Financial Education and Training: Empowering Your Financial Future

Celebrating Financial Literacy Month: Your Roadmap to Financial Health and Success

April marks Financial Literacy Month, a time to highlight the importance of financial education and encourage the pursuit of financial health for everyone. I’d love to reflect on where we stand on financial literacy and safety.

According to Standard & Poor’s Global Financial Literacy Survey, 57% of adults in the U.S. are financially literate. The country ranks 14th worldwide on basic financial skills, behind Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, and other countries, which had 61% or higher rates of financial literacy. These numbers are consistent across generations.
As we celebrate Financial Literacy Month, it’s the perfect time to create a plan for financial success. Here are some of the things that require our immediate attention:

Start Them Young, But Don’t Leave the Old Out
It’s easy to identify the roots of Americans’ financial literacy crisis. 75% of American teens need more confidence in their personal finance skills. After all, only 23 states in the U.S. require financial literacy in high schools!
Ill-equipped to manage their finances from childhood, Americans grow up to become awful at it. The lack of financial education has led to a financial challenge of epic proportions in the country. Americans have racked up a staggering $800 billion in credit card debt. Although 3% of adults between ages 40 to 49 had credit card debt, compared to 5% among ages 18 to 29, the adults had vastly different problems. According to a recent poll, 85% of adults had poor retirement budgets and were stressed about retiring.
Sure, there is a dire need to instill strong personal finance management skills in young individuals. At the same time, adults of all ages require education, resources, and tools to manage their personal finance and financial goals effectively.

Brands Need to be More Financially Responsible Towards Their Customers
Thanks to innovations like embedded finance, new businesses have become sources of financial services for customers. Buy-now-pay-later, POS lending, integrated insurance services, fintech-as-a-service, embedded car…