FINANCIAL LITERACY IN INDIA

Financial Literacy has become one of the top priorities for most of the countries today as it is directly proportional to the economic growth of the country.
In India, Financial Literacy has still not become a priority like other developed nations. Lack of basic financial knowledge results in poor investments and financial decisions. That’s why most people invest in short-term plans and physical assets to accomplish their personal goals which give lesser benefits and does not help in the economic development of the country.
A survey was conducted by Street Fins and it was found that 76.3% of the respondents were never taught financial education or management in schools and colleges. The majority of the respondents were 16-40 years old and yet only 53.8% had a savings account. 59.2% of the respondents picked the wrong definition of Investment.
Therefore, these responses reaffirmed the need for financial literacy in India. Atul Kumar Gupta, president, ICAI also says, "India is home to around 17% population of the world and the literacy rate here is around 74%. While, out of the total population, only 24% population is financially literate. This reveals the pressing the need to educate the masses about the finance and savings.”

DEFINING FINANCIAL LITERACY

Financial literacy is “the ability to use knowledge and skills to make effective and informed money management decisions,” according to Investopedia. Financial literacy is knowing the basic financial management principles and applying them in our day-to-day life.

GAPS IN LEARNING

We go to schools, colleges, universities, institutions to get our education, to follow our dreams. These educational institutions help us get our dream jobs but don’t help us in managing the money we get from those dream jobs. Also, we are often expected to lead a life without any financial issues by not even having a peek of the concept, it’s more like expecting Ms. Granger to play Quidditch!
Finance in normal terms ‘money’ is something which we come across in our everyday lives, but not many are literate about the money management. Individuals and mid-age aren’t able to manage their income. There’s a disbalance between consumption and savings. Savings and investment are alien concepts for the majority of the population. School curriculum has restricted information and financial education is selectively taught to students who want to pursue a career in the same. It should be concerned because many young Indians are stepping in adulthood without financially literate for ensuring their future wellness and that of their children.

WHY FINANCIAL LITERACY MATTERS

Teaching kids’ personal financial literacy at early age of 12 can help develop them decision making skills. Learning on saving money can start from their early days, like saving money for their prom clothes or to buy the expensive gadgets! Early training in categorizing money establishes patterns for future money-management behaviour. Students who learn to manage their finances early and often become adults who are better equipped to live independently.
Financial education is also important for college going students as it is the first time those students are their own. They have to make all of their decisions by themselves. Learning how to judiciously spend money and allocating budgets to monthly expenses is very crucial. Without proper guidance, in the nick of time rigorous spending will become a habit which will then lead them to a wrong financial path where they will see themselves struggling in taking major life decisions like buying a home. As being missed out the opportunity for the current working professionals on financial literacy quite a lot of people who has a personal shopper at the Mitchell’s or Prada suffer, to talk about India where we make our children or you when you were a child, more often forced to explore the subjects which are overrated or which are already occupied by masses of no means of employment or sometimes which aren’t even future approaching.
Financial Education in students encourages family conversations, hands on learning opportunities and financial independence. Financial literacy will help you be well informed and mitigate the risks of you facing any situation involving fraud. Breaking down the benefits of being financially literate…

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR KIDS

To teach financial literacy for kids, you first need to understand the difficulties they face and how those can be addressed. Kids pick up information starting very young, and it’s crucial to turn pivotal moments into key opportunities for moulding positive financial behaviours.
Each child encounters a unique financial situation at home. The family’s socio-economic placement will have central impact on the challenges and opportunities affecting the child’s future finances. But although the birth lottery does influence a kid’s future, it’s still possible for any child to reach a higher level of personal finance knowledge and security than his or her parents did. It may just require a little extra effort.
From the moment of birth, a child starts developing behavioural habits. Think of all the messages kids receive related to money: parental modelling, advertisements, peer and societal pressures to spend. Building financial literacy for kids involves taking proactive steps to mould positive behaviours around money handling that can counteract marketing and social influences.
A child’s sentiments about money also play into his or her financial future. How do their parents feel about money? What emotions do their peers express about financial topics? Everyone develops a relationship with money, and as children mature, their financial sentiment solidifies. Those who teach financial literacy for kids must take care to help them to form positive money relationships and build their confidence. But it’s noted that K-12 education life of a child a concept on Financial education is made invisible for them.
Financial literacy for kids also demands high-quality education, in normal terms financial planning which most children are unlikely to receive either at home or at school. Just 23% of youth in a recent survey responded that they talk to their parents frequently about money. The next generation is always smarter in all the ways, but are they smart Financially? or it’s just the same cycle of generations of ‘not well enough’ for financially literate?

