Below is latest News from Sprowt.
As you guys scramble to wrap up your final exams and projects we thought it might be a good idea to give you a few more weeks to submit your videos into our Video Scholarship Contest, which give entrants a chance to win either the winning scholarship prize of $2,000 or one of two runner prizes of $500. All you need to do is create a short video explaining what you want to be when you grow up and why. You don’t have to be a video editing wiz to enter! Just make your video engaging, and have fun with it!
All the details you need can be found here, or you can email josh.juhlke@penfinancial.com.
Are you planning to attend or return to post-secondary school this fall? Wondering how you'll manage to pay for tuition and books? We can help!
Sprowt.ca is pleased to bring back our Video Scholarship Contest once again, giving students in Niagara an opportunity to win some cash. The winner will receive $2,000 with the two runner ups taking home $500. All you have to do is submit a video (under two minutes in length) outlining why you're passionate about your chosen program of study. In other words, what do you want to be when you grow up and why? Check out Josh Trinder's winning video entry from the last scholarship content.
Download the complete application, including all rules and regulations here.
Questions? We welcome them. Email josh.juhlke@penfinancial.com or call 289-820-9744 ex. 247
NOTE: The deadline for video submissions in April 27th, 2012
This summer, PenFinancial Credit Union will partner with the Ontario Credit Union Charitable Foundation to send four young students living in Niagara to the Co-operative Young Leaders (CYL) Camp. PenFinancial will pay the $610 sponsorship fee for each of the four CYL'ers! These week-long camps help young people develop self-awareness and communication and leadership skills through co-operative activities in a fun, safe, outdoor environment. They will discover more about themselves and others, and learn to become leaders, co-operators and team players.
Students living in the Niagara Region between the ages of 14-18
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Junior (First-time participants 14–15 years old): |
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| A July 30 - July 7 | B July 7 - 14 | C July 14 - 21 |
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Intermediate (For Junior graduates or 16–17 year olds participating for the first time): |
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| A July 21 - 28 | B July 28 - August 4 | |
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Senior (for Intermediate graduates or 17–18 year olds participating for the first time) |
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| A August 4 - 11 | B August 11-18 | |
Where are the CYL Sessions held?
All CYL session will be held at the Lake St. George Field Centre, operated by the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority. The Centre is located on a 120 hectacre site on the Oak Ridges Moraine in Richmond Hill. Learn more about the Lake St. George Centre at www.trca.on.ca
How to Apply?
Applicants must fill out the PenFinancial CYL application form to let us know which week of camp you'd like to attend and explain to us why you would like to participate in the CYL summer camp program.
Send your application form to Jody Vizza, Marketing and Business Development Manager at PenFinancial Credit Union, by Friday, May 4th, 2012, by mail (247 East Main Street, Welland L3B 3X1) or by email: jody.vizza@penfinancial.com
Those selected for one of the 4 available spots will be contacted before the end of May 2012. Successful applicants will then be required to complete the CYL application found at www.ontario.coop/cyl
Please note that you must be qualified by PenFinancial Credit Union before proceeding with your CYL application process. Qualification by PenFinancial does not automatically guarantee admission by On Co-op into the CYL Program. PenFinancial Credit Union will pay the $610 sponsorship fee for each of the four sponsored CYL'ers. The participant contribution fee ($200 +HST) must be paid before your application can be processed by the Ontario Co-operative Association.
Sprowtsters from around Niagara entered the first-ever Sprowt.ca Facebook Contest, designed to give one lucky Niagara student a $1,000 prize! After liking sprowt’s facebook page, students from across Niagara entered into a draw to win a sweet $1,000. One hundred sixty-five entries later, Kelsey Morningstar, a first year Niagara College student in Health Sciences was the big winner! Kelsey hopes to pay down her credit card debt with the winnings.
