Financial Literacy - a women's topic
The Australian Government is realising the importance of creating opportunities for women to learn more about money and how to manage it throughout the course of their lives.
To this end there is a recently published report entitled ‘Financial Literacy – Women Understanding Money’ which has taken a close look at the attitudes and behaviours of women in particular and how they manage their financial situation.
There are of course some facts which are well recognised : women tend to have lower average incomes than men, quite often women have broken work patterns (for family reasons) and therefore lower contributions to superannuation. These issues added to the fact that women generally live longer than men, means that women have to make a lot less go a lot further!
Some of the findings in this research will sound familiar : women tend to be less confident in their ability to manage money, less comfortable with their financial situation and more conservative in their approach to managing money.
However the report also demonstrated that women want to learn more about financial issues in order to give themselves the tools to make informed decisions and put them in charge of their money.
If you find yourself hungry for information, a great starting point for your research in order to increase your financial understanding are the new Information Sheets that have been produced by the government : Women Understanding Money is a series of 14 information sheets to assist in building money skills for a variety of eventualities from ‘Having a baby’ to ‘Getting ready for retirement’.
This is without question a great initiative and should be an important part of every woman’s life, however perhaps this is something that the government should be realising is important to ALL Australians not just women. As women we should be lobbying our ministers to ensure that Financial Literacy becomes something that is taught from an early age to all in schools and colleges.
It's never to late to learn something but the sooner you start the easier it is!
Happy investing!
For more info, visit www.understandingmoney.gov.au
