Financial literacy means possessing an understanding of how to budget, save, invest, and spend money wisely, efficiently, and effectively. Financially literate people regularly make smart decisions when it comes to managing their money that leads to good financial outcomes. The ultimate goal of being financially literate is the ability to use the money you get to easily do the things you want to do. That includes enjoying a good quality of life, being able to afford fun trips and other activities with your family, giving to worthy causes, helping others, and living comfortably in retirement.

More Than Just Knowledge Of Facts And Stats

Being financially literate is about much more than knowing facts and statistics about money. It’s the ability of how to use your money effectively and properly. This means paying your bills on time and in full, saving, borrowing, and using money responsibly, making good investments, and having and fully funding a well thought out retirement financial plan. Understanding key basic financial concepts related to managing money and being able to implement them shows a person truly is financially literate. This helps them to make sound financial decisions that pay excellent long-term dividends.

Personal Financial Literacy

Personal financial literacy is learning the concepts, ideas, knowledge, and skills to implement proper personal financial decision making. Being personally financially literate enables a person to be a wise, successful, knowledgeable saver, investor, and consumer. It enables them to better manage their money, use credit effectively, wisely and efficiently and effectively and be able to do well when participating in activities in the global workforce and in society in general. Consistently working to be financially literate is essential, necessary, and should be a top priority.

The Three Primary Components Of Being Financially Literate

The three primary components of being financially literate are the ability to create and follow a good budget, being able to use and manage debt effectively, and being able to develop a good financial plan that encompasses future obligations including retirement. To be considered financially literate, individuals have to learn the basic financial skills it takes to use their income to handle all of their responsibilities. People who are financially literate will also have a system for saving and investing and reducing and eliminating debt while being able to afford the things they need.

Creating And Adhering To A Budget

People who are financially literate understand the importance of creating a budget and adhering to it. A budget helps people pay their fixed expenses, know their variable expenses, and set aside a portion of their income as savings. The financially literate understand saving is as important as earning when trying to create a secure financial future and work towards owning a home, starting a business, being able to cover emergency expenses, and preparing for retirement. People who are financially literate know creating and sticking to a good budget ensures their needs will be met today and in the future.

Managing Debt Efficiently

Another area of people who are financially literate is skilled in is managing debt efficiently. They know how to avoid paying late fees and enhance their credit score by making their payments and paying off their debt on time. That enables them to get lower interest rates on their loans. Plus, they understand remaining debt-free as much as possible prevents them from experiencing excess stress and enables them to have more money to save, invest, and enjoy. People who are not burdened with lots of debt tend to suffer from fewer illnesses, have better self-esteem, more self-confidence, and are more productive with their money.

Plan For A Solid Financial Future

People who are financially literate have a clear idea about how to plan for their future financial obligations. They understand what it takes to be able to finance both their short-term and long-term goals. Financially literate people know how to structure their savings and their investment portfolio based on their age, income, and financial responsibility. They understand the importance of saving 20% of their income and shifting from aggressive, risky investments to more conservative ones as they get closer to retirement age. When people are financially literate, they know how to plan for a solid, safe, financial future.

A Financial Literacy Curriculum

Americans are constantly faced with one financial crisis after another. Most people agree many of those financial problems are caused by individuals, organizations, and governments mismanaging their finances. Most people know the importance of being able to manage money properly, however, few know how to do so and it has a terrible impact on people’s lives. You would think at least one class on financial matters touching on saving, investing, managing debt and financial planning would be mandatory in high school and college. A financial literacy curriculum would help.

What The Curriculum Should Contain

The curriculum would be designed to give students the knowledge and competence they need to be able to better deal with and manage their money. It should include everyday skills like making a budget, balancing a checkbook, making informed money management decisions, dealing with debt, financing a home, and even long-term retirement savings planning.

It should explain why it’s important to save and invest a portion of your income and how to open a bank account. The curriculum can also touch on the effective use of credit cards and how being irresponsible with them can cause major financial problems.

Why This Type Of Curriculum Is Important

The average young person in their teens just getting their first job has very little understanding of how to manage money. Even most college students are financially illiterate. This has lead to many disturbing financial outcomes for the average American consumer. About 75% of American adults have issues with debt. Each month 15% of American adults rollover credit card debt of $2,500 or more. Plus, only 65% of American adults have savings accounts. Most Americans, research shows, live paycheck to paycheck. Sadly, only 40% of working Americans can cover a $400 emergency.

Learning To Budget

Many people don’t have a clear understanding of the difference between the amount of money they earn and how much they can afford to spend. As a result, they are living on the brink of financial ruin because they never learned to create a budget and stick to it. The average American adult spends more than they earn and are slowly sinking into debt. It would really help if children were taught the importance of budgeting in school. Experts say people who are learning how to be habitual budgeters when they are young are better able and more likely to delay gratification and save so they can afford their goals.