| Time | Friday, September 23, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm |
| Location |
Brock University (Jubilee Court) |
| More Information |
This is a FREE EVENT sponsored by Sprowt.ca! Stop by our booth at Rock the Vote Canada for your chance to Win $1,000! NEXTNiagara, Business Education Council, Folk Arts Multicultural Centre and the YMCA of Niagara present ROCK THE VOTE CANADA POLITICAL FACTORY! Concert Live Entertainment from: BLACK MAJIK MOVEMENT (Niagara, Ontario) GO FOR THE EYES (Calgary, Alberta) MY LIFE FOR HIRE (Toronto, Ontario) DARREN EEDENS (Niagara/Toronto, Ontario) SMILE CASE (Welland, Ontario) FORREST EAGLESPEAKER (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) GEORDIE GESCHA (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) - RSVP is appreciated to vbilenduke@niagaraworkforc |
This summer, PenFinancial Credit Union will partner with the Ontario Credit Union Charitable Foundation to send 4 young members to the Co-operative Young Leaders (CYL) Camp. PenFinancial will pay the $610 sponsorship fee for each of the four CYL'ers! These week-long camps help young people develop self-awareness and communication and leadership skills through co-operative activities in a fun, safe, outdoor environment. They will discover more about themselves and others, and learn to become leaders, co-operators and team players.
PenFinancial Credit Union members between the ages of 14-18
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Junior – For participants 14-15 years old. Member must be 14 at the start of camp session |
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| A July 2-9 | B July 9-16 | C July 16-23 |
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Intermediate – For participants 16-17 years old. |
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| A July 23-30 | B July 30– August 6 | |
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Senior – For participants 17-18 years old. |
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| A August 6-13 | B August 13-20 | |
Where are the CYL Sessions held?
All CYL session will be held at the Lake St. George Field Centre, operated by the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority. The Centre is located on a 120 hectacre site on the Oak Ridges Moraine in Richmond Hill. Learn more about the Lake St. George Centre at www.trca.on.ca
How to Apply?
Applicants must fill out the PenFinancial CYL application form to let us know which week of camp you'd like to attend and explain to us why you would like to participate in the CYL summer camp program.
Send your application form to Jody Vizza, Marketing and Business Development Manager at PenFinancial Credit Union, by Friday, May 20th, 2011, by mail (247 East Main Street, Welland L3B 3X1) or by email: jody.vizza@penfinancial.com
Those selected for one of the 4 available spots will be contacted before the end of May 2011. Successful applicants will then be required to complete the CYL application found at www.ontario.coop/cyl
Please note that you must be qualified by PenFinancial Credit Union before proceeding with your CYL application process. Qualification by PenFinancial does not automatically guarantee admission by On Co-op into the CYL Program. PenFinancial Credit Union will pay the $610 sponsorship fee for each of the four sponsored CYL'ers. The participant contribution fee ($200 +HST) must be paid before your application can be processed by the Ontario Co-operative Association.
Sprowt.ca No Fee Student banking is pleased to announce the winner of the “Submit Your Video to Win” contest as well as the multiple winners of the Sprowt Facebook page “Christmas Wish” contest!
In September of 2010, Sprowt.ca asked students, at the Brock University and Niagara College orientation, days to record a video talking about one of the following three topics:
The winner of the iPad, Andrew Nicolls, said,
“My favorite thing about no fee banking is that it lets you save money because you’re not having money taken away every month just for having a bank account.”
Then, in November of 2010, Sprowt asked students to post their Christmas wish to the Sprowt Facebook page.
"My top Christmas wish is for everyone to have a safe and happy Christmas for the holidays are meant to be happy and cheerful with the people you love.”
said Alexandra Zwicker-deSmit, contest participant.
Othr contest participants hoped for soccer cleats, a snowboard, slippers and office equipment. Sprowt.ca decided to spread the Christmas cheer and reward each of these hard working students with a $50 gift certificate! The gift certificates are personalized for stores where they will be able to find what they are wishing for.
“We wanted to give students a surprise gift this year for working hard in school and being financially responsible” said Matt the Sprowtster. “Sprowt knows that holidays can be tough on students so hopefully we helped bring a little Christmas cheer and helped Santa save a few bucks to put into his RRSP in the New Year!”
