Dear Editor,

Our present Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams comes in for a lot of flak from time to time no matter what she does or attempts. However, I’ll remember her for one thing: She advised teachers a year ago to consider the stock market.

I don’t know how the advice was received by teachers. But this was excellent advice not only for teachers and public sector workers, but all workers. Williams went on to give the example of an initial public offering (IPO) which, at the time, had reserved 450,000 units for educators. Do you know how many investors would have appreciated the ability to purchase 450,000 shares at $1.00 per unit?

I really don’t think the teachers by and large have taken her advice seriously, if my interaction with a certain teacher is anything to go by: “No, I don’t buy stocks. I don’t know anything about stocks,” the teacher said, displaying an obvious lack of interest.

All you can hear teachers (and other public sector workers) talk about is salary, when people in the know are aware that this is the worst way to build wealth. I wonder how many teachers were among the 4,000 participants in the first IPO for 2023? Yes, I know that it’s back-to-school time, but this is also important. We have had an IPO drought for two quarters and mid-third quarter there is an IPO and you don’t fork out $10,172.50 for the acquisition of the minimum 10,000 units?

I would urge the teachers to leave Grumbletown and look for opportunities. You can grumble about the level of the toll, but you can also become a shareholder in TransJamaican Highway. In fact, you should have participated in the IPO in March 2020 at $1.41 per stock unit. How many of you were among the 36,000 investors who did? You pay the toll, but you also get an annual dividend from the company. Not only that. This stock has appreciated in value by 85 per cent since the start of the year. In fact, its advance of 1.95 per cent on August 30 is quite likely more than what you’ll get on your savings account for the year. I might also point out that Fontana has gained 24.41 per cent, Knutsford Express 23.73 per cent, and Lasco Manufacturing 23.46 per cent, just to single out a few securities.

I am happy that Scotiabank held a financial literacy seminar last Thursday for teachers and public sector workers. I am glad that the seminar dealt with, among other topics, financial terms, the difference between saving and investment and growing. I hope that the presenters debunked the idea that you need to have “a whole heap ah money” to invest on the stock market. Warren Buffett invested $114.75 in three stock units at age 11 in 1942. Things were not looking good at the time. The US was losing the war in the Pacific. Eighty-one years later Buffett is the world’s best-known investor and one of the richest men in the world!

Too many of us wait until things are rosy. I don’t know when things will be in Jamaica, but there are opportunities in the worst scenarios. Too many of us depend on Government to do everything. We ourselves can help to stimulate the economy.

Teachers, even if you go to the United States, you will still need to be financially literate; otherwise, you won’t be able to maximise your gains there. Salary is an important factor; however, it is not the only one. In the US there are people with six-figure salaries who complain that they are not managing, all because they’re not financially literate. In that country there are several university graduates who don’t understand some basic financial terms and don’t even know how to go about making a budget.

I hope that this financial literacy seminar will not be a one-off event, but will be extended to the other six education regions. As Dr Tamika Benjamin, national mathematics coordinator, has so aptly pointed out, “It’s unfortunate that financial literacy is often overlooked in our education system and so many Jamaicans are ill-equipped to handle their own finances.”

Congrats, Ministry of Education! Congrats, Scotiabank!

Norman W M Thompson

norms74160@gmail.com