Introducing – Kyle Prevost

Hi my name is Kyle Prevost and I’m just a guy that wants to help people understand that this personal-finance stuff really isn’t that hard.  I went to university with Justin and when he asked me to do a little writing on his website I jumped at the opportunity.  I’m routinely astounded by how little everyone in our society (including individuals much smarter than me) actually knows about how money works.  It became apparent to me as Justin and I went through school that many students had no idea at all how to handle their money, and that this deficit of knowledge severely cramped their style.  Learning about financial stuff doesn’t have to be painful and/or boring and it could potentially have a large positive impact on your life.

Those Who Can’t Do …

I teach for a living (no idea why Justin is friends with and related to so many teachers … poor guy) and consequently I hope my writing “voice” doesn’t come across as too pedantic or “teacher-ish”.  If it does, just insult me mercilessly, I take more boos and catcalls at the front of my class on a daily basis than many stand-up comedians will in an evening (and that’s if the kids like you).  I definitely don’t hold myself up as some all-knowing guru of financial matters, but I do like to read (yes I’m probably a geek despite what I tell myself in front of the mirror everyday … why not “own it” right?) and I like to think I’ve picked up  thing or two along the way.

If You Only Learn One Lesson

I grew up in a house where talking about finances was a taboo topic, and consequently never learned much about money beyond, “Don’t buy things you can’t pay for.”  While it seems that many people in Canada or the USA weren’t even taught that rule of thumb, it didn’t exactly prepare me to financially set the world on fire when I reached adulthood.  Consequently, one of my pet projects is pushing for a personal-finance curriculum in our public schools.  It’s amazing to me that with all the individual problems and society-wide problems (see: USA, Housing Crash) that are directly caused by a lack of personal-finance knowledge, we continue to throw our youth out into the world without any real financial grounding at all … and then we throw student loans and credit cards at them!

Don’t Bother Raising Your Hand!

Please feel free to ask me any questions or suggest topics for future articles.  I can almost guarantee that if something has stumped you, or if you’ve always wondered about something, there are probably dozens of post-secondary students out there who have the exact same question, just not brave or motivated enough to ask it.

I graduated university after five years with two degrees and zero debt.  If there wasn’t a lot of money in savings on grad day, that is solely attributable to the fact that I and many of my friends had invested heavily in beer bottle futures and didn’t get quite the returns we were looking for (just ask my liver).  I now own a house and am taking my Master’s Degree of Education.  I’m looking forward to interacting with a whole new world of people and learning a few things myself in addition to helping others out.

-Kyle