The winners of the Christmas Wish contest are everyone who entered!
Yuri Yurkovsky, Mohammed Larry Nasser, Alexandra Zwicker-deSmit, Ashton G, Martin Mirek and Kaitlyn Murphy – Congrats!
Be sure to check out the Sprowt facebook page and web site often for new chances to win great prizes!
This month, participate in our Facebook Page challenge and you will be entered to win a very special PRIZE! It's as simple as:
Contest closes December 10th, 2010 at midnight and the winner will be announced on December 15th, 2010. The winner will be contacted through Sprowt.ca and Facebook, so be sure to check in every day, goodluck!
UPDATE: To see the winners of the Facebook Page challenge, read the news story "Having a Sprowt Account Makes You a Winner!".
Much like you would save $10 for that Cancun vacation you always wanted, you must also do the same in order to attain your longer term financial goals, say retirement or a car purchase. However, often times finding and saving spendable income is a lot easier said than done. This is why developing and sticking to a plan is one of the best ways to accomplish goals. It is human nature to spend and not to save, so unfortunately we are all at a predisposition. With that being said, this article will provide a sure fire method to help you start your journey to financial freedom! Everyone’s journey will vary, but if you use reliable resources each journey can be a successful one. The Four Step Planning Process is one of those resources. It is one of the best ways to accomplish your goals even when life throws you a curveball or two. This tool helps explain the savings process and when broken down, it provides you with huge insights into your own life and personal finances. I will explain to you this trusted process, so if you wish to truly help yourself, continue reading!
The first step in the plan is assessing your personal balance sheet and income statement. This means writing down all of your assets (what you own) and liabilities (what you owe), as well as, your income and expenses. A perfect way to do this is using a budget. Here’s a wonderful budget spreadsheet from our sprowt.ca website. Using this will not only help you locate where you’re spending too much money, but it provides a clear ‘snapshot’ of your financial situation. Once you have an idea of where you stand, you can than make the necessary changes to improve on it!
The second step is to estimate your various goals, rather they be short term (less than a 1 year), intermediate (1- 10 years) or long term (10+ years). Typical goals for each stage are: short term – saving for a car/vacation, intermediate – saving for house/kids and long term – retirement. Once you have an idea of your goals, you can then estimate the costs associated with each of these goals. This step is a bit tricky because you have to consider the time value of money, one of the cornerstones of all financial planning. The concept is pretty much that $1 today is not worth a $1 in the future, because of inflation and interest. To save you from a bunch of finance mumbo jumbo, visit: http://www.zenwealth.com/BusinessFinanceOnline/TVM/TVMCalculator.html, to get a straightforward financial calculator that will automatically consider this concept.
For this calculation, all you have to know are: what your estimated goals cost (or future value), how long you are going to save for (how many periods/years), what interest rate you can get on your investments (check out www.penfinancial.com for some market leading rates) and how much money you currently have put aside (your present value).
- Example: Say I have $1,000 to invest, I can get a 3% GIC from PenFinancial, all my goals total a future cost of $100,000 and I want to retire in 40 years. I would input this as: PV: -1000 {Note: I input the PV (present value of money you have) as a negative number, because it is cash out flow}, Rate: 3, Periods: 40, FV: 100000. I would then press the PMT button and poof, $-1282.98 shows up! Interpreting this: with my initial $1,000 invested in PenFinancial’s 3% GIC for 40 years, I would only need to make annual payments of $ 1,282.98 to reach my $100,000 goal! Once you have an idea of how much you need to save, as well as an idea of how much you spend, thanks to our handy dandy sprowt budget, you can then begin to implement a plan!
The third step of the process is developing and implementing your plan of action. Simply put, this involves making your spending habits (from the budget), match with savings for your goals (from the calculation). This is probably one of the harder things to do because you have to find ways to save more and/or spend less, something no one likes to do. Check out my previous article to learn how to save money while in school! Once you establish some positive habits you’ll realize saving is a lot easier than you think and before you know it, your goals will be in reaching distance!
