WRITTEN BY JAGJIT SINGH
FROM DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY, 12 MARCH 2013.
Recently I was going through one of the latest publications of magazine-'The Economist' wherein an interesting fact on financial education caught my attention.
The story goes as follows: Here is a test - suppose yup had USD 100/- in a saving account that paid simple interest at the rate of two per cent per year. If you leave the money in the account, how much would you have accumulated after 5 years : (a) mopper than USD 102 (b) exactly USD 102 or © less than USD 102?
The above test might look very simple to the reader of 'Daily News' , but a survey found that only half of the Americans aged over 50 years gave the correct answer. This was the second instance when I got shocked on the prevalence of financial education in our society.
My first shock came when I read about the majority of the students (around 60 per cent) in Form-Four examination securing ZERO.On one side the above stated facts may appear shocking to most of us, but on the other hand they also throw a challenge to each one of us as to how we collectively as well as individually can contribute towards spreading as higher level of financial literacy.
Often there is a misconception that finance per say is a specialized subject which can't be understood by an ordinary person.I strongly refute such misconception,because when we talk about 'finance literacy', I for sure am not referring to some complex financial model to evaluate the performance of a company.
Neither do I expect a non-finance professional to do ratio analysis of the audited financial results of a ban or any other company.When on 'financial literacy', what I am referring to is about the basic knowledge of simple financial transactions occurring in our life on day-in and day-out basis.
If the price of rice in one market is Tzs. 1,500/- per kg, while at the same time in another market it is being sold at Tzs. 2,000/- per kg, don't we know from where to buy? Quite obviously from the shop or market where the price is comparatively lower.
On similar lines suppose Bank-A offers interest on your savings a/c @ 5% p.a while Bank-B is offering interest @ 7% p.a .In such a situation, sit not straightforward to decide as to which bank to choose for maintaining your savings? The answer again is obvious and clear i.e. Bank-B which offers a comparatively better rate of interest.
Why does financial literacy matter so much in our society? The explanation goes as follows: People with low levels of financial literacy suffer from that lack of knowledge at every stage of their lives.On study on this subject shows that people with a high degree of financial literacy are more likely to plan for retirement and that people who plan for retirement have more than double the wealth of people who don't.
Conversely, people who have a lower degree of financial literacy tend to borrow more, accumulate less wealth and pay more in fees related to financial products. they are less likely to invest, more likely to experience difficulty with debt and less likely to know the terms of their mortgages and other loans.
Thus the cost of the financial ignorance is very high, leading many people to incur avoidable charges and fees from things like making late credit card payments or paying only the minimum amount due, overspending their credit limit and using cash advances, etc
So what is the solution to the mission link, which i referred in the very beginning of my article? Financial education must start early.Like reading and math, financial education must become part of the core curriculum in our schools.Likewise, parents should engage in regular, constructive conversations about money matters to give their kids a solid foundation for financial well-being.
Teaching our kids to be financially saving is a gift - one that will keep on giving returns throughout the course of their lives. Teachers need the right training to impart financial education in schools.
But all said and done - financial literacy is not rocket science but acquiring a very elementary knowledge on financial matters. I am sure the above write-up will erase the missing link on financial literacy at least partially if not fully. Furthermore, let us resolve to spread financial literacy in all corners of our society using all means.
