The Happy Saver Tertiary Scholarship
18 Jul, 2021
After thinking about it for quite a long time, a few weeks ago we made an exciting move to start The Happy Saver Tertiary Scholarship. That is what I wanted to share with you today.
And before you start to wonder, no, I am not about to ask you for money! It’s quite the opposite, we are giving some of ours away.
At the start of 2021, Jonny and I decided that we wanted to increase our generosity and that we wanted to provide some financial support to ‘someone, somehow’. We felt that the time was right to do so and that with a bit of planning and juggling of our finances we could and should make it happen this year.
Why give money away?
I’ve said in the past that when I was growing up there was never that much money to spare and at times I know that my parents were pretty broke. Other times, less so. But that never stopped my Dad in particular from being generous with time, possessions, resources and money. At times, to be fair to my Mum, he was too generous which put undue pressure on our whanau of five kids. But, that was his nature, he was a giver. He gave money to random strangers on the street, he supported up to five kids at a time through World Vision for probably about 20 years, I remember he gave away his shoes when he was on a rare overseas trip once because someone else needed them more than him. And he gave money to my siblings and I long after we had left home when he could see that things were financially tight for us due to being away studying or were struggling to get our careers off the ground. As his Alzheimers progressed both his need to give and his disease became a dangerous combination because I tell you, there was NO ONE more generous than my Dad with Alzheimer’s at a cash machine which was spitting out $20 notes!!!
I remember being very poor when I was studying at university in Dunedin and I remember that all of my friends were at various levels of being absolutely skint. There was never a better moment than a parent of a flatmate stopping in for a visit laden down with firewood and a butchered lamb for the freezer! I know it was character building being broke, but it was also really stressful on so many occasions. For me, a trip home to Mum and Dads whare would always mean lots of delicious home-cooked kai, my parents filling my petrol tank up with fuel and the boot with anything I needed for my flat. And my Dad, invariably sat at the end of our huge dining table, with his open wallet in his hands saying “do you want some money love, here, take some money, I’ve got too much money”! When the truth is that a lot of times that money was already spoken for, but that was my Dad, he was generous to a fault.
Dad would often say:
“Money is made round to go around”
Another, in response to someone asking how he was, was to say:
“Poor but happy!”
To a degree, I have followed on in my Dad’s footsteps and I firmly believe that sometimes, just handing over some money solves an instant problem for someone and I’ll often give away small sums. For example, I was having a conversation with a woman recently and in passing, she said she would be ‘watching the fuel gauge on her drive home tonight’. Innocently I asked her why she didn’t just put some petrol in her car before she left town? But, she explained that she couldn’t because her bank account was as empty as her fuel tank and she didn’t get paid until tomorrow. I knew that she still had a 30km drive on a rural road, at night, to get her home. So I gave her some petrol money, it seemed like an obvious solution to me as I would hate to see her stranded.
A few weeks back I particularly enjoyed sellotaping $5 into a book called Random Acts of Kindness before putting it in the free book exchange box in my neighbourhood. It seemed obvious to do so don’t you think? It is a very nice feeling to help someone, especially when they least expect it and because I tend to always take an interest in people, I’m always finding small ways to help. It’s purely selfish of course because I get such enjoyment from doing it!
I’m generous with my time, particularly when it comes to my blog and I’m VERY generous with Jonny’s too, often saying “Yep, Jonny can do that for you” and then having to go home and explain that I’ve volunteered him on some project or other. Again! This is how a community operates, particularly in a small town, you need to pitch in without the expectation of financial gain for yourself and in this world of ‘optimisation and monetisation’ the concept of sharing your resources and time is, unfortunately, becoming less well known.
And although we are always willing to help out with our time and money, we have not been in a financial position to do so with bigger sums of money, until now.
When Jonny and I decided to sort out some form of generosity we wondered how we could make it happen and who we could support. We thought about all of the local, national and international charities already in operation that we could donate to but I couldn’t help but come back to my Dad’s view and now my view that sometimes, just giving cash to someone that you stumble across and trusting that they will make a good decision, is the right thing to do.
I thought back to when I was studying at Polytech and then University and just how hard it was to get my hands on money to buy food, to pay rent, to buy books, to pay my fees and to just generally live. I remembered that when my Dad handed me $50 of his and Mum’s money from his wallet it was such a lifesaver on so many occasions. That was my food money sorted for the next week, or the power bill taken care of. And for Jonny, his parents were generous too when they were able to support him by letting him live at home for free while he studied, thereby hugely reducing his expenses meaning the money he did make from his holiday work went a whole lot further.
Therefore, with my and Jonny’s own experiences in mind, we decided that we would like to support two tertiary students each year. We wanted to make two cash scholarships of $500 available to be used in whatever way the recipient saw fit. $500 won’t change the world but it might just make the next few weeks or months that much easier for a stressed-out student.
