Indeed, among the under-35s who live with their parents, one in three is not familiar with the household’s finances. One novel characteristic of the Survey is that, in those cases in which an interviewee says he/she is not familiar with household finances, the financial competences of an informed member of the household have been measured along with the financial competences of the interviewee. It is seen that, although the percentage of those aged 18-34 who answer the three questions on inflation, interest rates and risk diversification correctly is scarcely 11% among the non-informed, the percentage of informed individuals to which the decisions have been delegated who respond correctly to these three questions is 22%. These results point, firstly, to the importance of bearing in mind household structure and, specifically, the different patterns of communal living arrangements of youths in different countries when making international comparisons in financial literacy. Secondly, they illustrate the importance of the moment in the life cycle as regards individuals acquiring financial knowledge. Moreover, these results, along with those from other available studies, suggest that one of the main sources of financial literacy in the population is derived from their actual experience with financial and credit markets, and with economic phenomena. Evidently, the risk is that the acquiring of knowledge through practice also entails economic costs associated with inappropriate decisions, or a lack of decisions, derived from an insufficient understanding of the main financial elements at play. Hence the importance of the initiatives to raise the population’s knowledge and financial education.

The figures for other countries are:  In Canada: 28% of the population answer the three questions correctly. The percentage is 23% for youths aged 18-34. Gap 18-34/total: 82%  In The Netherlands: 34% of the population answer the three questions correctly. The percentage is 26% for youths aged 1834. Gap 18-34/total: 76%.  In the United Kingdom: 14% of the population answer the three questions correctly. The percentage is 11% for youths aged 18-34. Gap 18-34/total: 78%. 4  6  In terms of the specific questions, those showing the biggest differences are that on inflation (compared with 58% of correct answers in the total population, 49.5% of individuals aged 18-34 reply correctly) and that on risk diversification (compared with 49% of correct answers in the total population, 43% of individuals aged 18-34 reply correctly). 7 Specifically, individuals are defined as delegating when, in the Survey, they have answered “No” to the following question: "We wish to know whether you are familiar with your household’s finances. We refer not only to whether you are familiar with the household’s properties, financial products and debts, but also the reasons for specific spending and investment decisions.”  5/8  population, 6% of individuals state they are not familiar with their household’s finances, while this figure triples for youths aged 18-35. These results might be influenced by the high percentage of Spanish youths that live with their parents compared with other developed countries.