Founder’s Message

It all started when my daughter was around 4 years old. I overheard her say in her sweet and innocent voice: “money doesn’t grow on trees, it grows in my mommy’s purse!” Sure, I knew young kids were like sponges: watching, observing and soaking up their parents’ habits, attitudes and values. But as I overheard my daughter, it dawned on me that we have unknowingly taken on the role of Chief Financial Parents. From that point, I’ve been soaking up every resource I can find on financial literacy for kids.

At the other end of the spectrum of my personal life, my immigrant parents who worked so hard (running a convenience store 16 hours a day, 365 days a year) for over 30 years retired with no pension plan and no retirement savings. How ironic. Given that I was a pension and retirement actuary, how could I have allowed my parents to be financially illiterate? I tried to educate them, but my father naïvely believed that the Canadian government benefits (e.g. CPP, OAS, etc.) would be plenty at retirement. Well, it wasn’t. My father stressed and suffered financially during what should have been his years of deserving relaxation and enjoyment. Thus, I passionately advocate financial education to prevent other families from similar heartbreaking experience.

Before the birth of Knowledge Makes Cents, I spent close to 25 years in the pension and retirement industry. As a pension consulting actuary, I did my fair share of number crunching but I also started directing my keen problem-solving skills from mathematical problems to gaps and problems in society. As a retirement readiness consultant, I worked with employees of corporations to help engage them to save for retirement, understand the complex world of investments, and plan for their targeted retirement lifestyle. This was no easy task. Face it, the topic of saving for retirement is not fun.

I’ve built Knowledge Makes Cents to promote and provide fun financial learning. Let’s take the “boring” out of saving for retirement and inject excitement around learning and achieving financial freedom!

I’ve built Knowledge Makes Cents to promote and provide financial literacy for both kids and parents. Please join us and let’s help our children gain the essential skills for a successful financial future!

Signed,
Deborah McMillan, Founder & CEO

Who we are

Financial know-how, navigating the world of saving, smart investing and budgeting are skills that should be nurtured from a young age. The value of a dollar is often lost in the material “wants” that surround us in our modern world and financial wellness and gratitude is fading into the past.

We are parents and teachers with a common goal: to help children become financially responsible adults. By teaching children the value of money through our programs, Knowledge Makes Cents aims to create generations upon generations of financially literate citizens. We are a financial literacy academy for kids and parents.

Knowledge Makes Cents: Where children learn essential money skills for a successful future. Where parents learn to empower their children to form successful lifelong habits.

Our Teachers

The teachers at Knowledge Makes Cents have the applicable qualifications and certifications to teach children and teens. Knowledge Makes Cents provides each teacher with thorough training of the program curriculum as well as training on how to provide a quality customer experience for the kids and parents of the Knowledge Makes Cents community. We encourage you to provide us with feedback, both positive and negative, on our teachers at any time. Your feedback is always important to us.