The Importance of Financial Literacy

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THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL LITERACY Making improvements on our financial literacy results in a wave of impacts on our economy and the financial health in our society because of responisble behiavior with our finances. These modifications to our behavior are neccesary because it let's us address primary cultural problems, for example over-credits on your purchases, mortgages possibly resulting in debt, dealing with expectations on inflation and also planning on your retirement. Statistics suggest about 32% of consumers are going to over estimate the rating on their credit, while only around 4% are going to under estimate the rating on their credit. Ones who will overestimate the quality of their credit are most likely less informative about finances overall, and will be more likely to have learned about their financial knowledge, unfortuanately, the hard way. Also the consumers who are going to overestimate the ratings of their credit will be less likely to properly budget, effectevely save their money, or learn to invest it often. With another example, in 1999 it was found that about 40 percent of mortgage borrowers didn't understand what the interest rates that were associated with their loans were. When decisions bases on a consumers finances have following consequences further than the near future, then an individuals' success economically could depend on the ability they have to foresee the upcoming rate of inflation. according to statistics, higher expectations for inflation were reported by females who were poorer, they were single and they were less educated. More specifically, higher expectations for inflation were reported by people who focused more-so with how they can cover future purchases and expenses and the prices they will pay, and by ones who have lower knowledge on financial literacy. Various researches can determine possible reasons as to why consumers have quite a lot of trouble making financial decisions that can be the most beneficial later in life. In the context of savings for retirement, conclusions from a test reveal that self-regulatory state, possible future orientation and more and better financial knowledge can and most likely will influence a consumers intentions for retirement investments, for example, setting up a 401K in the USA. Other studies suggest consumers who show higher amounts of future orientation are usually more likely to start up a retirement plan. Studies also show that financial knowledge and financial orientation toward ones future can help to influence the chances of one participating in a 401K plan.

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