Throughout high school, you’ll hear a lot about ‘literacy’ – usually around English and Maths.
But there’s also something called Financial Literacy.
It’s a valuable life skill, and after speaking with the younger generation, we’ve become increasingly aware that there isn’t enough support for them to develop this skill before they really need it.
Understanding Financial Literacy
So, first up, what is financial literacy?
Here’s a little definition to help:
- Financial Literacy: Financial literacy is the knowledge and confidence that you understand key financial concepts, including savings, debt, credit, and investing. This knowledge is the foundation of how you interact, use and utilise money.
So why does it matter?
It helps you have a sense of financial well-being and trust in your abilities to look after yourself financially. It forms the foundation of ongoing money management.
There’s often an assumption we’ll just ‘know’ how to be good with money and that being ‘bad’ with money is unavoidable. The truth is we learn financial literacy all the time without realising it – usually from our parents and how they manage finances.
Financial literacy is knowledge-based, which means you can learn how to improve it with the resources and set yourself up for financial success.
You don’t need to be a pro from the outset, but it’s worth spending time working on your financial literacy as soon as possible.
Discover More with Findex Young Money
Findex has made getting financially savvy easier than ever before with their Young Money podcast.
Young Money is the one-stop reference for young Kiwisseeking information on making money, spending money and planning for the future. These short podcasts introduce you to a range of guests who can offer the best advice for getting – and staying – on top of your finances.
Young Money invites you to sit down with Matt Tod from the Findex Wealth Management team to discuss all things financial literacy:
- What is it?
- Where does money come from?
- And how do we make money?
Listen to the full episode right here and visit findex.co.nz/young-money to access the full library of resources, including topics on:
- Basic financial literacy
- Buy-now pay-later
- Starting casual work
- How to save and budget
- Uni debt
- Cryptocurrency
- Moving out of home
- Micro-investing
- Side hustles
- …and more!
