The CFEE has developed several programs designed to assist older Canadians in making better money management decisions.
Most Canadians have never received any financial education — especially in the rapidly changing financial world around them. Unfortunately, we live with that legacy. As a result, many Canadians live with persistent financial stress and anxiety — not by design or intent — by trying to manage their financial life affairs with little education and training.
Today, many of our seniors struggle with managing financial challenges. With all of its options, choices, products and services, the financial world has dramatically changed from the world our seniors experienced in their earlier years. As a result, seniors now face financial decisions and choices — and important money discussions with their adult children — often with little background and experiences to draw on.
The past is the past. We can try and assist those — such as our seniors — in the present. However, we can change the future by educating our kids and preparing them for their future financial decisions and responsibilities.
Many factors influence our actions in life. A significant one is our level of confidence. A confident person is more likely to ask questions, recognize when they need advice from others, set their own debt limits, establish goals they aspire to — and feel they can achieve — and stay in control of their financial lives.
We can do what we can to build financial confidence and competence in the adult and senior generations of today. We can also try to help them contend with, and hopefully alleviate, the situations of financial stress and over-extension in which they may find themselves.
Most Canadians have never received any financial education – especially in the rapidly changing financial world around them.
The future is sitting in our classrooms today — and on the baseball diamonds, in the hockey rinks, on the dance floors, at the malls, and on the couch in the basement. We can change those futures and dramatically reduce the number of Canadians living lives of financial stress and anxiety in the future. But we have to act now and take steps to educate our kids, build their financial confidence, and enable them to feel confident, act with confidence, and build a successful financial future.
The Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE) has developed several programs designed to assist older Canadians in making better money management decisions as they transition through various life events in their “golden years.” The first program, Managing Your Money, is an interactive workshop for seniors that explores major challenges related to key life events identified in Canada’s national financial strategy. The workshops will begin in person as the world returns to a new normal — offered in partnership with local community-based organizations.
Over 20 virtual workshops have been offered annually with the financial support of IG Wealth Management. Our second program, Let’s Talk Money: Seniors, takes some of the challenges of engaging in inter-generational conversations about challenging topics ranging from legacy planning to do-not-resuscitate orders. In addition, the program provides tools and resources to help seniors and their adult children talk about important and difficult issues to navigate.
Our last program, Money and You: Seniors edition, is an online primer for financial literacy topics of importance based on the format of the highly successful youth resource, Money and Youth, targeted at youth. This new resource combines the best of the Youth version with a senior-friendly layout — white space and larger font — and age-appropriate content and examples. The Money and You: Seniors edition program will launch in October.
Gary Rabbior
President, Canadian Foundation for Economic Education
