The Money Club for Young Adults
Financial Literacy
What is financial literacy?
The set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual
to make informed and effective decisions with all of their
financial resources. Wikipedia
Is financial literacy important? YES! Why?
Money skills are highly complementary and having them will improve all aspects of your life: personal (self esteem), relationships (family and friends) and career. Money knowledge can bring freedom, choice, opportunity and confidence. What you learn about money today will change your tomorrow for the better.
Basic financial literacy skills are easy to learn. After a while it becomes plain common sense. And the benefits can be life changing - especially when learned at a young age.
Why then are most people financially illiterate?
1.) Parents can't teach what they don't know.
2.) Schools don't teach financial literacy (they can't... see 3.).
3.) Money is a taboo topic - it is not discussed in polite company.
4.) Lack of interest: many young people are not interested.
5.) Bad habits, formed when young, are hard to correct later in life.
6.) Volume (part 1): there is lots to learn. Starting early helps.
7.) Volume (part 2): there is so much information available, it is very difficult to find the right/good information when you need it.
8.) What you need to know changes: as you grow older and your life changes your financial needs change. This requires life long learning.
Most people start to get interested in learning about financial planning when they have kids. But this tends to be a difficult to learn because:
1.) bad financial habits have likely already been established
2.) they are now time starved, juggling career and a new born is difficult on its own
3.) savings are even harder to come by when expenses increase and income falls
So most people remain financially illiterate their entire life.
On becoming an adult:
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good: get to do anything you want
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bad: moving forward, you own the consequences of your decisions
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don't be a victim: parents didn't teach you about money? No problem. You can do something about it from this day forward.
Resources
YouTube Channels
Websites
Why are adults so stressed about money?
- Globe and Mail article Nov '17
Money
Is a universal language we all need to speak to survive.
Big Idea: Life-long Learning
Becoming a money master requires ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of financial knowledge. Lifelong learners are motivated to learn and develop because they want to: it is a deliberate and voluntary act. Lifelong learning can enhance our understanding of the world around us, provide us with more and better opportunities and improve our quality of life.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy choice.
"Money can give you the choice to leave an uninteresting job or a bad relationship; it can give you the choice to re-locate to a place you really want to live; to take a year off or to retire super early; to pursue your hobbies and dreams; to stay home with your children when they are young; to try things without worrying too much about failure. All of these are very difficult if you are living paycheque-to-paycheque; they become easier if you have an ample emergency fund; and they become simple as pie if you are financially independent. (To me, financial independence means having enough savings/investments to be able to live on for the long term without regular income from a job.)"
Janet - July 20, 2017 - Making the World Go 'Round blog