As defined contribution pensions become prevalent, retirees are increasingly responsible for managing their own pension assets and thus their own financial literacy becomes crucial. Based on empirical evidence and new research, the book examines how financial literacy enhances retirement decision-making in ever more complex financial markets.
Financial illiteracy is the #1 economic crisis in the world, impacting more than 5 billion people across the planet. The few who know how money works take advantage of those who do not - the suckers. This book is designed to help you break the cycle of endless debt, foolish spending and financial cluelessness so you can stop being a sucker, start being a student and take control of your financial future.
Many of the financial problems facing the U.S. can be traced to financial illiteracy among large segments of the population. Consider: 1. If people understood the relation between the economy and monetary policy they probably would not have taken out adjustable rate mortgages at precisely the time the Federal Reserve was set to raise interest rates. 2. If people understood the difference between the effective annual and the annual percentage rate they would likely incur less high cost credit card debt. 3. If people understood the benefits of tax-deferred compounding they likely would begin contributing to their retirement plan earlier in life -- resulting in substantially more wealth when they retire. Financial Illiteracy in America argues that financial illiteracy derives from the absence of personal finance instruction in most U.S. public high schools and a mistaken reliance, on the part of many, that the best way to learn about financial topics is through one's parents or life experiences. The problem is that most parents do not have the financial background to impart financial knowledge to their children, while learning through life experiences often results in costly mistakes or realizing a problem when it is too late. Financial Illiteracy in America outlines what young people need to know to get a head start in putting their lives on a sound financial footing including topics such as: - Using financial services intelligently - Does a young person need insurance? - Opening and operating a brokerage account- Investments a young person should make- Globalization effects on the prices of goods and services purchased by young people Finally, Financial Illiteracy in America� presents a curriculum for teaching personal finance to high school students. Financial Illiteracy in America was written by Eric J. Weiss, Certified Financial Planner PROFESSIONAL who also teaches an "Introduction to Finance" course to college students. Mr. Weiss's experience with clients and students sparked the idea for this book and has convinced him of the paramount importance of increasing financial literacy in the U.S.
Government policies, marketing campaigns of banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, and consumers' protective actions all depend on assumptions about consumer financial behavior. Unfortunately, many consumers have no or little knowledge of budgeting, financial products, and financial planning. It is therefore important that organizations and market authorities know why consumers spend, borrow, insure, invest, and save for their retirement - or why they do not. Understanding Consumer Financial Behavior provides a systemic economic and behavioral approach to the way people handle their finances. It discusses the different types of financial behaviors consumers may engage in and explores the psychological explanations for their behavior and choices. This exciting new book is essential reading for scholars of marketing, finance, and management; financial professionals; and consumer policy makers.
Consumer financial literacy education often appears as a helpful, commonsense solution to neoliberalism and the individualization of responsibility for economic risk. However, in Financial Literacy Education: Neoliberalism, the Consumer and the Citizen this particular literacy is argued to be both ineffective and unjust. Socially created poverty, unemployment and economic insecurity require more than individual consumer solutions; they require collective responses by engaged, critical citizens. Utilizing concepts from Marx, Foucault, Bourdieu and Baudrillard this book challenges those who claim that ‘there is no alternative’ to neoliberal insecurity and reduce education to a consumerist training of entrepreneurial consumer-citizens who can continually invest in themselves and the market. Through an analysis of consumer fi nancial literacy education’s present and historical supports, as well as its likely effects, this book argues that the choice before us is not fi nancial illiteracy or fi nancial literacy. Rather, the choice is between subjugation to the requirements of perpetual competition or overcoming alienation, insecurity and exploitation, aims the critical fi nancial literacy education outlined at the end of this book supports. This book will appeal to those interested in understanding the conditions of our freedom in an increasingly fi nancialized world – critical educators, philosophers and sociologists of education and fi nancial literacy researchers.
