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Helping shape confidence, choices, opportunity, and wellbeing for years to come

Practical Money Skills + Real-World Confidence = Big Future Effects

| FutureFX is a coordinated, regionwide approach to strengthening financial capability in young people.

02/10/2026

What a term it’s been! 🚀 Over the last term, we’ve watched Year 7-8 students think, make, market and share their way through real-world challenges, working alongside some great people from our local business community.

We’ll be celebrating the official winners at our awards evening in a few weeks. We’ve already seen loads of creativity, confidence, problem-solving and teamwork along the way - and we can’t *wait* to hear from the finalists on the night!

A huge thank you to the students, teachers, mentors, judges and everyone who has helped bring the Challenge to life – as well as to Ripyl and Marlborough Chamber of Commerce for helping make it happen 👏

01/10/2026

Last chance for Challenge Awards entries! ⏰

If *you* took part in the $10k Sharemarket Challenge, this weekend is your final chance to enter the awards and be in the running for $500 cold, hard cash in each category.

No long write-up needed - just a few sentences about the decisions, conversations or learning that stood out for your team. Don't miss out!

👉 Entries close 5pm this Sunday, 4 October! 👈

Participants: check your email for the entry link, or contact Kelvin at [email protected] if you need a hand.

27/09/2026

Challenge done? Now tell us what happened along the way 👇
Yes, the $10k Sharemarket Challenge *Awards* are now open, with $500 real cash for the winner of each of four categories:
🏆 Our Investment Plan
💬 Our Money Conversations
💡 What Our Whānau/Team Learned
📈 Highest Portfolio Value

For the first three awards, we’re not looking for polished essays or investment expertise. We just want you to tell us what your team thought about, talked about and learned together. A few sentences and one good example is plenty. Participants can enter one, two, or all three reflection awards. (The Highest Portfolio Value award is calculated automatically from the official results, so there’s nothing extra to submit for that one).

If you took part, check your email for the entry link.

Award entries close at 5.00pm *this* Sunday, 4th October. Questions or problems with the form? Contact Kelvin at [email protected]

Good luck - and thanks again to everyone who took part.
And stay tuned for updates about the winners later…

24/09/2026

We're so excited to be collaborating with so many amazing people, and opening up exciting initiatives for our region's young people, their families and teachers. And it's great to see the excitement and momentum building.

Local principals at the recent "International Convention of Principals" in Auckland got to hear from keynote speaker, Sir Ian Taylor who shared about one of our collaborations!

We're loving working with local teachers, Dr Peter Meihana, and the Animation Research Team to develop the "Time is Money" resource for our young people. We were really chuffed that as part of his presentation at the conference, Sir Ian not only shared about the Te Pokohiwi / Wairau Bar module, but also featured some "Marlborough Voice" with a quote from local teacher Maddie Benseman 👏

Maddie's been one of our "super-users" who has been trialling "Time is Money" with her Year 3-5 class at Ward School. Thanks Maddie! You can see her words on screen in the photos attached - as well as a pic of her class who give it a big thumbs up 👍

**Link to more info about ‘Time Is Money’ in comments**

(By the way, if you're a teacher and want to hear about Time is Money, and see whether this *free* resource is right for your class, drop Kelvin a message via [email protected])

23/09/2026

Final leaderboard update before the $10k Sharemarket Challenge closes tomorrow!

What a shake-up in the final week: Team XW has surged from 6th to 1st, with Team AH jumping from 5th to 2nd - and just 86 cents now separates the top two portfolios! Last week’s leader, Tiki Tiki Tuff Team, has actually grown its portfolio too, but has slipped to 5th as others made even bigger moves.

With the $10k Sharemarket Challenge closing tomorrow, this is the last leaderboard update before the final results are locked in.
Whatever happens in the final day, it’s been great to see teams researching, debating, making calls and learning together all the way through.

One day to go so good luck everyone!

17/09/2026

8 days and counting! This week’s $10k Sharemarket Challenge leaderboard is in, and there’s still plenty of time for things to move again before the finish line on the 25th September.

With the final stretch underway, don't forget about the awards entries which are coming up, with $500 real cash for the winner of each of our four categories! Everyone taking part will receive an email next week with simple instructions on how to enter the awards.

