What is financial literacy?
Financial literacy means more than you may think. It is important to take financial literacy one step at a time, knowing that these steps need to be revisited as your financial situation grows, develops, and changes. The foundation of these steps is built on having knowledge, not only about income, spending, and saving, but how to apply these concepts to your situation and lifestyle.
What does all of that mean? You can learn how to budget, but that does not mean you are following a budget. Financial literacy can cover many topics: how to read financial documents, getting a job, saving for retirement, investments, how to prepare for emergencies, budgeting, monitoring, assessing your current financial status, buying property, insurance, taxes, and how to protect your finances from potential pitfalls or identity theft. You will need to revisit financial topics throughout your life. For example, what happens when you get a new job? Or lose a job? Or your car breaks down? Or buy a house? Life events cost money and having a stable foundation in financial literacy will help you manage what comes your way.
How Can You Apply Financial Literacy?
As you learn the terminology and concepts of financial literacy, it is even more important to learn how to apply that information. The best part is, you can start immediately, and these are skills that you will build for the rest of your life. There may be mistakes along the way, but overall, your knowledge in financial literacy will give you a level of protection that others may not have.
Consider this scenario: you unexpectedly find out you need to buy a new tire for your car. Unexpected expenses are never fun. But you previously learned the importance of an emergency fund and began saving $20 a month for the last six months. By investing in your emergency fund—an action of applying knowledge about emergency funds—you may lower your financial and mental stress if you have saved some, if not all, of the money needed for this situation. Even if you are unable to cover all of an emergency expense, covering some of it helps in the end.
Additional Tools
In today’s world, knowing about financial literacy also means knowing how to use the tools to keep track of your financial records. It can be anything from knowing how to check the balance of your checking account to how to get an IRA. Knowing which tools work for you may take some patience and practice, as there are many methods and devices to choose from. You will need to assess what your needs are for financial tools and then find the one that best matches your financial needs.
Be Outgrowing Financial Literacy Course
Our financial literacy course stretches you beyond knowledge, emphasizing application. This course is designed to help you get started, not only on the knowledge part, but also to evaluate your relationship with your finances and how to improve your future potential. As you start out, we will teach you what financial tools are necessary. You will then have opportunities to learn about different situations that may require the use of those tools, and how to apply essential financial tools to your specific financial situation
We structure the financial literacy course using a growth mindset approach. What does this mean? Check out what why we believe in a growth mindset and how it relates to our financial literacy course.
Are you ready to enroll in a financial literacy course? Enroll today!