Money is important in our life, the more you have the more things you can enjoy that too in a better way. But having a large sum of money today doesn't guarantee that you will have that few months later too. Everyone needs to know how to manage their finance. I feel that I don't know much about finance and how to deal with it. So, if tomorrow I won a lottery of 1 billion I don't think I would use it as efficiently as a Financially literate person would. I would simply think of investing it in real estate, stocks, saving accounts and keep some for my personal use. But If you ask me why I invested my money in x and not y, then I won't be able to give you a proper explanation because all I did was to l get advice from my family, friends and internet and invested after checking that there won't be any loss if I do so.
I definitely think this is not a way how it should be done. Anyone should be able to manage their finance, and not only manage but also know how they can earn money without depending on their family or job. This is why I feel financial literacy is important and we should learn more about it.
Every week I am going to learn more about finance and write a blog on it too so that it can motivate others to improve their knowledge in finance, because many schools & colleges don't teach us about it (at least not in Indian schools) nor do our family (at least mine)... If your family or schools thought you about finance do let me know in comments would love to know that.
Lets start with how does Wikipedia defines Financial Literacy -
Financial literacy is the possession of the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources.
How can we become financially literate
To become a financial literate one needs to know
- how to earn
- where to spend
- where to invest
- when to borrow (loans/ debt)
- how to protect (from frauds, thefts)
You also need to know how to create a budget, keep track of expenses, make timely payments, saving money and investing in skills as well as money.
How do you understand you are Financially literate
We would obviously know that we our financially literate if the money we have is growing and we are able to manage it well. But apart from that if you are following these 4 rules then you have added a good knowledge in your finance dictionary and congrats for that
- Don't invest in what you don't understand.
- Debt is a powerful but a deadly weapon.
- Think rich.
- Develop skills to acquire assets.
These are the rules I watched in this video and would highly recommend all of you to watch too.
Thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed it.