The POSB National School Savings Campaign is back!

As a young boy, I have always known to be saver! Whenever I wanted to get something for myself, my parents always encouraged me to save for it. Whether it was a radio controlled car or a table soccer set, I was only going to get it through consistent saving. From Mon to Friday, I would take my unused pocket money, and faithfully put it into my Piggy Bank. As a result, festivals like the Lunar Chinese New Year would therefore be a most joyous occasion for me and my bank account, as I would rejoice with the fresh influx of cash! 🙂 This saving habit continued to grow on me through the schooling years. I think it really helped, that when I talked to my friends, they too had a savings account with POSB, and we all knew about the “Squirrel Saver”.

Back then, everyone saved! 🙂 Yes! There was a National Savings campaign introduced to schools to encourage everyone to save. It allowed students to save by cash or by purchasing 10-cent postage stamps which were then affixed on to stamp cards that were printed with squares. The completed stamp cards were then handed to the bank as a form of deposit and students who had a minimum balance of $5 in their POSB accounts were also given a $5 cash gift by the government. Sounds like a good Ang Pow doesn’t it! 🙂

As you can imagine, this campaign was really successful! And that is why they say, “It takes a village to raise a child!”

I am sure that Parents today have the same goals like me! We want our kids to know the value of money, and hopefully get them to be savers instead of spenders. However, problems arise when the kids think very “Short Term”. Their patience will last only an hour, and they would rather spend all their money on erasers, rather than saving for that rainy day. In order to help them work towards their goal, we put catalogs in front of the kids. We let them savour and dream about how they can get their “Dream Toys”, and we remind them that these toys are achieveable, if they are willing to consistency save for their presents. Although we have had some successes, but we also have had our failures as well. As Parents, we always appreciate additional help, to cultivate the saving habit in the kids.

 

Well! There is Good News for all of us! POSB will be embarking on a similar savings campaign, which first started in 1969. It seems like the village is coming together to help the kids cultivate the habit to save! 🙂

The National School Savings Campaign 2015 will be a 10-month long campaign by POSB, supported by MOE. Once again, the savings stamp card will be introduced, where primary school students can purchase stamps in Pacific or Popular school bookstores and at Singpost. Upon completion, (20 x $0.50 stamps), the student can then deposit the stamp card into any POSB/DBS Quick Cheque Deposit location  and the bank will then credit the full value of the stamp card ($10) and a $1 bonus (the bonus  is limited to one stamp card per child, per month and only valid for POSBkids account holders). Sounds great right! 🙂 You can get your kids started on the saving habit by getting the Stamp Card for them today!  The POSB National School Savings stamp card will be available at any POSB/DBS branch, SingPost and at Pacific or Popular bookstores in schools from 2 February 2015 onwards.

If you want your child’s school to be on the campaign (As not all schools are on it yet), do let your child’s school know!  Parents can find out more as well as pledge their support for this campaign and encourage non-participating schools to pick up the campaign here.

You can click here to sign up for an ePOSBkids account too, if your child doesn’t have one.