The need for personal financial education

Spring is here, we’ve had the budget, the clocks have changed and the immediate budget headlines have subsided – a good time to review where we are at.

So, we must get down to the serious stuff and there is plenty of it. We are entering a new governmental financial year and now is the time that all the cuts are going to start having an impact; on jobs, on funding, on contracts for both public and private sector. Also we are now firmly in the implementation phase of the abolition of the Default Retirement Age and employers and employees have a whole new challenge ahead of them.

Meanwhile, people keep getting older and reaching, or not reaching, retirement age as the case may be. But, nevertheless, many are looking ahead of them and seeing that life may not be as rosy as they would have liked or even expected, only a few years ago. Pensions may be inadequate, retirement plans are being put on hold and the spectre of having to find funds for care costs for oneself or one’s relatives is looming larger.

No doubt we will muddle on and, hopefully, in the long run times will get better. But some of the fundamental problems will not go away and one of them is the general lack of understanding of what it takes on an individual basis, structurally and financially, to get through life in some kind of a balanced fashion.

To do some things in life you have to throw large sums of money at them; for others you just have put in time and effort and commitment. This falls into the latter category.

It really is time people had a better grasp of the financial aspects of life and thereby more confidence to plan the lives ahead of them.

But they need help. For more click here