Finance Funding

Exactly What do Australian 15-year olds show their peers in New Zealand and Estonia?

Well, inning accordance with the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, Australian, Kiwi and Estonian teens rank third-equal worldwide for their monetary literacy abilities.

The PISA study, an initiative of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Advancement (OECD), found only 15-year olds from the Flemish-speaking areas of Belgium and their counterparts in Shanghai understood finance better than Australian kids.

While this is an inspiring result it is necessary not to have a look at excessive into it. In the first place, PISA surveyed simply 18 nations for monetary literacy.

And second of all we needed to share third-place honours with the Kiwis (Estonia we can cope with), which reveals that Australia has significant room for enhancement in monetary literacy.

This has actually been acknowledged by a broad range of stakeholders, including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which is collaborating an across the nation push to enhance monetary literacy across the board.

In its just-published 'National Financial Literacy Method', ASIC sets out a thorough plan of action including school curriculum, complimentary information services, assistance programs, industry collaborations and ongoing research.

ASIC specifies monetary literacy as "a mix of monetary understanding, capabilities, state of minds and behaviours needed to make sound monetary decisions, based on specific situations, to enhance monetary health and wellbeing".

" In today's stressful consumer society, monetary literacy is an important daily life capability. It suggests having the ability to understand and work out the monetary landscape, manage money and monetary dangers efficiently and avoid financial risks," ASIC states. "Improving financial literacy can benefit anybody, no matter age, earnings or background."

I completely support the effort to raise the level of Australians' financial literacy. As a financial consultant I get to see first-hand the, typically huge, holes in financial understanding in the Australian neighborhood.

Skeptics may argue that the monetary literacy gap in fact matches the advisory market. From my point of view, the much better the grounding our clients have in monetary concepts, the more reliable and efficient the advisory relationship.

With a financially-literate population, advisors can cut straight to the real issues instead of coaching financing 101.

Our money-smart 15-year olds augur well for the future. (By The Way, while PISA considered it as "not substantially various", Australia had a mean score of 526 < iframe width="560" height="315"src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HZ1rM1aDz4c" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen >