November is Financial Literacy Month in Canada, and we want to share some tips for financial wellness. This year’s theme is Money on Your Mind.
MBC had a chance to learn about financial literacy from Cate Morris, founder of Scout Financial Solutions, an Indigenous business.
“I have been talking about all things money-related for more than 25 years. I absolutely love every opportunity to share healthy money knowledge amongst our people, because I want our people to thrive,” said Cate Morris, Founder of Scout Financial Solutions.
Financial literacy is understanding your money and how it works. It is also about developing the skills and knowledge to best understand your money so people can make well-informed decisions.
“This will include things like several key money concepts, such as budgeting, managing your cash flow, understanding credit, managing debt, if you have any, which many people do, creating savings, and growing investments,” explained Morris.
Morris says that learning and understanding money concepts will help everyone safely navigate throughout their financial lifetime.
“A lot of our elders have spoken about the regime of the Indian agent and restricting access to prosperity. I think we also consider the truth that our people were communal-based, like we thought community-wide before individual prosperity,” said Morris.
Morris shared that individual ownership of any type of resource, including money, is a foreign and very recent concept to us as Indigenous people. We have different worldviews when it comes to wealth. These financial truths have directly and indirectly resulted in Indigenous people’s challenges with healthy money management today.
“Contrary to popular belief or mainstream belief, it has nothing to do with our capabilities or our worthiness, but regardless of these challenges, I really believe that we can accomplish great things while still maintaining our Indigenous identities. Now, as we experience an increase in economic development, job opportunities, and educational opportunities, we need to grow our financial literacy levels to keep pace with those opportunities,” said Morris.
It is important to learn healthy money management and how to manage financial resources in healthier ways to benefit everyone, both individually and collectively.
“We need to change that harmful narrative in our Indigenous communities. We need to know how money works so we can do better for ourselves, our families, and our communities. I often use the phrase know your dough, which means know what you need to know about your money,” explained Morris.
Morris recommends reflecting on the relationship that you have with money and to start looking into ways to grow your financial knowledge. It could be through podcasts, reading books and articles, or bringing in subject experts like Scouts Financial Solutions, if you prefer an Indigenous subject expert.
To learn more about Scout Financial Solutions, visit their Facebook page, website, email: moneyscout@sasktel.net, or call 306-530-1268 and chat with Cate Morris.
MBC will be airing a series of Money Monday chats with Cate Morris, discussing important financial literacy topics for the month of November.
Tune in Monday November 18th to MBC’s the North at Noon to hear the next episode.
Incase you missed hearing this episode, we have it in our on demand library where you can listen to it right away or download to save for later.