Where would we find the money?
If you have read my blog for a while you will know that we are pretty careful with our money and we don’t waste it. So, coming up with $1,000 to just give away is a significant amount of money to us because it will take money away from other goals we are trying to achieve. We have thought about doing this for a long time and have now planned for and decided to commit to it in 2021 because I feel that we have our own financial house in enough order for us to make this happen. We will feel this expense in our budget for sure, but we like the thought of getting used to giving on a more regular basis.
Over a glass of wine we developed criteria for this giving:
They were to be well into their study, at least two years in. The reason for this is that students have fee-free study in their first year and are yet to settle on a career path.
They need to be on a firm path to completing a qualification, not still finding their feet and dithering about what they might want to study. They can’t be pissing about!
The money can be used in any way they see fit. No strings attached.
Because of the point above we wanted to find someone who had their head screwed on straight and would put this money to good use.
Finding The Right Recipient
In June 2021 the ‘right’ person wandered into plain sight. She is a final year medical student who is itching to get qualified and get to work but to reach her end goal she has a lot of outgoings, having to travel around New Zealand to spend time in various hospitals to complete her work placements to become a doctor. She has to pay for her flat in one part of the country while she also has to be away from it for up to six weeks at a time, paying all the costs associated with driving to and from and paying the additional costs of living elsewhere and although she does get some financial support, it’s not enough. As we spent a bit of time with her we came to see that her head was screwed on straight and even though she has taken on significant student debt (over $100,000 and counting) to reach this point she has been doing so as carefully as possible. Studying medicine is not cheap.
Through talking with her I could easily relate to myself all those years ago when I was in my 20’s and studying, those times I thought “man, a bit of cash sure would help right now”.
Having now gotten to know her a bit I couldn’t think of a better person to give it to and in doing so it’s helped Jonny and I settle on the criteria for giving, going forward. We don’t need to set up a scholarship application process, we don’t need to formalise how we do things, we just need to continue giving in the way we always have, just by keeping our eyes and ears open and being aware of the plight of others that we come across all the time anyway.
So, at the start of July, before she left our area where she had been working at our local hospital for six weeks, we invited her over for a coffee and we gave her $500 cash, to be used in whatever way she saw fit.
$500 cash and a letter outlining the scholarship and detailing why we thought her a worthy recipient.
We don’t need to make it elaborate, we literally gave her an envelope of cash and a letter outlining that she is the first recipient of The Happy Saver Tertiary Scholarship and detailing why we thought her a worthy recipient. We told her too that it comes with unlimited financial conversations with myself if ever she felt like having one! Giving money brings a smile to someones face, it did to hers, and it certainly did to ours and it will help her out for the next couple of weeks I’m sure because we all like to have a little disposable income in our wallets.
I liked how we were able to support someone that we know just well enough to know that she is a good person. And it, in turn, lets her know that we see her, we see the long journey she has been on to get qualified, all the ups and downs she has experienced over the last couple of years and that above all else, we care about her. A bit of unexpected kindness always goes a long way.
I’m a deeply trusting person and I like to see the best in people and so far (touch wood) my instincts are rarely wrong. I know that people might read this and feel sceptical and think that if you just give money away the person might waste it, but I also learned a long time ago that if you give money, you have to do it without strings attached and just trust that people make the right call, because generally, they will.
Via my blog, I’ve been privileged to meet many people who are generous with both their time and money and I’ve been quietly observing and learning from them and I think that when they read this they will know who they are. I’ve also learned from those who don’t, from those who are driven to increase their net worth to be held specifically for their use at the exclusion of all others and it’s fair to say that I’m drawn to the former, they tend to be much nicer people to be around. I want to be more like them.
So, who received the scholarship?
We won’t be publishing the details of the people who receive our scholarships by the way. And apart from writing this blog, we are not doing this to blow our own trumpet or show “how incredibly kind and generous we are”, I simply wanted to write this to encourage others to see the need out there within your whanau, hapu or iwi and just spend a little time or money supporting others, if you see a need.
Think about what the average person can do who makes enough to sustain themselves but has a little leftover to give. Begin to flex that generosity muscle that’s inside all of us and share some of that wealth around because I guarantee you that you will feel better for it and that good things will happen to you in return. I would encourage you to put yourself in the shoes of those in their 20’s working their way through their education today with all of the financial pressures that are upon them and if you feel it’s appropriate, whether they be related to you or not, just help them out a bit when you can.
We still have another $500 that we want to find a home for this year and with five months still to run I’m sure that we will come across a worthy recipient, whether we know them already or are yet to meet them. And I have to say, it’s a nice mindset to have, to be looking around my community feeling poised and ready to help someone out knowing that all the while because I have our own financial house in order we are in a good position to be able to do so.
