Feburary will be a month of financial education for Santa Rosa County’s 4-H students, 4-H alumni, and age 10 through 18 youth according to Prudence Caskey, Santa Rosa County’s 4-H Extension Office agent. The Extension Office at 6263 Dogwood Drive in Milton will serve as the classroom every Friday next month from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. She said youth will be learning about creating a budget, managing finances, grocery shopping, balancing a checkbook and much more.
Caskey said, “My husband and I have been out of debt for almost 4 years and have learned a lot about budgeting and finance through that experience. I was also in the financial services industry for 12 years prior to becoming the 4-H agent.” She said she was licensed in life and health and variable annuity, and since 2005 has taught online financial planning classes with American College. “That’s ‘something I still do. I don’t have my insurance license anymore but I do still teach those classes.”
Remarkably enough, Caskey said the idea to hold this class came from her youth. “We had gone to a state event and one of them had $20 to spend on two lunches, as we stopped once on the way there and once on the way back. She mentioned she only had $5 left, and would have to eat cheap. I jokingly said, ‘I need to teach you to budget.’ She said, ‘Will you?’ and the other youth at the table agreed that they would like to learn about money and budgeting as well. That is how the idea was born.”
Learning skills applicable to handling financial products before the ages when one legally can may make sense, but Caskey said even youth are at risk for identity theft. “These kids aren’t paying attention. They do have a social security number.” She said it happens more often in divorced households.
Another matter Caskey said people should learn young is retirement planning. “I have some guest speakers coming in. Rhett Fendley is going to come in on the third Friday and he does a lot of retirement planning. He's the incoming president of the [Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce]. When you're 20, you don't think about that,” she said.
Classes, she said, will start with the basics like reacing a paycheck stub and balancing a budget. By the end, she said, students will plan retirement and look at getting loans. The list of topics Caskey’s class will include are:
· shopping on a budget
· low-cost recipes (we will be feeding them)
· opening a bank account
· balancing a checkbook
· reading a paycheck stub
· running a credit report
· reading the credit report
· understanding a credit score
· saving
· scholarship application
The event is free to current 4-H members or $5 per class for all other participants. Interested parties should register through www.eventbrite.com. Search for “February's Friday Night Finance Class” or call Prudence Caskey for more information at 623-3868.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: 4-H to teach series on money management