National Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, board member of Illinois Jump$tart Coalition

Inspiration for Business:

The seeds for Money Savvy Generation were planted when Susan Beacham, a professional financial services advisor at the time, was in a meeting advising an affluent woman who was recently widowed. The husband had always handled the finances, and it wasn’t until then that the single-mother was learning how to manage her money. Susan had two young daughters and thought there was no reason they shouldn’t start learning financial management at a young age.

Challenges:

Many challenges were faced, including the need to find a manufacturer for the injection-molded Money Savvy Pig®, figuring out lessons that would resonate with young children, and getting schools to incorporate the lessons into an already packed curriculum. The Beachams used their professional network to find a manufacturer in China, worked with teachers to simplify the financial lessons for young learners, and created the lessons to meet social studies and math standards so they could easily be integrated into existing lesson plans.

Company Now:

Money Savvy Generation has expanded its line based on feedback from customers and now carries the Moolah Cow Bank™, the Money Savvy Football® Bank and Cash Cache® for older students. Lessons have also been expanded to cover grades K-12 and adapted for home use. They also developed a DVD series and activity books. To date, the products have reached more than 500,000 students. The Beachams hope to increase their market penetration of schools and be the go-to resource for educating children on money.