How did I get through thirteen years of schooling without knowing how to do tax? Honestly, I have spent majority of my life in school, doing high level mathematics, and when my tax invoice came in the mail I was in the dark.

Me:

This is why I want to get Pennybox out there, so other Australian kids don’t end up like me. That made it sound like my life is a right mess. It isn’t, I just can’t do tax.

I grew up in Southern Sydney and had a pretty typical childhood, but I genuinely can’t remember receiving any financial education in or out of school. My parents taught me how to be social, use cutlery, and ride on two wheels. No unfortunately I’m not talking about heelys, my Mum thought they were an accident waiting to happen so I was left enviously watching fellow kids glide around the supermarket.

Like any child I pillaged the house for coins on the regular to splurge on forty cent grape zappos (which are still a study staple of mine). But never did I consider sums of money above $10. Having this much money was equivalent to Christmas.

I never thought about saving money or purchases beyond the immediate future.

Financial literacy was plainly not in the picture. Perhaps it slipped my parent’s minds, or they just considered financial education too stale, or too adult, a topic to burden their child with. But then my childhood passed and now I’m a burdened adult.

It was the same in primary school. I went to a small primary school of 120 students. This size managed to be both quaint and restrictive. Like any small town, it’s great knowing everything about everyone, and their parents, and their cousins, and their cousin’s friends, but they also know everything about you. Despite all this knowing, in my seven years there I can’t remember any financial education. Admittedly, I can’t remember that much of anything I learnt. I can recall a pancake diorama of the Eureka Stockade for some reason, but that’s beside the point.

In High School I had slightly more luck, as Senior Mathematics touched on finance. Stretching my brain back two years is hard but I can remember simple and compound interest. That’s a lie, I forgot what compound interest was called and just had to Google it. But all that information instantly vacated my brain after final exams, along with geometric applications of calculus. I know that General Mathematics does do real world applications of finance, but at 16 I was too much of a little know-it-all to do General Maths and think about my future.

This takes me to one year out of school, opening my tax invoice. Seriously, I had no idea tax had anything to do with me. In my brain tax was a topic for 35 year old businessmen and Nate Archibald’s Dad, who commits tax fraud and runs away to Dominica. This confusion could have easily been avoided. If I’d received financial education I would have opened that letter with confidence, with full understanding of the scary adult domain of finance and tax. That is why I am so passionate about Pennybox. I don’t want other Australian kids to enter the realm of finances in shock.

What I want for other Australian kids:

That’s my goal, to minimise 19 year old monetary bewilderment and to encourage understanding and savings. Pennybox can achieve this. It is an innovative startup to help teach kids money. #tech #startup #finance #education

If you’re a uni student who had a similar experience, or a parent who doesn’t want this to happen to their child, change the cycle and check out Pennybox on Facebook and Twitter.

If you’re interested, get access to the Pennybox app here.