Money plays a central role in our daily lives and consumer spending drives our economy. We make countless decisions and choices every day that have a financial consequence or implication.

Over our lifetime, all of us will experience significant life events that require financial planning and large sums of money, from post-secondary education, to marriage, purchasing a home, having children, and retirement.

We will also experience significant life events that can derail our finances including job loss, career change, divorce, and the death of spouse.  We can now add a global pandemic to the list of unexpected, financial shocks we must endure and recover from.

Personal Finance is not taught in schools, workplaces, by government, or financial institutions.  Our society relies on parents to teach their kids about money but most often this isn’t effective.  Many parents don’t have the time, knowledge or skills to teach this critical life skill, and even if they did, most kids don’t want to listen.  Further, once kids ‘launch’ into the real world, parents have little say or impact, and often only hear from their kids when they get into financial trouble.

It’s time to raise our consciousness and elevate the conversation about money to the important place it has in our lives.  It’s time to develop Financial Smarts and take control of your money so you, your family, and the people you care about can weather the storms and take advantage of blue sky opportunities that allow you to live your best life.

It’s time to get enlightened, energized, and empowered in all aspects of personal finance.  It’s time to get Fin$mart!