Have you ever been in front of various financial products without knowing what your mind? Wondering why you’re so hard to save? Your debt has grown and do not know how it was? Most likely you need to work on your “financial education”.
“Financial Literacy” is definitely a buzzword, much heard in the media, but what do you really mean and what impact it has on our lives?
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines financial education as the process by which consumers improve their understanding of financial products and concepts and through information, instruction or advice aimed at developing skills and confidence to become more conscious (aware) of the opportunities and financial risks to make informed decisions to carry out effective actions to improve their financial well being.
In short, financial education allows us to better manage our money, it helps us to plan better and have the information, tools and skills to make decisions in this world that is alien to us sometimes.
What might be examples of financial education? Learn to make a functional budget, saving both our goals as a contingency, use credit responsibly and according to our ability to pay, know our rights as consumers, know the characteristics of investments – including horizons, risk level, performance and fees – and acquire skills to plan for the future.
How to increase your financial education?
The money is related to most areas of our lives and we went to school to learn basic skills like reading, writing, add, subtract, multiply and divide, why not also look for “classes” give us tools to better manage our personal finances?