Pennygem, Toronto, ON (2026)

07/15/2021

🤔How to build an Emergency Fund?

Use these tips to set up an emergency fund.

1️⃣ Open a savings account.
It’s important that you choose the right type of account to build your emergency fund. It should be easy to access your money quickly in case of an emergency.

Here’s what you should look for in a savings account:

🔹the account should be separate from the account you use for day-to-day transactions.
🔹you pay no or low transaction fees
you can make withdrawals without penalty.
🔹you earn interest on the money you save.

2️⃣ Start by saving a realistic amount.
It can take months, or even years, to reach the desired amount for your emergency savings. Don’t panic, this is normal!

It’s better to start with a small amount so that you don’t become discouraged.
Start by figuring out what you can put aside every week. Whether it’s $50, $20, $5 or some small change, the important thing is to start right now.

In general, it’s recommended that you save the equivalent of 3 to 6 months of your regular expenses. You can also aim to save 3 to 6 months of income. Both methods are effective, so choose whichever one works for you.

These amounts can sometimes seem out of reach. That is why you should save gradually. Saving a small amount on a regular basis can make a big difference in the long term.

3️⃣ Make it a habit.

4️⃣ Automate your savings.
🟢Tip: set up your automatic transfer on the days you get paid so that the amount saved is transferred as soon as your paycheque is deposited into your account.

5️⃣ Eliminate an expense and save the amount.

Want to learn how to eliminate few expenses? Follow us to find out more⬆️

07/07/2021

What is an Emergency Fund❓

〽️An emergency fund is a financial safety net for future mishaps and/or unexpected expenses.

〽️Emergency funds should typically have three to six months’ worth of expenses, although the pandemic has led some experts to suggest up to one year’s worth.

〽️Individuals should keep their emergency funds in accounts that are easily accessible and easily liquidated.

〽️Savers can use tax refunds and other windfalls to build up their funds.

❗️Important: It may be tempting to use your fund for incidental or frivolous purposes, so make sure you don’t deplete this resource for any purpose other than an actual emergency.

06/30/2021

At this point, your children understand how to earn and save money, budget for the future, and keep their savings safe in a bank. Now it’s time to teach them a little risk. Keep the lessons simple. Let’s talk about bonds and stocks.

🔹Present bonds as the safer option. You’re essentially giving the government a loan to be repaid later. The rate of return isn’t high, and it takes more time for bonds to accrue any real interest. But, short of the government defaulting, there’s far less risk in bonds than there are in stocks.

🔹Associate stocks with higher-risk, higher-reward scenarios. Purchasing stocks means purchasing small shares of a company, where the value of the stock depends on the health of the company. Be sure to hammer home the buy low, sell high mentality, allow your children to make small investments, and allow them to make mistakes.

06/25/2021

Building wealth: Ages 13-15

Introduce the following financial concepts to reinforce your teen’s independence, and help them find a financial identity outside of your watch:

🔹Work
🔸Banking
🔹Investing (bonds vs. stocks)
🔸Work

Your child has a concrete understanding that money comes from hard work, but until this point, they’ve only earned money through chores, while their parents are watching over them. Finding a job separate from parental control reinforces a sense of responsibility in teens, and it looks great on a college application.

Teens don’t necessarily have to work on their feet: Freelancing sites like Fiverr will allow teens to join at 13 years old, although sometimes parental consent is necessary.

Once your teen has some money of his or her own, it’s time to open their first bank account (if you haven’t already).

🔺Banking
Contrary to common belief, banks aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. 84% of bank customers ages 18-34, including millennials, have visited a teller at least once in 2016. Even if banking ultimately becomes a purely digital experience, it’s essential to understand exactly who is keeping your money safe.

You may have brought your child with you to the bank before, and now’s the time for them to open a separate (but monitored) account for their savings. Many banks have accounts exclusively tailored to kids, and as we’ve reported, a good bank account for kids should meet the following criteria:

▫️No minimum balance requirement
▫️No monthly maintenance fees
▫️Online account management
▫️A high interest rate for savings (the best offer 1% or more!)
When choosing your bank, consider opting for one with a local branch so you and your child can visit and ask questions if need be.

🔺Investing
At this point, your children understand how to earn and save money, budget for the future, and keep their savings safe in a bank. Now it’s time to teach them a little risk. Keep the lessons simple. People have two options if they want to invest their money – bonds and stocks.

