FINANCIAL LITERACY AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT FOR TEENAGERS
Tags: Teenagers, Financial Literacy, Money, Teens, Finance

“College graduates spent 16 years gaining skills that will help them command a higher salary; yet little or no time is spent helping them save, invest and grow their money.” -Vince Shorb, CEO, National Financial Educators Council

Financial literacy is the understanding of various financial areas such as managing personal finance, money and investing.

Turning eighteen last year, made me come to terms with the annoying fact that very soon I would have to stop depending financially on my parents. This is something many people my age are slowly but surely realizing too. I rather liked being a financial leech and I am going to miss extorting money from my parents but financial independence is a prospect that appeals to me. I have always had a thing for money and understanding how money can work for me is all kinds of nice.

Why Teens should be Financially Literate

Financial literacy is something most Nigerians can benefit from especially the youth. By receiving financial education early in our teenage years, we will grow up with core financial knowledge required to make better financial decisions. As teens, we crave a lot of things, a new pair of sneakers, video games, those marshmallows that would eventually be the death of me, clothing and most importantly data! So, here’s why financial independence would look good on you.

1) Buy what you want when you want: as long as it is necessary and it makes you happy, then go ahead.

2) Finance that bucket list: How many things have you wanted to do but couldn’t because of money? Probably a lot. I mean, it was not until after a year of saving that I was able to achieve the, “smashing someone’s phone and fling a cheque at them to get another one,” goal (I may or may not be joking). Therefore, knowing how to budget and save can help finance those expensive goals on our bucket lists.

3) You have an edge: Being financially literate and independent especially at a young age will help us envision a future that is not entirely limited by cash. We can have much more flexible career choices and for those of us who plan to establish their own businesses, building capital now will make that easier to accomplish

Tips on Becoming Financially Literate and Independent

My sole purpose for starting this blog is to record my journey to financial literacy and independence and to encourage other teenagers who want to do the same. Without further ado, here are three tips I think can help on our journey to being financially lit.

1) Learn the boring stuff: Stocks, bonds, savings, assets, liabilities, investments! Yes, yes, I know they all sound pretty boring and complicated to understand and do not sound interesting in the least. I mean, I would rather spend my time scrolling through Instagram but social media is not going to feed my account balance, it does quite the opposite actually. So read the boring stuff, take it slow and learn one topic at a time, listen to financial news, read books, make use of professional finance apps, play financial games i.e. monopoly and overall enjoy the really slow roller coaster ride of knowledge to becoming a financial guru.

2) Develop the right attitude: Having knowledge alone unfortunately does not cut it; you are going to need to put the knowledge to use. When push comes to shove, can you put all you have learned into action. At first, I found all that knowledge overwhelming, I did not know where to start from but I did what most motivational speakers advice, I just started. From dedicating at least fifteen minutes every day to know how much I’ve spent and what I spent it on to using that knowledge to decide whether what I spent my money on was necessary which they aren’t most of the time to be honest, I mean, just the other day I bought five sausages at #200 each and I wasn’t even hungry. So while I may be able to go on and on about mutual funds and investment, my attitude is ultimately the game changer.

3) Maybe look for a source of income: You do not have to but I think there is something about earning your own money that automatically makes your head correct. Suddenly you realize that you do not need to spend that #1,000 on sausages when you are not even hungry. It does not have to be anything serious, just something you are good at. I love writing and I know I can make passive income from it if I stop dining with the spirit of laziness.

There you have it, financially independence is inevitable, might as well start now. Sucks, I know.