Financial management skills
H
ow do students manage their money, what do they think about controlling their own finances and what sort of skills do they need?
Many of life’s major decisions involve financial matters and with rapid change and high inflation the pressure on the younger generation is likely to increase. Financial management skills are therefore increasingly important so this study investigated how young people manage their money, including their spending, saving and investing patterns as well as their values concerning money, opinions of financial education and preferences for dealing with personal debt.
Key points from respondents ● 82.8% agreed that being capable of good personal financial management is very important. ● 67.5% and 54.5% respectively did not agree with spending money before they had earned it or borrowing money on behalf of friends. ● 48.6% admitted to having overspent their budgets in the past. Among them, the majority said they would prefer to spend their savings (63.5%) or earn more (53%) rather than overspending, using credit cards or taking loans. ● 38.2% said they did not budget for personal expenditure or record any details of their spending patterns. ● The majority rated preparing oneself to meet one’s own future financial goals as the most important function of financial education, rating it 8.03 on a 0-10 scale. ● Interviewees and experts agreed that the best time to implement financial education is at senior secondary school level and the best method is experiential learning.
Comments from Youth I.D.E.A.S think tank members David Wong, deputy convener “We recommend the inclusion of financial education in Other Learning Experiences as part of the Education Bureau’s New Senior Secondary Curriculum in order to give students a basic understanding of personal finance.” Report No. 46 HKFYG Youth I.D.E.A.S. Education and Innovation group Published title Improving Financial Education for Young People Respondents 1,034 young people, from those in Secondary 4 to recent graduates. [Interviews were also held with 5 experts in the field of financial education and 20 youth interviewees.] More details [in Chinese] Enquiries Angus Choi 3755 7038
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Jay Chan and Allison Chan, group members “A useful branding focus for the Investor and Financial Education Council (IFEC) would be encouraging financial planning in youth for better preparation to meet personal goals.” Derren Lam and Silver Ng, group members “The IFEC should also consider prioritizing the components suggested in the Hong Kong Financial Competency Framework and providing related teaching guidelines in order to help educators design lessons.”