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR COLLEGE GRADUATES

We understand that college life is crazily beautiful but hectic on the other side mainly in the final semesters to be more precise. You must have heard that nothing is more dangerous than financially literate youth, ofc because everyone gets educated on all subjects like, You-Know -Who are they! Well, exactly those subjects come without saying. You might feel that studying financial literacy – while also keeping up with your coursework – is just too much to handle. Well, you can stop worrying right now because our goal is to make this super easy for you.
If you pay attention to managing your money properly, you'll be able to graduate with zero credit card debt and a good credit score. And what will that great score do for you? It will help you get approved for an apartment or an auto loan, if needed. Depending on where you want to work, it might even help you land the job that you want. Let’s not restrict with the emotion of feeling empowered after acquiring the complete knowledge. Just to be realistic, you can do some boasting too on having good financial habits to your future colleagues! Cerebro Campus offers programs which are especially made with the financial concepts which are and will rule the future for your grads to hold a bright future and also about the wide range of career options in this field. Have you heard anything better than this?

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR PROFESSIONALS

As young people grow up, a common goal is to live on their own. However, the challenges of independent living are often quite different from their expectations. This lesson provides a reality check for young professionals as they investigate the costs associated with moving, obtaining furniture and appliances, and renting an apartment. Just by reading a blog of ‘top 5 must dos in financial management or watching someone speak in a comical way in a closed darkroom, on how wrongly invested and got cheated or fell in debt, where people of your age laughs out so much because it’s relatable and they aren’t the only one in the room who faced it.’ hmm these aren’t going to make things better. So, let’s stop convincing ourselves of not being financially literate and focus on getting into it’s never too late or you are never too old to learn attitude!
A personal budget is a financial plan that allocates future income toward expenses, savings, and debt repayment. “Where does the money go?” is a common dilemma faced by many individuals and households when it comes to budgeting and money management. Effective money management starts with a goal and a step-by-step plan for saving and spending. Financial goals should be realistic, be specific, have a timeframe, and imply an action to be taken. It’s never too late to learn anything. We can’t be blamed if our education institutions didn’t offer the young Indians. To not have the feeling of missing out something, we at Cerebro Professionals, offer programs for working professionals from investment planning to retirement.

SO, ARE YOU LITERATE? LET’S DO QUICK SELF CHECK!

Here are a few questions which you can ask yourself to know your financial literacy rate:

• 1. Are you able to understand basic financial concepts like compound interest, credit scores, mutual funds etc?
• 2. Are you able to make effective financial decisions?
• 3. Do you know the best ways to generate cash flow?
• 4. Are you able to make effective financial planning?
• 5. Are you able to manage your personal finances well?
• 6. Are you aware of the most profitable savings techniques?
• 7. Do you have enough savings for your rainy days?
• 8.Do you live a debt-free life?
• 9.Do you know the best investment options for gaining maximum profit?
• 10. Do you have the solutions for your financial problems?

Now, if you get more of Nos and you are not able to find satisfactory answers to these questions, then you need to educate yourself on financial concepts as soon as possible. The lack of knowledge on financial literacy may lead to making poor financial decisions that can have serious impacts on your financial well-being. Hence, it is high time we understood our finances well and did better financial planning and investments for a smooth financial life. Start exploring our financial literacy programs!

WHY CEREBRO KIDS

With a vision to make everyone to realize their Ikigai, we at Cerebro kids- The Financial Literacy Academy, intend to make the young kids and college grads future-ready by providing skills and education that are relevant to deal with real world challenges as well as for long-term career planning; and professional to have a better tomorrow by the making the finest decision on financial planning.
With our well-established teaching procedures and renowned group of mentors from the world class institutions, we help one to identify their Ikigai, develop the right skills and acquire the right knowledge to shape their careers and realize their full potential to achieve success. Changing times demand our kids to be not just “coders” but thinkers and designers of next-gen ideas
In our financial literacy academy from India, we aim in developing the skill of financial ingenuity. Our programs are very diverse in nature we help not only younger generations to acquire skills like financial and analytical intelligence we also aim to provide the long-lost guidance to people wanting to either establish a career in finance or who are professionals and are looking to equip themselves with the changing need of the world by diving into concepts like Fin-Tech and other systems which will be and already started to conquer the industry in finance. Our teaching mode is made of unique practices and widely used in many countries; our delivery of the concepts is crafted according to the aptitude & competency level of respective groups.
While there are various ways to get financial literacy, we recommend you join programs are Cerebro Kids as they are concise, yet highly engaging programs curated by the best of minds from IIT and IIMs.