Congrats to Essay Winners
The Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre congratulates the winners of our Financial Literacy for the Caribbean Essay competition which was held in May 2010.
We wish to thank all participants for their entries. Below is the list of our winners and their essays.
TOPIC: You receive $200 as a birthday gift from your favourite uncle or aunt. Write an essay describing what you’d do with the money and why. Use it wisely.
9-11 Age Group
Anika Forde - 1st Prize
West Terrace Primary School
My favourite aunt, Gillian, gave me two hundred dollars for my birthday last December and I promised her that I would make good use of it.
I thought of several ways in which I could use this money wisely. I could give some to the church, put it in my savings account, buy some bonds or stock in a company, get a fixed deposit account or invest in some mutual funds.
After giving each option a lot of thought I decided that I would give twenty-five dollars to the church, and purchase some bonds with the balance.
I chose to give some to the church since I believe that we should always give something back to God who does not hold back His blessings to us. The reason I chose to buy bonds was because this was a sure way to make some more money. The interest would be higher than the savings or fixed deposit accounts, and the stock and mutual funds are risky businesses and there was a chance that I could lose my money.
ZeraTaicob Yaicob - 2nd Prize
The Rock Christian
“SPEND IT! SPEND IT!” was the first thought that struck my mind when my favourite aunt gave me $200. “I’ll buy cricket gear, my favourite snacks, toys, gam es, books and… But wait a minute, if I spend all my money on those things they won’t last forever and I will not have any money left!” So I decided to save it.
“SAVE IT! SAVE IT!” was my second idea. Then I exclaimed, “If I save it in my money-box, it won’t do anything for me. It will just remain $200. So I decided to invest it.
“INVEST IT! INVEST IT!” I will put it into the bank… but, if the bank fails then all my money will be lost.” So I decided to diversify.
“DIVERSIFY! DIVERSIFY!” I thought. “This means to separate things, put them into different areas.” I wanted to invest in a savings account, stocks, bonds, real estate, business companies – quite a lot of things but I only had $200.00! Next I decided to sit with my parents and they supervised me as I visited the site: www.financialliteracycaribbean.com . There I learnt about low, moderate and high risk investments. I also learnt that mutual funds help us to invest in diverse ventures at once.
Finally, I decided to invest $100 in a savings account (low risk) and the other $100 in mutual funds (moderate risk).
My parents said, “Congratulations, son, we think your choice was wise. Eventually you may earn more than your $200.00!’
So you see, this is exactly what I would do if I received $200. N.B. Use money wisely; invest in diverse ventures!
12-14 Age Group
Blake Ashby - 1st Prize
Queen's College
It was my 12th birthday and my favourite aunt dropped off my birthday present. She gave me an envelope and I was wondering what could be in it. I opened it there and then. In the envelope were three new, crisp one hundred dollar bills. She said I could do what ever I wanted with it. However, there was one important point she asked me to consider. It had to be spent wisely.
For about three days I pondered what to buy with it. How could I spend it wisely? One day, I was lying in bed thinking what to buy with the money when I noticed the gardener mowing our lawn. That’s when I had my brilliant idea!
I would invest in a weedwacker and mow the neighbours’ lawn. Old Mr. Jones mowed his own lawn and several of the neighbours didn’t use a lawn maintenance service.
I called around and most weedwackers were over five hundred dollars. After a lot of calling around, I finally found one for two hundred and fifty dollars from a store in a Christ Church mall.
When I told my father about my plan, he said, “What a great idea!”
My father said I could make back my money in a few weeks by charging our neighbours fifty dollars a lawn. I would soon have enough money “to save some, spend some and give some to charity.” In two months or so, I would be able to buy more garden equipment. I hoped to trim hedges and water the plants etc for an extra fee. My mother told me that buying a weedwacker was the best thing I could’ve done with the money, and maybe later in life I could have a gardening business. Who knows, I might even persuade my big brother to join the business.
Rachael Worrell - 2nd Prize
The Lodge School
As usual, we went through the routine of singing, blowing out the candles and then opening my presents. I was almost finished when my mother told me that there was one more gift which had come from my aunt Liz who lived in America. I was wondering what she could have put in that small matchbox. I opened it and it was $300BDS! I was so surprised. All I could think about was when my mother could take me into town and spend it all.
