Children need to be involved in family budget discussions from an early age
Children need to be involved in family budget discussions from an early age in order to learn the value of money and what financial responsibility is, said Prof. DSc. Anna Nedyalkova, President of Varna Free University “Chernorizets Hrabar” during the conference Financial Education for Sustainable Economy, organised by Bulgaria ON AIR media group, Investor.bg and Bloomberg TV. She also added that the experts who teach financial literacy to young people have to be makers of the relevant financial product. Meanwhile, students need to learn to be reasonable consumers.
Is it the state’s responsibility to coordinate the society’s acquisition of financial literacy or is it the job of the private sector – this was the focus of discussion in the second conference panel.
According to a survey into the financial literacy of Bulgarians, conducted by Provident Financial Bulgaria и GFK, a tiny 25% of the respondents think they are financially literate, while about half of them would like to know more about how to invest their money. Around 66% of the respondents prefer a fixed interest rate, but few can explain what it is.
The results show a positive trend – most Bulgarians would like to improve their financial literacy, said Atila Horvat, CEO of Provident Financial Bulgaria. He said that a national strategy for financial education is of paramount importance.
Snezhanka Koleva, an expert at the Ministry of Finance, said that financial training need to be part not only of the secondary but also of the higher education. At the same time, social groups which are outside secondary and higher education also need to be targeted. Financial literacy needs to be achieved by the unemployed, the over indebted and the low income groups, where the problem of financial training is pressing.
If school education wants to give an equal chance to everyone, financial training has to be compulsory, thinks Daniela Bobeva, former Deputy Prime Minister. She added that this is already a fact in 7 European countries.
“Around 30% of the Bulgarian population does not use any financial services exactly because of the lack of relevant training. The most popular financial services are the debit card and the liability insurance”, said she.
Prof. Steve Hanke pointed out that the developments in pension provision in different countries highlight the advantages of the private sector. He commented that the value of state pension funds goes down, while private pension schemes gain greater significance.
As an example he talked about Chile, where private pension funds strongly prevail, which has motivated the population to gain financial literacy. In his words, the Europeans are lagging behind in this respect, relying on strict regulation within the social state.
The demand for knowledge will increase, said the economist and added that he is sceptical about compulsory financial training. “I support competition, not monopoly”, he said.
With a presentation during the first panel of the forum, the Dean of the Faculty of International Economics and Administration Assoc. Prof. Eleonora Tankova, PhD presented the systematic and complex approach as a condition for the efficacy of financial education. She outlined the main elements of the approach to improving financial literacy of students, and emphasized the importance of integrating financial knowledge and skills with entrepreneurial, digital, linguistic and other key skills and competences.
Moderator of the conference was the Bloomberg presenter in London Neira Chehich. “Dear Prof. DSc. Anna Nedyalkova, dearAssoc. Prof. Dr. Eleonora Tankova, It was a pleasure to meet you at this event and I would like to thank you for your participation in the conference and for the interesting topics you talked about. I sincerely hope that we will witness the changes that were discussed! Best regards, Neira Chehich”, reads the letter of the British journalist to the President of the university and the Dean of the Faculty of International Economics and Administration, sent shortly after the forum ended.
