I helped a 7 year-old kid save for her post-secondary education today. You could help another young student the same way ... and it's easy.

It's about bottles, in particular, those plastic pop bottles. I hate returning them. So I end up with closets full.

7 year-old Jessica Heikes solved my problem. She'll collect all kinds of bottles, pop bottles, beer bottles, wine bottles (I didn't know they were worth money) and more.

It all started three years ago when Jessica's great grandfather, Bob Schofield put a thousand dollars into an investment fund for each of his great grandchildren. He also opened a savings account for each of them with an initial deposit of fifty dollars and a request that they keep adding to the account.

Soon after that, Jessica and her grandma, Sue Benoit, had an idea. Like me, Sue doesn't like returning bottles but Jessica doesn't mind.

So the great bottle campaign began. Soon five or six family members and a few neighbours joined in.

"We just fill up the car and the trunk with bottles and stuff," Jessica told me, "and then we go to the bottle depot and unload all the bottles, put them in their right cases and count them and everything ... You get more money for beer bottles if you keep them in their original packages," she explained.

"Although we don't get money for them, we also recycle plastic bottles and newspapers and we stomp on the cardboard boxes until they're flat and then put them in the proper box." This kid knows her stuff and she does her job well.

Her Grandma and her Mom help out a little but Jessica does most of the sorting work at the center, gathers up the money and then it's straight to the bank where Jessica fills out her deposit slip, takes it to the teller and makes her deposit.

"Isn't the bank a scary place for a kid?" I asked.

"I'm not scared," she replied quickly. "All I do is fill out the yellow piece of paper with my name and how much money I've got and put it in the bank."

Over the past three years Jessica has added about $750 a year to her account, all from bottles. Every time she gets over $100 in her savings account, she moves a hundred into a Money Maker account which pays a little more interest and soon all of her savings will be put into higher yielding, but safe, investments.

If she keeps this up for another 10 years and invests it at an average of 8%, my financial people tell me she'll have approximately $18,997. However, if she invested every month rather than at the end of each year, the total would be $19,560 by the time she's 17 and ready for some kind of post secondary education.

Now if Jessica decides to do some baby sitting in her teens and deposits just $50 a month for four years and deposits every month, her grand total will be $23,296.

"So saving all those bottles will be a big help toward paying for your education," I said looking Jessica in the eye.

"Or buy me a car or a horse," she laughed without missing a beat. Then after a little pause she laughed again and added, "... a $30,000 horse."

There's a lot more than collecting bottles and making money here. This young lady is learning how to be self-confident, well organized, to work toward a clear goal, to accept responsibility, to be comfortable in a business setting and much more, like how quickly small, regular contributions to a saving/investment account can add up.

If a young student on your block came to your door and asked to collect your bottles to help them start an education account, especially if they promised to keep showing you their bank records to prove they weren't spending it on junk, would you help out?

I suspect many of us would and what kid couldn't use $22,296 at the age of 17 whether it was used to help them go to college, start an apprenticeship program ... or buy a horse.