The next day, on my way to town, my mother took a road I wasn’t familiar with. I was busy looking around at what I haven’t seen before. We later passed by a Salvation Army office. It was a huge modern-day building. As we got closer, I saw Asha, from my class, standing in line with her family. I then remembered that she had lost everything she had possessed to a house fire.
I felt ashamed that I was going to shop for frivolous things when there were others with nothing.
On the way home, I told my mother how I felt and we shared it with my family and they approved so I sat and planned how I would “spend” the money. First, I would give $50 to Asha to buy stationery, then, $150 to the Salvation Army to continue what they are doing what they are doing for those people, $20 for the shoes I always wanted and with the remaining money, I should invest in a fixed deposit which matures in six months at five percent.
I did just that and felt great about it!
Raphael Marshall - 3rd Prize
Queen's College
Wanting to be free to do what I felt like had always grabbed my attention from a young age. Now that I was transitioning from my junior childhood to my teenage years, I was assured of this achievement even more.
When I received $500 from my very rich uncle, it seemed like so much money to me. Especially coming from a small house and a poor community, I felt like the richest boy in the world. Although my mother believed money should be earned from hard work, she didn’t object to my favourite uncle’s gift. I guess it was because he was the only male role model in my life, after my father died when I was younger.
I imagined the things I could do with this amount of money, such as buying clothes and shoes, saving it, or even helping to pay for the house as we owed the bank for it. However; since Uncle Mark was rich, I figured he could help pay for the house so I decided to save.
Secondary school expenses were high for us and saving this money could benefit our pockets greatly. First form was bad enough; second form could be worse since I would be doing more subjects which called for more money for school supplies.
I got the idea of saving money to use later by reading a book on how someone spent his money all at once and had none when he really needed it.
When the time came for me to spend my money on school supplies, I was ready and spent it wisely. There were nevertheless some things that tempted me to spend unnecessarily; like buying lunch or brand-name clothes. However, my prudent spending and saving benefited me much and greatly secured my future.
15-18 Age group
Shai Edwards - 1st Prize
The Lodge School
$500?? Wooww!!! Uncle Kwame always knows the right gift to give me each year for my birthday, and now that I’m 18, I can do anything with my money. What will I do with it though? Maybe I will buy myself a blackberry or maybe get a new pair of shoes. The possibilities are endless; I don’t know what to do. Ahhh, I know, Mommy always speaks about saving some of your money and not wasting it on material things. Maybe this is the right time to listen to her.
Yes, I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to open my own bank account at the Barbados National Bank and start with $300. They have great terms for young people like myself who are willing to take that step to financial security. Also in opening this account, I gain interest on my money, which means the longer my money stays on the bank and the more money I put there the more interest I make. This will also help me to be a fairly well known individual in the bank as I continue to save and make deposits to this account. In a couple years time when I am ready to open my own small business, which I intend to do, getting a loan to start shouldn’t be much of a hassle, since I would be a trusted member of their company.
So that’s what I’m going to do with $300; what am I going to do with the remaining $200? Oh, Mother’s Day is drawing nigh, maybe I should buy my mother a gift. Shai, you have such great ideas. Recently she’s been hinting at wanting this new purse that she saw in Cave Shepherd, maybe this is the right time to surprise her with this. Great idea. I’ll buy her that purse but it only cost $85, which means I still have $115 left. This is getting tougher and tougher by the minute.
Wait a minute, it is my birthday right? And I saved most of the money, but didn’t really get myself anything. I’ll buy me the shirt that I saw in Beyond Surf the other day while I was shopping with friends. It’s a real good quality shirt that is fairly cheap in these harsh economic times. I think it costs $75 which means I still have $40 left. I did all of these things and still have money left. That’s great. I’ll just keep that as some pocket change for any little thing that I want.
So, I’m going to open an account, buy a gift for mummy and treat myself to a gift, after all it is my birthday. I’ve made three great investments; one for the future and two for now. This is a great and wise way to spend this money. I can’t wait until Christmas I wonder what Uncle Kwame will give me this time.
