Asking “why financial literacy is important” might feel like something written on the chalkboard when we were all in primary school. Still, sadly financial literacy for students is not something that is readily taught.
How did we get to be where we are as a civilisation without learning these fundamentals in school? I understand that we teach math’s and give some basic understanding of how economics works, but it’s left to parents to teach the finer details of budgeting, mortgages, and investing. The problem with this is that many parents might also not be the best financial literacy examples because they weren’t taught it either.
This blog isn’t to throw “shade” on parents; I think I’m also dating myself by putting “shade” in quotation marks. We’re just asking the tough questions like; how many people do you know who have a full-time job but live paycheque to paycheque? How many people do you know that struggle with interest rates, mortgages and investments?
The answer is probably a lot. Even in our own lives, how often do we learn something about financial literacy in Australia and think, “I could have used this a decade ago.”
Before you start googling “financial literacy books” or “financial literacy courses”, the good news is that there is a lot of handy information for free online. Be aware, though, there are a lot of “fly by night” or “shonky” operations out there that would be more than happy to take some of your hard-earned dough while offering some eBook that isn’t even suitable for financial literacy for kids.
Organisations like Forbes have a list of great online learning to improve these skills. Some of them might lean more toward American issues, so if you are looking for something with a touch more “green and gold”, look no further than Financial Basics, Open.Edu, or the Federal Government’s resource MoneySmart.
If you want to take the next step from that, it will mean talking to an expert. Credit Connection has been helping clients for over 15 years reduce their debts and enjoy that #LessDebtMoreLife experience.
When you or you help someone else achieve financial literacy, it’ll be discovered that money, debt, mortgages are not giant scary monsters. Yet still, a means to getting what you want out of life and securing your families future.