Becoming Financially Literate

One of the first things people who are becoming financially literate learn is the importance of building and maintaining a $1,000 emergency fund. They also learn how to create and stick to a budget so they can build up an emergency fund containing enough money to cover their expenses for three to six months. This gives them time to maneuver should life throw them a curveball. Becoming financially literate also encompasses learning how to prevent themselves from becoming mired in and weighed down by credit card debt, auto loans, student loans, and other types of consumer debt.

Debt Load Can Negatively Impact Daily Living

According to a Northwestern Mutual Insurance study, 40% of American adults spend as much as half the money they earn each month paying their debts. This severely limits them from saving, investing, or having fun taking trips and vacations with their families. Becoming financially literate at any age, but especially at an early age, can help people avoid the debt trap that sucks the life out of many hard-working Americans. They will learn how budgeting, saving, and managing debt can give them the money they need to purchase a home, enjoy time with their family, and invest in their future.

Learning To Handle Money Better

Learning to better handle the money they make is a modest yet worthy goal for any adult. Sadly, more than 25% of Americans don’t save any money at all from month to month. Business, education, and government leaders all agree the general public can benefit from being more financially literate. In the United Kingdom, they have made financial education a mandatory part of the school curriculum and in the U.S. there’s beginning to be a concerted effort to do the same thing to help spread and improve financial literacy among the general public.

Building A Solid Financial Foundation

Financial literacy is the key to building a solid financial foundation. In 2004, the U.S. Senate recognizing the need for Americans to learn more about money officially named April ‘Financial Literacy Month’. Their stated goal was making the public aware of how important financial education is to the country and that failure to understand and manage personal finances has serious long-term consequences. At its core, being financially literate mean having the knowledge necessary to make informed financial decisions that are astute and sustainable.

FAQ

What kinds of skills can parents teach your kids from a young age?

Children must learn many skills to meet all the challenges they will face in the future. They absorb everything around them since they are constantly learning. As parents, a familiar environment can be a bad or good influence on them. Moreover, It is the gestures, the behavior, and the attitude that a child learns from its parents, in addition to the series of natural things that are inherited. This means being a good financial example to children, having financial success, financial stability, and a good attitude. Since there are people with a toxic money relationship, and these problems might easily be passed on to the kids. After setting a good example for a child, you need to teach them skills such as regulating impulses and actions. It is one skill and a financial capability to seek instant reward but to have enough willpower to inquire greater recompense over a longer period. Lastly, it is good for them to learn to save by allowances and thus manage attitudes development, moral values, and norms that will help their financial knowledge and future well-being. 

How can you be wise with your money?

You have to be wise to manage money, how to generate it, and how to spend it. It is normal to feel overwhelmed about the prognosis of our finances in the future. Sometimes the world economy can get dark, food prices can increase and transportation, as well as volatility in the currency market, can occur and affect your personal finance. This requires us to be wise in our use of money against all odds and improve our personal finance education. Saving is extremely important, it helps to control and stabilize difficult situations in personal finance. A savings account would not be bad for an experienced saver or a new one. In any case, you have to spend money, but with discretion and control, since you will later regret unnecessary purchases. It is advisable to listen steadily to a financial professional in order to improve your economy. 

What are the main components of financial literacy?

There are many theoretical, mathematical, and accounting elements involved in finance that must be learned in entirety in order to understand the whole functioning of the financial services. In the financial literacy program, these elements have to be carefully understood, since they are different from each other but also related. General aspects of finance need to be read and learned, with financial components such as:

• Financial mathematics
• Money and capital
• Financial Analysis
• Financial goals
• Corporate Finance

Inside the financial study and in those components, we will find strategic aspects such as investment, loans, savings, costs, and expenses. As well as the financial security that requires having no more expenses than income. With these elements, we can nourish ourselves and have adequate knowledge to know if a project can be economically profitable or not. If you wish to be more professional about these topics, you can fully study in financial institutions. 

Who needs financial literacy skills?

If someone wants decision-making to be easy and well-grounded in personal finance, the best way is to be financially literate. Regardless of the career, preferences, or what you want to do, we will all be forced to manage money. In other words, everyone who wants to advance needs financial education. As a tool, financial culture is very efficient; it increases the stability and development of the general economic and financial system. Looking to the future, young people have to make economic and financial decisions in our society as markets are quite dynamic. This gives us a clue about the importance that will have to acquire a good financial culture from a youthful age.

How to improve your financial literacy?

Nowadays, having financial knowledge is an ultimate importance as it has become a necessity to manage our finances efficiently. Financial education not only makes us manage our money properly, but it additionally helps us grow and become more concrete and determined about what we want. There are many ways to improve our financial knowledge. First, know the financial language, because you have to understand what people are talking about. There are many terms that are basic and extremely necessary. You can also read or visit financial conferences in order to nourish your knowledge and have a wide and decisive perspective or judgment of what you desire to do.