It’s never too early to learn financial literacy. Even young children can understand the basic components of handling money. “We have this concept of three buckets, which are give, save, and spend,” says Josh Marsh, SVP/senior relationship manager and market president with Mountain Commerce Bank (MCB) in Brentwood. “When you get money, the first thing you do is put it into one of these three categories.”
He explains that the first part is to figure out how much you want to give, whether that's to a charity or maybe even a church. The second part is determining how much you are going to save, and the third is how much you’re going to spend.
“We like to use this model when talking through the importance of saving and setting a financial goal, making wise decisions, and distinguishing between wants and needs,” Marsh says. “That's a big one.”
With 11-year-old twins and a 14-year-old, he understands this well. “With our twins, one of them would just save everything while the other would want to spend most of it. So, to instill a sense of financial responsibility, when our kids decide they want to buy that new shiny object, we discuss saving to buy it. What usually happens is they will save but don't end up buying it.”
To teach other children the concepts of being financially responsible, Mountain Commerce Bank held a presentation in April at Haven Academy during the state of Tennessee’s Financial Literacy Month. “We had an incredible opportunity to make a positive impact in our community and empower young minds.”
MCB employees Samuel Stevenson, Hunter Reed, and Andrew Barrett shared their knowledge and expertise in personal finance using fun and interesting presentations. “They covered a wide range of important financial literacy skills,” says Josh, “including the importance of saving money and setting financial goals; making wise spending decisions and distinguishing between needs and wants; introducing the concept of budgeting to manage money effectively; and sharing real-life examples to illustrate financial concepts.” It was such a hit with the kids that they plan to conduct more of these presentations in the future.
Parents can also help inspire a love of saving by opening custodial savings accounts. “MCB has a lot of those,” he says. “It’s in a parent's name, but they can nickname it for their child, and they can then show them the monthly statements. That’s powerful right now since rates on some savings and money market accounts are currently over 4%. Kids can see that their money's working for them, and this is why they should leave it in the account.”
It’s also smart for parents to take advantage of college savings programs. “The state of Tennessee has a 529 Program called TNStars,” says Josh. “It's a program of the Tennessee Department of Treasury, behaves like an investment account, and funds can be withdrawn tax-free to cover qualified higher education expenses.”
Josh, who once worked for a larger bank, enjoys the personal relationships he’s able to foster with clients at MCB. “We pride ourselves in our response times, and the driving force behind that is how all of our clients have a personal contact at MCB,” he says. “We have similar systems and products as larger banks, but, due to size, we can typically deliver a tailored solution to our clients in a fraction of the time.”
To get your children started on the path to financial success, reach out to Josh.
MCB.com/AboutMCB/MCB-Brentwood-Nashville
“We had an incredible opportunity to make a positive impact in our community and empower young minds.”