The last part of the process is to review and revise. Things change and life throws us a curveball every now and then. Thus, the last stage in the process is to change your plans to match your current situation. Maybe you don’t need as much money in the future because of an inheritance, or maybe you need more, regardless, your financial plan should be up-to-date and reflect your current position.
The information I provided in the paragraphs above arm you with all the necessary knowledge and tools to start your very own financial plan. Like I said earlier, it is up to YOU and you alone to make your financial plan. The earlier you start, the easier it is and the more money you can generate. I have given you the ink and a pen, now it is up to you to write your own story! Good luck on your journey 
For most people it’s a lot easier to spend than it is to save. In general, people don’t make the time to plan for their future finances because they feel there are often more important things that take the spotlight. However, you are responsible for your own financial well being, so learning how to capitalize on the opportunities around us and minimizing (or even avoiding) the threats can be a life saver. I know making a financial plan and a budget is not what I would call exhilarating, but it will most certainly help you out down the road. By planning and thinking ahead, you will have a solid understanding of your current financial situation. The more you plan ahead, the more you know – and the more you know the better. If you have the know-how, as well as a realistic plan, you have what I like to call “a road map”. This road map makes reaching your destinations much simpler, but without it, becoming lost on life’s journey is all too easy!
The first thing you need to do is examine your current situation. How much are you spending? How much are you saving? Knowing that you spent $1000 last month is great, but it doesn’t help you unless you know what you spent it on. Take an honest look at your next bank statement, I bet you learn a thing or two about your spending habits. It would be in your best interest to adopt a “Zero Tolerance” policy on credit debt because it often times carries huge interest rates and fees. Once you get stuck in this ‘credit spiral’ it’s far too easy to spin out of control. Take a look at http://sprowt.ca/earn/help/ for some very smart alternatives.
Once you know these spending habits create a plan! For the next month or so, jot down all the money you have coming in and going out. Try to patch that whole in your pocket and keep a positive balance between the two money coming in and money going out. Cutting back on that double mocha-frappachino every morning is probably enough to ensure your positive balance, if not, try leaving out the caramel whipped topping! You’d be amazed at just how much money you spend unnecessarily each year. Let’s take this frappachino as our example; we’ll call it “the Frappachino Factor”. Say you spend $5.00 each morning on that coffee, that’s $35/week or $140/month. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you consider that you’ll spend over $50,000 over your working career on it, you might just consider brewing that cup of Joe at home. Check out: http://sprowt.ca/earn/save/ for some more great tips!
Another way to save some money is to avoid paying for your textbooks immediately. You can find a lot of the books online, on facebook groups, kijiji, etc. Mind you they are probably used, but also a fraction of the price. Doing this can save you hundreds, if not thousands, a year in textbook costs!
Once you understand where all you money is coming and going, you can start to shave your spending down. This next step is vital to ensuring your financial stability. A concept called ‘pay yourself first’, long promoted by David Bach, The Automatic Millionaire, could help you immensely in the long run. Essentially, the idea is that every time you have money come in (via payroll, inheritance, allowance or whatever) you must pay yourself before you do anything else. Meaning, you take a certain percentage (I suggest starting at 1% and moving to 15%) and put it away immediately. This way, you don’t see it and don’t miss it. Starting at 1% is very easy and I bet you don’t even notice the difference. Once you get use to this, move up a bit, say 5%, and continue doing this indefinitely. Put the money into a tax-free savings account (TFSA), retirement savings plan (RSP) or even a regular savings account and you’ll be amazed at what it can grow to!
If you follow these steps you can definitely save a huge chunk of money each year. Try calculating your own “Frappachino Factor”, I bet you’ll be amazed at the amount you spend that you could be saving. Add these tips onto your own road maps and you’ll be navigating around life’s potholes in no time! For now, check out: http://sprowt.ca/earn/top-tips/ for some more great tips about how to finish school without debt.
