Conversations
a c r y e t i L Fina ncia l cold, h a s a c e k a io n t a s Do n’ t m r e v n ha rd co Dirksen By Shawna
THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT money
that makes people squirm. Like the “sex talk,” the “where money comes from” talk is something that doesn’t happen in every household. But how did money become such a dirty word when being financially literate is so important? Whether we’re graduating from school, renting our first apartment, starting a family, launching a start-up or retiring, our finances are 6 T8Nmagazine.com
tied to nearly every major benchmark in our lives. And with the payoffs being so big and the losses being so devastating, it’s time we stopped settling for half-truths and financial advice from the wrong sources. Instead, let’s start exploring what it means to be well informed about fina ncia l matters — sta rting with learning the lexicon needed to begin the conversation.
Turning the Page on Financial Literacy Being financially literate means having the knowledge and skills to make effective choices about managing money. In 2015, the Canadian Bankers Association conducted a nationwide study on financial literacy, where participants were asked five multiple-choice, financial-knowledge questions. Overall, 13 percent of participants got all 5 questions correct, and 1 in 3 failed to get more than 2 questions correct.
