Money Talk with Jophy and Hilarie

Neither Jophy nor Hilarie had much experience talking about money matters. In fact, they did not have much interest in it, either, until they participated in the JA Building a Financially Capable Generation initiative. Now, they have a newfound confidence and capability to ask questions and make smart decisions.

Jophy attends Chiu Lut Sau Memorial Secondary School in Yuen Long, near the semi-autonomous region’s northeast border. Hilarie attends St. Francis' Canossian College, an all-girls High School in Wan Shai on Hong Kong Island. Together with their peers they learned about financial concepts and practices like maintaining a budget, differentiating between wants and needs, and planning for the future. Then, they teamed up with their peers to develop a concept and pitch for a podcast all about money talk between young people and adults, and competed against their peers in an innovation challenge. 

Volunteers from HSBC and educators from Junior Achievement Hong Kong served as teachers, coaches, and mentors as they guided the students throughout the program.

We invited Jophy and Hilarie to reflect on their experience and share their perspectives over a joint Zoom session. 

Note: Jophy and Hilarie’s responses have been gently edited for clarity and length.

Describe a memorable moment from the financial capability workshop.

Hilarie: “One of my favorite moments was doing an activity about calculating the budget of a teenager. We had a group discussion and it was just so much fun to solve problems together. I learned that two or more brains are better than one because we have different perspectives on how to calculate a budget. 

And then the National Innovation Challenge was a great experience because it was a chance for us to work together on a project. The volunteers were very helpful, and gave us so much support. Our volunteers advised us to improve our pitch by adding more real-life examples to more effectively promote our podcast. We were actually very nervous but I liked it when we worked well together to achieve a great result. In the end our presentation was actually pretty good!”

What did you learn from the JA Building a Financially Capable Generation program?

Jophy: “I thought money was only used for expenses or saving. In the workshop I learned that you can use money for investment and actually earn more money by doing that. Then in the National Innovation Challenge I listened to student teams’ presentations and I heard some interesting ideas about NFTs and the metaverse. The workshop and the competition helped me successfully gain some new ways to manage my money and earn more money.”

What surprised you?

Jophy: “The volunteers gave us good ideas and advice about saving money, especially about not using your savings. When you have a budget, you should stick to your budget and not use your savings to buy things because then you won’t have that money in the future.”  

Hilarie: “Setting up a budget was really hard for me. I did not realize that there are so many things you have to consider, like what your needs really are, your transport expenses, your daily necessities like electricity and water bills when you grow up. And you need to consider things you want. When you start a new job or a new business, you really need to save your money very wisely!

I was also surprised by how some of the National Innovation Challenge teams promoted their podcasts by using games and especially VR technology. I hadn’t thought about that yet because many of the podcast promotions were more about Instagram.”

When it comes to managing your money, what did you wish you learned earlier? 

Jophy:  “I wish I learned sooner how to handle my own money more wisely, such as not wasting money on something I don’t need. The volunteers and teachers really helped me change my point of view about how I use my money.” 

Now that you completed the JA Building a Financially Capable Generation program, do you have any new interests or habits that you will take with you?

Hilarie: “I am going to try to talk about my own budget with my family, so I can learn more about how to save some of it. Before this program I did not have much interest in learning how to manage money. Now I am interested in gaining more financial knowledge so that when I grow up I can earn money and grow my income and teach people around me to be financially successful.”

Do you have any ideas or advice you want to share with your peers who did not have the chance to participate in the program? 

Jophy: “I want to share a useful tip with them. My friends asked me how to earn more money after the workshop, but the most important thing I want to share is to make sure you only buy things that you actually need, not your wants. I think that is the most important thing I want my friends to learn.”

Hilarie: “I recommend they do the innovation challenge. I really liked working with other students and researching new things, especially in subjects that I had no motivation to learn about. Now I want to try these strategies. I really think that the innovation challenge will also change their views on money and motivate them to learn more.”

Sounds like you both learned a lot, is there anything that you learned that you want to share with your parents? 

Jophy: “One time I told my parents that I wanted to learn about money and they said they would give me some pocket money to manage when I turn 18 years old. I think parents should give kids some freedom to do it themselves when they are younger. For example, parents could give their kids a little bit of money that they can try spending and saving so they can learn how to be smart with money. 

When they grow up they won’t always have their parents to help and so they need to learn how to manage money by themselves.”

Do you have anything you would like to say to the volunteers? 

Hilarie: “I would like to say thank you for the opportunity to talk about the basics of handling money. This will be quite useful, both now and in the future!”