This book explores the issue of consumer financial education, responding to increased interest in, and calls to improve peoples’ financial literacy skills and abilities to understand and manage their money. New conceptual frameworks introduced in the book offer academic audiences an innovative way of thinking about the project on financial literacy education. Using the concepts of ‘edu-regulation’ and ‘financial knowledge democratisation’ to analyse the financial education project in the UK, the book exposes serious, and often ignored, limitations to using information and education as tools for consumer protection. It challenges the mainstream representation of financial literacy education as a viable solution to consumer financial exclusion and poverty. Instead, it argues that the project on financial literacy education fails to acknowledge important dependences between consumer financial behaviour and the socio-economic, political, and cultural context within which consumers live. Finally, it reveals how these international and national calls for ever greater financial education oversimplify and underestimate the complexity of consumer financial decision-making in our modern times.
If you’ve ever bought a personal finance book, watched a TV show about stock picking, listened to a radio show about getting out of debt, or attended a seminar to help you plan for your retirement, you’ve probably heard some version of these quotes: “What’s keeping you from being rich? In most cases, it is simply a lack of belief.” —SUZE ORMAN, The Courage to Be Rich “Are you latte-ing away your financial future?” —DAVID BACH, Smart Women Finish Rich “I know you’re capable of picking winning stocks and holding on to them.” —JIM CRAMER, Mad Money They’re common refrains among personal finance gurus. There’s just one problem: those and many similar statements are false. For the past few decades, Americans have spent billions of dollars on personal finance products. As salaries have stagnated and companies have cut back on benefits, we’ve taken matters into our own hands, embracing the can-do attitude that if we’re smart enough, we can overcome even daunting financial obstacles. But that’s not true. In this meticulously reported and shocking book, journalist and former financial columnist Helaine Olen goes behind the curtain of the personal finance industry to expose the myths, contradictions, and outright lies it has perpetuated. She shows how an industry that started as a response to the Great Depression morphed into a behemoth that thrives by selling us products and services that offer little if any help. Olen calls out some of the biggest names in the business, revealing how even the most respected gurus have engaged in dubious, even deceitful, practices—from accepting payments from banks and corporations in exchange for promoting certain products to blaming the victims of economic catastrophe for their own financial misfortune. Pound Foolish also disproves many myths about spending and saving, including: Small pleasures can bankrupt you: Gurus popularized the idea that cutting out lattes and other small expenditures could make us millionaires. But reducing our caffeine consumption will not offset our biggest expenses: housing, education, health care, and retirement. Disciplined investing will make you rich: Gurus also love to show how steady investing can turn modest savings into a huge nest egg at retirement. But these calculations assume a healthy market and a lifetime without any setbacks—two conditions that have no connection to the real world. Women need extra help managing money: Product pushers often target women, whose alleged financial ignorance supposedly leaves them especially at risk. In reality, women and men are both terrible at handling finances. Financial literacy classes will prevent future economic crises: Experts like to claim mandatory sessions on personal finance in school will cure many of our money ills. Not only is there little evidence this is true, the entire movement is largely funded and promoted by the financial services sector. Weaving together original reporting, interviews with experts, and studies from disciplines ranging from behavioral economics to retirement planning, Pound Foolish is a compassionate and compelling book that will change the way we think and talk about our money.
This book describes the different types of financial education programmes currently available in OECD countries, evaluates their effectiveness, and makes suggestions to improve them.
Many adults attend financial education classes to help them make more informed financial decisions, based on their knowledge of their financial situation available cash or funds planned expenditures. This volume brings together scholars from the fields of adult education and financial literacy and covers topics that reveal the interrelatedness of the two fields. They show how concepts and knowledge about adult education can be utilized in and illuminate financial education, and they offer insights about how financial education, as an eminently practical subject, shows adults learning and putting their new knowledge into action. This is the 141st volume of this Jossey-Bass series. Noted for its depth of coverage, it explores issues of common interest to instructors, administrators, counselors, and policymakers in a broad range of adult and continuing education settings, such as colleges and universities, extension programs, businesses, libraries, and museums.
It is a well-known saying that money does not buy happiness. But it certainly helps in life. It is important to have enough of it to satisfy our needs and to secure ourselves from emergency situations. That's what adults think. And what about the youth? What is their approach to money, what do they know about finances and how are their skills in everyday financial management coming along? What kind of knowledge and skills should be provided? Do young people in different countries represent similar or different approaches to financial matters? Using the results of a research on young people in Poland and Germany, the authors draw a picture of financial literacy. They furthermore present a number of recommendations that help developing the knowledge and the financial skills of young people in practice.