PERU – Employees with the Oxford Federal Credit Union visited fifth-graders at Dirigo Elementary School Friday afternoon to teach them the benefits of spending, saving and sharing their money.

OFCU employees Tammy Daigle and Erin Baker spent the afternoon teaching the students about the benefits of saving their money and spending it in an intelligent manner.

“What do you guys do when you get money for Christmas or your birthday?” Baker asked the students in Kristi Holmquist’s fifth-grade class.

A majority of the students replied either “save it,” or “spend it.” But a few answered, “Save and spend it.”

“That’s a great answer,” Baker said. “That’s what I like to do. It’s important to save your money — but sometimes, it’s important to spend your money, too — especially if it’s for something very important.”

As an example, Baker said that she recently purchased a house after “saving money for a long time.”

“It took a long time to get enough money, but it’s really exciting now that I bought one and own my own house,” Baker said. “There’s a power in being able to save your own money. How many of your parents say, ‘I’m sorry, but we can’t buy that right now because we don’t have enough money?’”

As students raised their hands, Baker replied, “That’s the power of saving your own money. If there’s a special something out there that you want or need, you can get it on your own.”

Daigle and Baker also explained the concept of interest to the students, and the importance of saving money at an early age.

“If you were to put $100 in your piggy bank, and you let it sit there for five years, there would still be $100 (in) there,” Baker said. “However, if you put your money in a bank or a credit union, it collects interest — and at the end of five years, you’ll have earned money.”

One student asked Daigle what would happen to his money if his bank was robbed, or if someone used his account to steal money.

“As long as you pay attention to your money and see if the purchases being made are your own, you should be all set,” Daigle said. “If you ever saw something not bought by you, the bank or credit union will make sure your money is safe.”

Near the end of the afternoon, Daigle and Baker gave the students small containers called “moon banks.”

Daigle explained that the container was split into three sections: one for money that would be saved, one for money that would be spent, and another for money they would donate to organizations or people in need.

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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