6 STAGES TO THE MONEY-SMART PROGRAM

1 - Improve your financial literacy.

2 - Understanding how the financial world works and how outside forces use marketing and technology to influence your decisions.

3 - Understanding ourselves and how the tendencies from our unique psychology and money personality influence our decisions.

4 - Design environment/workarounds tailored to your needs to overcome your tendencies, resist them and actually change your behaviour.

5 - Set Smart financial goals, which motivates your behaviour and requires commitment to change your intentions into actions.

6 - Gain confidence boost from getting results which makes you want to do more and encourages good financial decision making going forward.

What We Believe

The Money-Smart mission is to educate and empower you to be better with money so you can make smart choices and live your best life.

We believe financial wellness is intrinsically linked to one’s overall well-being.  By maximizing your financial health, you can live a better life.

We believe money is not the most important thing in the world, but financial decisions really do matter. The financial decisions you make today determines the quality of life for your future self.

We believe time is money, but knowledge is also money as we live in a complex financial world. Financial success requires skills and understanding which can only be acquired through experience or education.

We believe your financial situation is not fixed. You are not powerless to improve your financial health. Your financial situation is not done to you; it is created by you.

We believe you should never feel shame for your mistakes made on matters which you were never taught.

We believe personal finance skills are an important life skill that everyone would benefit from.

We believe financial health can greatly affect your mental and physical health.

We believe seeking guidance concerning your personal finances is not a sign of failure but of wisdom.

We believe people should willingly talk openly about their finances to help make them more aware of their situation and to learn from others.

We believe making wise financial decisions is not limited to the wealthy and well educated. Everyone can learn to live in a money-smart way, and everyone can benefit from making better financial choices.

We believe personal finance is more personal than finance, and there are no cookie cutter solutions that work for everyone.

We believe investing your time to become Money-Smart is the best investment you can make and will pay you dividends your whole life.

Meet Our Money-Smart Financial Course Instructor

The Money-Smart program was prepared with the assistance of our instructor, Darrin Surminsky, BA, CPA, CIRP, LIT. Darrin has worked as a Chartered Professional Accountant and Trustee in Bankruptcy for over 20 years. During this time, he has assisted thousands of clients just like you to improve their personal finances. This experience has given him unique insights into the causes of personal finance problems, the challenges people face to change their behaviour and the steps you need to take to achieve your money goals.

Darrin’s true passion is helping people achieve life changing benefits by sharing his simple, practical personal finance strategies and behavioural coaching.

Darrin grew up on the family farm in Manitoba, so at an early age he came to understand the importance of money management and emergency reserves. He realized the farming life was not for him, but he found his calling in math, accounting, taxes, and all things financial.  Darrin currently lives in Kelowna B.C. with his wonderful wife Michelle and their three all consuming children, Sarah, London, and Luke.