SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A Sioux Falls woman has created a new online course to help teach high school and college age girls financial literacy. moveHER Money is helping set more young women up for financial success.
“Money is a big pillar in someone’s life, you will have to use money and learn how to manage money the rest of your life, it is the perfect gift for parents to give their girls is the knowledge of money,” moveHER Money founder Sarah Kurtenbach said.
It’s why the Sioux Falls native created an easy-to-use online course called moveHER Money.
“Once a girl has access to the course, she can take it on her laptop, or on her phone, which is perfect for young girls,” Kurtenbach said.
The course teaches things like the importance of budgeting and saving, how to invest, even details about taxes and interest rates.
“Since credit card companies are targeting high school and college girls like crazy, if a girl has not been taught what a credit card is, she can get something for free, free money,” Kurtenbach said.
Kurtenbach says her and her husband once had nearly $1 million in debt.
“Teaching people what not to do or what to do at a young age so they won’t get in that mess to begin with,” Kurtenbach said.
She shares a lot of the lessons she learned becoming debt free in the moveHER Money program.
“One of the key things that girls struggle with is just knowing how to budget, a lot of girls will make money from a job, but then it’s so tempting to buy things your friends are getting, that you see on TikTok, that are certain trends, so budgeting is a huge component,” Kurtenbach said.
“Working downtown and being in retail, I’m just going to grab a coffee, I’m going to grab a new shirt, I never realized how much that stuff piles up,” moveHER money graduate Madyson Redday said.
Madyson Redday was one of the first people to go through the moveHER Money course right after graduating USF in May; she says its been a huge benefit in starting life on her own successfully.
“The budgeting, learning to invest and just be smart with my money has been really cool,” Redday said. “Even just having the conscious awareness of my finances and what I’m doing with them, I think is going to help me so much.”
The moverHer Money program is available nationwide. Kurtenbach says it is designed as a program parents can gift their daughters.
“You invest in certain things in your daughter, you invest in ballet classes, gymnastics classes or to have a music tutor, I think it’s so important for parents to invest in their daughter so that she can learn about money,” Kurtenbach said.
She is also working to create partnerships with other organizations focused on teaching young girls financial literacy.
