Good financial habits need to start at a young age
June is Youth Month, and part of building a successful society, is nurturing healthy money habits from a young age
When times are tough, as they currently are, South Africans need to practise sound financial planning to steer clear of bad debt and other financial burdens. And here’s the important bit: financial planning is not a skill that can be delayed until your mid-30s or 40s. It needs to be developed from a young age. The earlier individuals learn to make sound financial decisions, the better their quality of life will be, as they move through different life stages.
The challenge is that financial literacy in SA is among the lowest in the world. In a 2015 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) International Network on Financial Education “Survey of Adult Financial Literacy Competencies” that measured the financial literacy in 30 G20 countries, SA ranked last. And while, yes, this can be partly attributed to high levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality, the growth of middle-income earners in SA and the reduction in overall poverty have not remedie...
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