New Financial Education Album Aims to Strike Chord with Kids

Two Madison musicians have released a financial education album for kids that introduces important money lessons through songs about pirates, superheroes and other non-sequiturs.

The album, called “The Secret to Being Rich”, features ten original songs for ages 10 and under that incorporate core financial literacy concepts including saving, responsible spending, the importance of charity, dangers of “too good to be true” advertising and even the basics of how loans work.

Furthermore, the album’s overall theme ties into its tongue-in-cheek title, which is meant to convey to kids that being ‘rich’ takes hard work and discipline, and that you can also be wealthy in friends, family and other things in life that can matter much more than the money in your wallet.

All songs were written by Chad Helminak and Christopher Morris, who perform as band “The Disclosures” outside of their day jobs within the credit union industry.

“We’ve found that music and humor can be very effective ways of reinforcing learning,” said Morris. “Since we both work closely financial education programs in our day jobs, we knew this was an important direction to take our music in and help a young audience learn about these topics.”

Morris and Helminak have also developed discussion topics for teachers and parents, as well as a classroom performance which they’ll be debuting in Texas elementary school tour in February, 2014.

“The Secret to Being Rich” album is available for download on all major digital music stores such as iTunes, Amazon and others. Physical CDs also can be purchased at cdbaby.com, and The Disclosures will also be processing bulk orders of CDs at discount for purchase by financial institutions, schools or youth organizations. All ordering information and additional resources can be found on thedisclosuresmusic.com.

Earlier this year, The Disclosures released “Thank My Piggy Bank,” the first single and video from the album. The video was filmed around town at the Madison Children’s Museum, Capitol Kids, and Summit Credit Union.

A record release party is scheduled for December 20th at DreamBank in Madison. Details are online here.

Click here for more information about The Disclosures.