Is your CU ready for a seasonal shift? 🍂➡️❄️

Hi there, credit union friends,

I’m back! 🤗 I would first like to thank our Client Services Chinchilla, Britney Levin, for taking the reins of this newsletter while I was away following the birth of my daughter, Poppy Adele.

Now on to the good stuff!

My house is currently torn between two seasons. The turkey sign on my front door is serving as a reminder of autumn celebrations, while the half-decorated tree in my living room is offering a glimpse of the winter festivities ahead.

Just like my house, I’m not quite ready for the change of seasons. (I’m currently donning a turtleneck in sixty-degree weather. Contrary to popular belief, this manatee doesn’t have thick skin. 😅) But the holidays will be here in the blink of an eye! So for this edition of “Marketing Manatee Musings,” I’m giving some early gifts to you. Hopefully these resources will help you connect with your young members and their families during this most special time of the year.

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Money-Smart Lessons Learned: We’ve long offered Money Mammals materials that can be used in the elementary classroom or the community at large. (Think after school programs, civic groups, and libraries!) These educational tools include Reading Guides, which pair with the picture books in our “Share and Save and Spend Smart” trilogy, and a Teaching Guide, which works in conjunction with our award-winning movie, Saving Money Is Fun!

After numerous requests for instructional content for tweens and teens, we have developed lesson plans that correspond to the first three shorts in our Adolescent$ program’s “Good Money Habits” video series:

These tools, designed for use at the middle school level, feature discussion questions, in-class activities based on real-life scenarios, as well as extensions and reflections that can be completed at home. All of the relevant prompts and worksheets are included, making these lesson plans valuable resources for engagement with Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

If you are interested in sharing these materials with educators or community leaders, then feel free to contact me. We also plan to update the content periodically based on instructor feedback, so please encourage any teaching professionals to fill out this form once they have utilized these tools.

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Financial Couples Therapy: When our team teaches our Art of Allowance Academy courses to parents, the most common question asked is, “What if my partner and I are not on the same page financially?” Which is why I’m excited to share our latest episode of The Art of Allowance Podcast featuring financial therapist Megan McCoy.

Megan holds a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Science with an emphasis on Marriage and Family Therapy from The University of Georgia. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Kansas State University’s personal financial planning program, where she teaches courses at all levels focused on financial well-being, financial therapy, and couple dynamics regarding financial therapy. What’s more, Megan is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, an Accredited Financial Counselor®, and a Certified Financial Therapist-I™. (Fun fact: Megan was the first Certified Financial Therapist-I™! 🤓)

During her appearance on the podcast, Megan offers strategies for partners to address their differences and realign their intentions on their money-smart journeys. She and our Chief Mammal, John Lanza, also discuss:

👉 negative financial self-fulfilling prophecies

👉 why financial opposites attract

👉 avoiding financial fights

👉 the power of delayed gratification

👉 the problem with financial education in the classroom

You can tune in to Megan’s full episode here. And don’t forget to stream the corresponding YouTube shorts, which provide helpful nuggets of wisdom from her conversation with John. I’m including my favorite one, in which Megan explains her “Lottery Ticket Date Night” exercise, below:

What a practical strategy to help partners who may not share the same financial goals discover common ground! Resources like this video clip and the full podcast episode to which it belongs help empower parents, which is one of the key tenets of The Art of Allowance Project.

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A Money Mammals Holiday Jingle: If you’d like to get your members (And yourself!) in the spirit of the season, then listen to and download The Money Mammals’ original song, “We’ll Save & Share for the Holidays.”

As the title implies, this jingle details how Joe the Monkey and his pals plan to use the money in their Save and Share jars during this most wonderful time of the year.

And as a special treat for our Art of Allowance Project partners, a mention of this festive tune is included in the “Go Online!” section of the Winter 2024 newsletter. A QR code will direct your young members to a custom holiday song page on your Kids Club site. You can also share a link with your entire membership by clicking on the following image on your Money Mammals landing page.

Hopefully this tune’s festive financial message will encourage not only your young members but also their families to be mindful of their money management this season.

Well, friends, thanks for allowing me to get started with my gift giving early! I trust the resources I shared will help you engage kids and empower parents at your credit unions and in your communities in the festive weeks to come.

Now I guess I better go move that turkey sign on my front door. But hey, it’s officially fall until December 21st! So I have time. 😉

As always, here’s to putting our best fin lit flippers forward!

Erin Prim

Marketing Manatee