Finance Choices
British youth afraid of money
A large number of young Britons are afraid of "crucial" money management tasks.
According to a survey by Barclays, almost one 16 to 24-year-old in three (29 per cent) could not prepare or manage a weekly budget, with almost half (47 per cent) not knowing how to apply for benefits.
"This research clearly indicates that we still have a long way to go when it comes to teaching young people how to manage their finances, and giving them the ?cash confidence? needed for their next steps in life; whether it be study, employment or training," said Peter Kelly, head of financial inclusion for Barclays.
The bank also uncovered that two young Brits in three do not know about the Entry to Employment programme and 58 per cent are unaware of the Help with Health Costs allowance.
But while they are unaware of theses schemes, Barclays finds that many could be eligible for benefits including almost £2,000 in Working and Child Tax Credits, or up to £1,500 in Education Maintenance Allowance or Jobseekers Allowance.
Mr Kelly added: "Although the research indicated that almost one quarter (21 per cent) registered staying out of debt or getting into money trouble as the most important to them at this stage in life, the realities were that very few actually knew how to avoid this happening and only 38 per cent were able to name any sources of support, advice or resources available.
"We are particularly concerned about those young people who are not aware of the full range of benefits and allowances available to them when starting out or if they are in disadvantaged circumstances."
To try to address this, Barclays has developed MoneySkills and moneychoices - resource packages available for youth workers and advice agencies.
They are available free here.
According to a survey by Barclays, almost one 16 to 24-year-old in three (29 per cent) could not prepare or manage a weekly budget, with almost half (47 per cent) not knowing how to apply for benefits.
"This research clearly indicates that we still have a long way to go when it comes to teaching young people how to manage their finances, and giving them the ?cash confidence? needed for their next steps in life; whether it be study, employment or training," said Peter Kelly, head of financial inclusion for Barclays.
The bank also uncovered that two young Brits in three do not know about the Entry to Employment programme and 58 per cent are unaware of the Help with Health Costs allowance.
But while they are unaware of theses schemes, Barclays finds that many could be eligible for benefits including almost £2,000 in Working and Child Tax Credits, or up to £1,500 in Education Maintenance Allowance or Jobseekers Allowance.
Mr Kelly added: "Although the research indicated that almost one quarter (21 per cent) registered staying out of debt or getting into money trouble as the most important to them at this stage in life, the realities were that very few actually knew how to avoid this happening and only 38 per cent were able to name any sources of support, advice or resources available.
"We are particularly concerned about those young people who are not aware of the full range of benefits and allowances available to them when starting out or if they are in disadvantaged circumstances."
To try to address this, Barclays has developed MoneySkills and moneychoices - resource packages available for youth workers and advice agencies.
They are available free here.
posted by Bruce Wayne at 7:35 AM
British youth afraid of money
6 Comments:
I had my first paper route when I was $13. I think I made maybe $10-$20 a week. My mother made me put 1/2 of it in the bank. My parents taught me alot of saving.
I was I had a paper route very young too I took over my brothers he was alot older than me I would say I was 7 when I took it over my best friend & I did it together my mom would help us. And from the time I can rembmer I loved money I loved saving it & counting it & I started saving for my first car very young & then after I got that I started saving to move out & buy a trailer or house.
Sadly enough and strangely enough, I was...I started saving money for a "brand new" car when I was 12...I ended up using the money as downpayment for the apartment when my (now ex) husband and I got married...- I asked for it back now that we sold the apartment, and it went into paying debts! - ...I worked at my parents store since the age of 10 - should have seen the customers' faces when they saw ME at the register!!...LOL! It was an ancient thing and, we had a scale and one of those accounting machines (contometro) next to it, so I would weigh the merchandise, find the price on a list, do the math in the contometro (2lb X $0.50, say) and then input that in my cash register...LOL! - I saved half my money from that...once I started the university, I had more spare time and I started giving English lessons...I didn't save as much, but, I did buy my own gas and my own books for the uni, so my parents (my grandma, actually) paid only for tuition...Later on, when I started working, I saved a fixed amount each payday...I used to save to buy the things that I wanted...unfortunately, bad habits are easy to acquire...ex-hubby was of the mind that why save, if you could just put it into your cc and pay it back in X amount of months (he was disciplined enough to comply with his schedule, though, so if he said he was going to pay for something in 3 months, he did)
I'm always careful with my money but I'm not sure where it came from. I would get $$ for birthdays from my grandmother, and I don't remember if this was my parents' rule or what but it always went into my savings account. Once I started babysitting etc, that money went in there, too.
My money habits (such as they are) now are mostly thanks to my sister. She is 11 years older than me and she is very pro-budget, pro-saving. She taught me a lot very early about saving, so that the second I got out of college I opened a Roth IRA.
I worked hard to earn poor amounts of cash. I was doing paper rounds from the age of 12, at one point doing two in the morning and one in the afternoon. I worked some Saturdays supervising younger children play football at a local sports centre. My pocket money was a joke.
However, saving the cash proved as hard as earning the stuff in the first place.
When i got a real job i suddenly had this increase in funds so i generally spent it faster than i earnt it.
Lessons are soon learnt and I now have a large mortgage to contend with. Therefore I am a lot more sensible with my cash these days.
My parents did a good job of teaching me how to respect money from a young age. My mom would pay me 2 cents for each tree in the yard that I clipped the grass around on lawn-mowing day. After some time I learned to renegotiate for 3 cents. At first I would save enough to buy a 99 cent Lensley Matchbox car, but also learned that would mean I didn't have the 99 cents anymore. I also learned that if you save pennies, pretty soon you have dollars. I was raised to be frugal, and that is the biggest part of being financially stable. Just that taught me to never owe more than I had. However, it wasn't until my last year of graduate school that I took a formal finance-oriented class, called Mine Valuation. It was the first time that I was taught how to calculate interest rates, time value of money, amortization schedules, etc. It saved me $115,000 by showing me how important it was to pay principle on my mortgage and wipe out the interest.
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