In the meantime, here are some conversation starters your team could chat about this week:
• Are we taking more risk than we intended to at the start? Why?
• Are there any news or market events this week that could affect one of our companies?
• What would need to happen for us to buy, sell, or hold one of our shares?
• If we were investing *real* money, what would we do the same - and what would we change?

And participants, make sure you check your email tomorrow for some more news and things to consider from our dynamic duo, Phil from NZHL Blenheim and Andrew from Forsyth Barr Barr (Thanks guys for all your support!👍)

In the meanwhile, congrats to this week’s leaderboard frontrunners "Tiki Tiki Tuff Team" who are sitting at the top of the table, with “Quantics” and “3 nations investments” close behind...

09/09/2026

Just over two weeks to go! The $10k Sharemarket Challenge is heading into its final stretch - and the latest leaderboard is here. There's been a bit of a shake-up at the top since last week. Nice work "Tiki Tiki Tuff Team" 🥇, "Team XW" 🥈, and "Team AH" 🥉

There’s still plenty of time for things to move again, but remember, this Challenge has never been only about who finishes with the biggest portfolio.

A big part of it is about building confidence, curiosity and practical financial literacy by learning and making decisions together - asking questions, comparing ideas, talking about risk, and seeing how different choices play out.

And now is also a good time for all our participants to start thinking about the $10k Sharemarket Challenge *Awards*. There’s $500 (real cash) for the winner of each category:
⭐Our Investment Plan
⭐Our Money Conversations
⭐What Our Whānau Learned
⭐Highest Portfolio Value
You do not need to finish at the top of the leaderboard to win one of the first three awards.

So as you head into the final couple of weeks, keep an eye on the markets, but also take note of the conversations, decisions and things your team is learning along the way...

08/09/2026

Love this ‘ripple effect’! How brilliant to see these previous Ripyl participants sharing their knowledge with the younger students at Rapaura School - helping *all* of them to develop stronger financial literacy, entrepreneurship & strategic thinking. Proud to be part of the collab making this possible in Marlborough, together with Ripyl & Marlborough Chamber of Commerce.
Way to go Marlborough Boys' College 👍🏻

06/09/2026

A big thank you to the Marlborough Principals Association for inviting Kelvin along recently to share more about FutureFX and the growing range of opportunities available to help Marlborough students become more confident and capable with money.

FutureFX is all about giving our young people practical, engaging ways to build financial capability - at different ages and stages, and both inside and outside the classroom.

One opportunity we were especially pleased to highlight for primary schools is Time is Money: a cross-curricular learning experience for Years 4-6 that brings financial concepts to life through an engaging, distinctly Aotearoa New Zealand context.

We’re incredibly fortunate to be able to connect Marlborough schools with this resource, and want to acknowledge Sir Ian Taylor, Ian McGee, Tess Whelan and the wider Animation Research Limited team whose creativity and hard work have gone into making Time is Money available to young learners.

Thanks again to our local principals for the opportunity to share what’s available. The more schools, whānau and community partners we can connect with these opportunities, the more chances our young people have to build money smarts for life 🧡

03/09/2026

We're very excited to have our Enterprise Challenge rolling along nicely in Money Month – a collab between FutureFX, Ripyl and Marlborough Chamber of Commerce 👍

Designed specifically for Years 7-8, the Enterprise Challenge asks teams of students to identify a real problem, create a product or service, develop promotional material and pitch their idea to external judges. Students move through four practical stages - “Think It, Make It, Market It and Share It” - while developing teamwork, communication, critical-thinking and decision-making skills.

This year’s challenge has been developed alongside local businesses and organisations, giving students the opportunity to work on genuine issues facing our community.

Big thanks to Will Macdonald from Rangitāne, Mark Watson from Robinson Construction, Ben Halliday from Property Brokers, and Michelle Donnelly from Monarch Platform, for helping our young people be inspired about tackling real-world challenges experienced in Marlborough.

While we’ve already got a number of Marlborough schools on board, it’s not (quite) too late! Any other Year 7-8 teachers and schools, feel free to reach out Kelvin ([email protected]) if you’re keen to give your students this awesome opportunity. (All resources provided, and help is on hand).

Address

3a Main Street
Blenheim
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Website

https://www.futurefx.org.nz/

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