
fascinating over half of the children
end up with less money than they started
a handful of them like that poor boy I
mentioned earlier end up losing almost
all their money and yet every time we
have a handful of winners and we’ve had
20 to 30 pupils who’ve more than doubled
their money to get a thousand pounds how
did they do it turns out that these
young boys and girls they’re not Richard
Branson
I want to taught them the rules to the
game they experienced it they learnt it
they watched other boys and girls losing
money to rich Ricky putting money in the
bank
playing built to last building a tall
tower and figuring out that that doesn’t
work but there’s enough time in the game
to figure out the rules of the game now
wouldn’t you want your children to know
the rules of the game to feel confident
about managing their money well I’m a
dad and I have two young daughters and
this is me playing built to last with my
three and a half year old daughter now
just a week ago we had some friends over
and they bought her a cupcake and it
made me very proud because about halfway
through she stopped eating her cupcake
and she said daddy I’ve had enough I
want to keep it till later now delayed
gratification is a foundational habit to
financial responsibility and financial
literacy and we can start at a young age
but my contention is this let’s not wait
for the government to put financial
education on the school syllabus let’s
start having a conversation with our
children now about money let
not finding fun and engaging ways to
allow our children to experience how to
earn it how to keep it and how to grow
it because it turns out I was very lucky
growing up in Argentina because I got to
experience things that most people don’t
and I had parents who taught me about
budgeting and saving because it turns
out we learn on money saving habits by
the age of seven
so I dare you to take action and have a
conversation with a child or a
grandchild because I promise you this
will have an impact that will compound
forever thank you
[Applause]
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