Schools across the UK do a great job of educating our children. The curriculum however doesn't cover really important information about money in the real world.
Teachers have been calling out for years the need to prepare our children for the real world as it exists today. A recent major survey showed in excess of 80% of all head teachers and teachers surveyed saying that financial education in schools has to go beyond that which is in the curriculum.
We intend to deliver a 2 hour session to year 10 students across the UK (and later, Europe) giving them this education. This will be supported by a website to which every student who takes part will have lifelong access. This website will feature tips and tricks for making money work for them, updates to cover any changes to the government sanctioned vehicles they can use (pensions, ISAs and others) so that they always have access to the best and most appropriate thing.
With the increasing cost of living, people living longer and the pressure on the public sector purse, it is vital that our children understand how to make the money they will earn work for them to provide a future worth having. Taking care of themselves and their families in retirement will increasingly fall on the heads of individuals.
We are going to partner with a bank to provide each child we teach with a savings account. The name of our organisation, 8th Wonder refers to what Einstein called the "8th wonder of the world" - compound interest.
We are going to show all of these children the power of investing a small amount of money from their pay on a regular basis across a lot of years. How this amount will grow into a significant sum by the time they reach retirement.
Of course we will also explain all of the other financial things they will need to know. Mortgages, loans, credit cards, taxation, investments and pensions. We will be teaching them how to use all of the legal tax free vehicles at their disposal to grow their wealth.
We are going to do this in a fun, engaging and age appropriate way. We want to ensure that all of these children have the information that was not and still isn't provided to them by the school system.
The idea for 8th Wonder came from talking to my own son when he hit 16. We were discussing cars and motorbikes (he has both now) and it occurred to me that he didn't know anything about how much these things cost, how to raise the money to buy and run them and how to ensure he had enough money to cover unexpected incidents.
When I asked him what he had been taught about these things, "nothing" was the answer. He didn't know about tax. He thought that if the salary for a job he was going after was £24,000 per year, he would get £2,000 per month. When I explained that he wouldn't, that in fact he would get around £1,700, he was horrified. When I explained why tax was necessary, what it paid for and why it mattered, he was a bit happier. When I then explained how he could reduce that tax take legally, whilst ensuring he got a bit richer each year, he was much, much happier.
It occurred to me then that if he didn't know this information, and he is a bright lad, then most other kids his age wouldn't know it either. That they would be heading out into the world of work without this knowledge felt like something that needed fixing.
We are going to create a multimedia presentation featuring animation, humour and real video which will be used by a personal presenter for each session in the schools. We will create a feature rich website that will be continuously updated to help all attendees of the course to maximise their wealth as they move through their lives.
We will be employing people in each county of the UK to deliver the presentations and the work will be ideally suited to parents returning to work as all of the school holidays will be included as part of the package. We expect to employee between 75 and 150 people once the UK project is fully rolled out, plus additional resources once we roll out to Europe.
We have carried out research with schools and they are very excited at the prospect of having these sessions delivered each year.
We really need your support to get this valuable project up, running and delivering to the people who need it the most.
This round of crowdfunding is to enable us to get to a pilot phase, going into a group of schools to test all of the processes and the presentation and approach. Once complete, we will assess the results of the pilots, adjust accordingly and prepare for the next phase.
We will then seek another round of funding, this time with share options available if you want to own a piece of the business for yourself. When we get there, we will of course detail the offering along with all of the numbers you will need to make and informed decision. As you will see from the rewards section, we are offering the opportunity to get advance notice when this stage is reached, giving you the opportunity for early investment on better terms than the main offer will have. If you want to be on the list for this, select the appropriate reward.
Your early support now means you will have the opportunity to own more of the company for less later.
Thank you for taking the time to consider our project and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.