Improving Financial Literacy
Some of my favourite people in all the world are those that never stop learning. Every time you see them, they’ve enrolled in a new course, have a new hobby, have started reading tomes on Hadrian’s Wall and its lasting effects. There’s an excitement and hunger for life and new experience that makes them wonderful to be with. And while finance, and especially our own finances, might seem to be far less interesting than a study of Ancient Greek pottery, it provides us with an area in which we can always learn more, and will quickly benefit from. There will always be something more to learn, and something that might make your financial life improve. Here are some take-home points on how to improve our financial literacy.
Learn About Bank Accounts And Financial Products
You’re not an expert, you’ve got a lot of other things in life to think about, so you can’t be expected to keep up with every new thing when it comes to bank accounts and financial products. That’s a full time job in itself, so why not talk to someone who’s job it it? Set up a meeting with your local banker, and get them to take through all the options that your bank has available. Often, to attract new customer, there might be an account with a great interest rate or a special deal if you roll over all your credit card debt. A short meeting could be all you need to significantly improve the set up of your finances.
Read The Finance Pages
Reading news about the stock market is like reading horoscopes- it’s enjoyable, but may or may not happen. Instead, concentrate on reading about investment advice or news in consumer affairs. Often a really helpful way of getting more literate about finance is reading biographical pieces. People who are good with finance will often have interesting or motivating ways of approaching money issues, which are as relevant for those of us with thousands of dollars in savings, as opposed to millions. Finance pages might be a bit daunting at first, but after a while, you start to recognize the players, a bit of knowledge that can’t hurt at dinner parties. In terms of specialist papers, the Financial Review or the Economist magazine are hard to go past.
Blogs
Sometimes, the most important motivator is to know you’re not alone. Lots of people struggle with debt, or savings, or advancing in their career, and there are a million blogs to prove it. The ingenuity of the human race is on full display in the blogosphere and there are suggestions, from the creative to the insane, on how to approach your finances. Man Vs Debt is still a great blog for a first person perspective on getting out of debt, and Dollars and Sense has fantastic, down-to-earth savings tips and tricks.
Online Tools
Put away the spreadsheet, and use something that has been created for that exact purpose. To be truly financially literate, you need to know the ins and outs of your own finances. Beyond the money diary and the monthly budget, how much can you hazard about the future? There are a million online tools to help your financial awareness, from mortgage calculators to loan finders (I especially like the Victorian Government loan finder for small businesses).
Get Bookish
One of the best ways to increase your financial literacy is to fully immerse yourself in it, and what better way to do so than an engaging book? There are a million slants on personal finance in the book world, so there is sure to be something that you respond to. From the general overview, through to the specific books on finance for women or finance and zen, there will without a doubt be a book in there for you somewhere.
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