Glenn Teddy doesn’t have a finance background, but he’s passionate about financial literacy. As an IT Manager at TD Bank Group (TD), he has been volunteering for the Money Matters financial literacy program for over four years, delivering over 100 workshops to date.
Money Matters is a free introductory financial literacy program developed in 2011 by ABC Life Literacy Canada with support of founding sponsor TD, through its corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment. Workshops are delivered by literacy groups and community organizations across the country, often with the help of TD volunteer-tutors like Glenn.
“I first came across the program when I was on the diversity team at TD, and someone mentioned there were volunteer opportunities to deliver Money Matters for Indigenous Peoples,” he says. “I took an interest in the program and signed up for my first workshop back in 2019 or 2020.”
Teddy explains his first workshop was nerve wracking as he wasn’t sure if he would be able to relay the information to the learners, but the practitioner of the program was there to help as well, and since then he’s become very well versed with the content.
All TD volunteer tutors receive free online training before delivering the program, and since the content is introductory, they don’t require a finance background to deliver workshops.
“When I first read the Money Matters workbooks, I realized that they’re very simple and I could easily understand it and explain it to others,” says Teddy. “I went over them so many times myself and became familiar and comfortable with them after doing so many workshops.”
In addition to delivering Money Matters for Indigenous Peoples, Teddy has also run workshops for Muslim groups and high school students.
“I love the high school groups because they’re at the start of their life, so if I’m able to reach them now then they’ll have the financial skills they need to succeed in life. The decisions they make now will affect them in five years, so I always tell them, if you work hard now, you’ll see rewards in the future.”
There are five workbooks as part of the Money Matters programs, including Spending Plans, Banking Basics, Borrowing Money, Ways to Save, and Smart Shopping. Teddy says the Smart Shopping workbook is his favourite of the five available because the students usually get a wakeup call on how much they’re spending and why it’s important to be cautious with their money.
“At one of the high schools near my house, there is a McDonald’s next door,” Teddy explains.” When I was delivering a workshop at the school, I asked all the students to write down much they spent at McDonald’s per day and then calculate how much that was over a year. One girl said she could have paid for a trip to Mexico if she had put that money aside instead. Her realization made me feel like they really understood.”
Teddy explains that it’s this kind of response that keeps him signing up to deliver more workshops.
“Once I see the light come on in people’s eyes, or I tell them something they didn’t realize, then I know that what I’ve taught them has helped a little bit.”
To learn more about Money Matters’ free resources, to book a workshop, or volunteer, please visit abcmoneymatters.ca.
