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Financial literacy - a key competence of the 21st century
We live in a much different and complex world than our parents and grandparents lived in. Each life situation we encounter - a new job, birth of a child, buying a car or a home - requires us to make financial decisions. Simultaneously,financial products and services, from among which we choose, are more and more numerous, complex and risky. Unlike the past, the responsibility for our good health and secure old age becomes our concern, not only of the state.
This reality requires us to have new knowledge related to finances and their rational management as well as new skills so we can implement our financial knowledge in practice.
Financial literacy has become one of the key competences of the people of the 21st century because the quality and satisfaction of our lives largely depend on it.
Financial Literacy and Well-being
Several studies have suggested direct positive relationship between financial literacy and the well-being of the individual. People with financial expertise are usually in a better financial situation because they more skillfully manage their personal finances, choose financial products whose nature they understand and which match their needs, seek information and take account of the possible risks.
Viewed more broadly, financial literacy is a factor that stimulates the demand for financial products because of the perceived benefits, thus positively impacts on market growth and economic prosperity. Financially literate consumers, through an informed and rational choice and through conscious exercising of their rights, create conditions for increasing market competition, innovation and improving the quality of the services.
