Financial Literacy And Financial Education

It is a well-known saying that money does not buy happiness. But it certainly helps in life. It is important to have enough of it to satisfy our needs and to secure ourselves from emergency situations. That's what adults think. And what about the youth? What is their approach to money, what do they know about finances and how are their skills in everyday financial management coming along? What kind of knowledge and skills should be provided? Do young people in different countries represent similar or different approaches to financial matters? Using the results of a research on young people in Poland and Germany, the authors draw a picture of financial literacy. They furthermore present a number of recommendations that help developing the knowledge and the financial skills of young people in practice.

This book describes the different types of financial education programmes currently available in OECD countries, evaluates their effectiveness, and makes suggestions to improve them.

Financial literacy and financial education are not new topics, even though interest in these topics among policymakers, financial authorities, and academics continues to grow. The Routledge Handbook of Financial Literacy provides a comprehensive reference work that addresses both research perspectives and practical applications to financial education. This is the first volume to summarize the milestones of research in financial literacy from multiple perspectives to offer an overview. The book is organized into six parts. The first three parts provide a conceptual framework, which discusses what financial literacy is, how it should be measured, and explains why it represents a relevant topic and effective tool in enhancing decision-making among consumers as well as consumer protection strategies. Part IV addresses the connection between financial education and financial literacy, with chapters about financial education in school settings as well as for adults. This part includes an analysis of the role of Fintech and the use of gamification in financial education. Part V is a collection of contributions that analyze financial literacy and financial education around the world, with a focus on geographical areas including the U.S., South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. This part also considers how financial literacy should be addressed in the case of Islamic finance. The concluding part of the book examines how financial literacy is related to other possible approaches to consumer finance and consumer protection, addressing the relationships between financial literacy and behavioral economics, financial well-being, and financial inclusion. This volume is an indispensable reference for scholars who are new to the topic, including undergraduate and graduate students, and for experienced researchers who wish to enrich their knowledge, policymakers seeking a broader understanding and an international perspective, and practitioners who seek knowledge of best practices as well as innovative approaches.

This book introduces the concept of financial capability and assembles the latest evidence from ground-breaking innovations with financially vulnerable families, and links it to education, policy, and practice. It is a key resource for those interested in improving financial education and financial products and services for low-income families.

This book explores the issue of consumer financial education, responding to increased interest in, and calls to improve peoples’ financial literacy skills and abilities to understand and manage their money. New conceptual frameworks introduced in the book offer academic audiences an innovative way of thinking about the project on financial literacy education. Using the concepts of ‘edu-regulation’ and ‘financial knowledge democratisation’ to analyse the financial education project in the UK, the book exposes serious, and often ignored, limitations to using information and education as tools for consumer protection. It challenges the mainstream representation of financial literacy education as a viable solution to consumer financial exclusion and poverty. Instead, it argues that the project on financial literacy education fails to acknowledge important dependences between consumer financial behaviour and the socio-economic, political, and cultural context within which consumers live. Finally, it reveals how these international and national calls for ever greater financial education oversimplify and underestimate the complexity of consumer financial decision-making in our modern times.

This innovative book explores how the design of financial education programmes could benefit from the findings of behavioural economics and finance and cognitive sciences. It covers the social, cultural and technological determinants of financial education, the role of the banking system in promoting financial literacy, and how governments and regulatory authorities are dealing with financial education and risk literacy programmes in schools.

College students are particularly vulnerable to making poor financial decisions. One method of addressing personal finances and financial stress among students of higher education is through university based financial education programs. Student Financial Literacy: Program Development presents effective strategies to assist in the implementation or the enhancement of a program as a tool to improve students’ educational experience and financial well-being. It presents the key components of financial education programs designed to address the growing concerns associated with high levels of debt and low levels of financial literacy among college students. “Student Financial Literacy: Campus-Based Program Development is packed with financial education and counseling information and guidance. It was very difficult to write this review as I wanted to share ALL the excellent direction this book provides... The editors and contributing authors have developed an excellent resource for not only those interested in developing or enhancing a campus-based financial education program but also for anyone involved in financial education, counseling, and planning.” -Rebecca J. Travnichek, Family Financial Education Specialist, University of Missouri Extension Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning

This second edition of the authoritative resource summarizes the state of consumer finance research across disciplines for expert findings on—and strategies for enhancing—consumers’ economic health. New and revised chapters offer current research insights into familiar concepts (retirement saving, bankruptcy, marriage and finance) as well as the latest findings in emerging areas, including healthcare costs, online shopping, financial therapy, and the neuroscience behind buyer behavior. The expanded coverage also reviews economic challenges of diverse populations such as ethnic groups, youth, older adults, and entrepreneurs, reflecting the ubiquity of monetary issues and concerns. Underlying all chapters is the increasing importance of financial literacy training and other large-scale interventions in an era of economic transition. Among the topics covered: Consumer financial capability and well-being. Advancing financial literacy education using a framework for evaluation. Financial coaching: defining an emerging field. Consumer finance of low-income families. Financial parenting: promoting financial self-reliance of young consumers. Financial sustainability and personal finance education. Accessibly written for researchers and practitioners, this Second Edition of the Handbook of Consumer Finance Research will interest professionals involved in improving consumers’ fiscal competence. It also makes a worthwhile text for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in economics, family and consumer studies, and related fields.

The objective of this book is to prompt a re-examination of financial literacy, its social foundations, and its relationship to citizenship education. The collection includes topics that concern indigenous people’s perspectives, critical race theory, and transdisciplinary perspectives, which invite a dialogue about the ideologies that drive traditional and critical perspectives. This volume offers readers opportunities to learn about different views of financial literacy from a variety of sociological, historical and cultural perspectives. The reader may perceive financial literacy as representing a multifaceted concept best interpreted through a non-segregated lens. The volume includes chapters that describe groundings for revising standards, provide innovative teaching concepts, and offer unique sociological and historical perspectives. This book contains 13 chapters, with each one speaking to a distinctive topic that, taken as a whole, offers a well-rounded vision of financial literacy to benefit social education, its research, and teaching. Each chapter provides a response from an alternative view, and the reader can also access an eResource featuring the authors’ rejoinders. It therefore offers contrasting visions about the nature and purpose of financial education. These dissimilar perspectives offer an opportunity for examining different social ideologies that may guide approaches to financial literacy and citizenship, along with the philosophies and principles that shape them. The principles that teach and inform about financial literacy defines the premises for base personal and community responsibility. The work invites researchers and practitioners to reconsider financial literacy/financial education and its social foundations. The book will appeal to a range of students, academics and researchers across a number of disciplines, including economics, personal finance/personal economics, business ethics, citizenship, moral education, consumer education, and spiritual education.