♾follow us to learn more🔝

06/23/2021

Your net worth is calculated by subtracting what you OWE from what you OWN. If you owe more than you actually have, you're going the wrong way.

The goal is to owe NOTHING and build wealth. Don't try to make the bank happy, make YOURSELF happy.

06/17/2021

People who win always have a plan.

05/21/2021

📒Introducing Consequences: Age 11-13
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When a child reaches his or her teens, they begin to develop a sense of reason, long-term consequences, and complications, transforming from emotionally-driven to rationally-driven decision making. At this age, a child begins to desire independence, spending more time with their friends instead of their parents. Teens spend about six hours on average consuming media, and financial peer pressure is a very real force. Once they are old enough hand over the phone to let them pay for things digitally (with your supervision).
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Once your child has a firm grasp of the basics, it’s time to finish the transition into the cashless world. But don’t just introduce e-commerce apps like PayPal. Use this time as an opportunity to expand their financial knowledge to include long-term consequences:
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🔹Credit
🔹Debt
🔹Interest
🔹Budgeting
🔹Identity theft
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🔸Credit
If you’re looking to establish a strong credit score for your child, consider making them an authorized user on your credit card. Parents still retain control over the account, and some cards offer spending limits for authorized users. You’ll be able to see all the purchases your child makes and follow up when reminders are needed. One thing that works to teach kids is to create your own ‘debit’ card. You can pay your kids an allowance on their card and have them record the balance – without handing them cash.
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✔️Be sure that your child makes payments at the end of every month. If your child ever goes over budget, then take what’s owed out of their allowance apps – with a little interest (more on that later).
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🔝Read more on our blog🔝

05/13/2021

🤔The 4 percent retirement rule refers to your withdrawal rate: the amount of money you might withdraw each year from the starting value of your portfolio of stock and bonds in retirement.
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💡For example, if you have $100,000 when you retire, the 4 percent rule would say that you could withdraw about 4% of that amount—or $4,000—the first year of retirement.
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〽️You could then increase that amount with inflation and have a probability of almost 95% that your money would last for at least 30 years, assuming your portfolio allocation was 50% stocks and 50% bonds.

05/05/2021

❗️“Financial illiteracy is a global issue”, comments Alex Mazloom, co-founder and director of MindTreasures, one of the rare non-profits that is working to bring financial literacy education into our schools. Underfunded, underpaid, and overworked, school faculty do not have the resources—or the energy—to teach our children these fundamental concepts. That’s where his organization comes in; they visit schools during class and in afterschool programs to help them grasp the moral, behavioral, and practical concepts of finance. However, the fact that outside nonprofits have to come in to fill the gaps in our education systems is a symptom of a much graver problem.
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❓Read our blog to find out more - link in bio.

04/29/2021

Beginning at age 6, children begin to understand cause-and-effect relationships, and that changes the way they perceive money. By this point, your child can probably see that:
✨Money is directly tied to items
✨Parents work for money
✨Money is spent differently (smaller items, like a book, may only require one purchase, while larger items, like a house, require multiple payments)
✨Some purchases are made without physical money

Maybe your child has gone on a few playdates and has noticed that other families have bigger houses and smaller cars, or vice-versa. This can lead to some difficult questions. It’s possible to answer those questions head-on, while building on your child’s financial knowledge.

Introducing differences between types of spending can help children gain an understanding of how others spend their money, while laying the groundwork for building budgets in the future:
🔹Goods vs. services
🔹Needs vs. wants
🔹Short-term vs. long-term goals

💎Apps that can help
We’re about to dive into the world of digital currency, so now’s a good time to bridge the gap between the physical and the abstract. Using allowance apps like PennygemApp while still distributing their allowance in physical money is a great way for your child to make the connection that the numbers on the screen represent real value.

PennygemApp helps children set their money aside for specific goods and services that they want, while parents still maintain full control. Once you feel your child is ready, you can make the switch to digital currency.

04/21/2021

Why don't schools teach financial literacy?
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89% of K-12 teachers believe that, to graduate high school, students should take a financial education course and pass a test to show competency in the subject. Theoretically, this makes sense; if students cannot show they are ready to be financially independent, how can they safely transition into adulthood, where financial decisions are to be made completely on their own? However, this expectation does not match our reality; barely any financial literacy classes are being offered in high schools, not to mention the absolute lack of course material and resources in middle schools and elementary schools.
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🔺Read our blog post to learn more
🔝Link in bio
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