A PRACTICAL GUIDE aimed at helping young people to manage their money, both now and in their adult lives, has just been published by the PAUL (People Action against Unemployment Limited) Partnership in Limerick.
Called A Young Person's Guide to Money, the handbook takes the student from the basics of handling £5 a week pocket money, through eating on a tight budget, to financing education and training.
The 50 page handbook is clearly written, well laid out and wittily illustrated, so the whole learning exercise is as near painless as anything to do with money can be.
Concepts such as APR, borrowers rights and the difference between various forms of insurance and assurance are simply explained, and there is advice on how to get out of debt.
Indeed, this is a book that many an adult would profit (literally) from studying.
While the majority of the illustrations are cartoons, which humorously underline the points made in the text, there are several useful tables. One, called "Setting Up Home - Bare Essentials" itemises the prices of everything from a cooker to a floor brush, and arrives at an average total of £1,282, a cheapest price for new items of £731, and a second hand average of £464.
The page opposite this table outlines a disaster scenario, in which a young couple borrow the maximum they can to buy everything new, and are then locked into high repayments when their baby comes along.
"They haven't had a night out in over six months and scrimp even on food items. They regularly fight about money," the guide grimly observes.
While the majority of the topics dealt with in the guide are already studied in post primary schools at Junior Cert level within business studies arid home economics not every student takes one or both of these programmes, as Minister for Education Niamh Bhreathnach points out in the foreword.
"I believe that post primary school class tutors at junior level will value this book and that teachers and co ordinators of Transition Year groups will welcome this resource as an aid in helping school, teachers and students," she writes.
The guide and its accompanying teachers' manual were piloted by teachers in several Limerick schools - St Nessan's Community College (Moylish), St Munchin's Girls School (Ballynanty) and two inner city schools, CBS in Sexton Street and the Presentation School.
Helping people to handle money well and avoid unmanageable debts is something that PAUL has been involved in for some years.
PAUL is one of the "partnership companies" established to address issues of unemployment and poverty through a partnership of statutory, voluntary and community agencies.
It is supported by the Government Area Based Response to Long Term Unemployment, the Local Development Programme under the current National Development Plan and the Department of Social Welfare.
PAUL WORKED on one of five pilot projects, the success of which led to the establishment of about 40 "money advice centres" throughout Ireland. PAUL money advice workers and Mid Western Health Board money advisers together provide a Limerick money advice service.
The author of the guide, Ursula McMorrow Clarke, a former money advice co ordinator with PAUL, is well placed to know the kind of problems faced by today's student. The guide also includes contributions from Marie Walshe, information officer with the Limerick Youth Information Bureau and Dorothy Brislane, adult literacy organiser for North Tipperary VEC.
Niav Murphy did the drawings and Anne Kavanagh of the PAUL Partnership edited the guide.
