The Importance of Financial Literacy for Everybody


 Most people can attest that being taught about money was not considered a huge priority. Despite this, financial literacy is a skill everyone should have a strong understanding of because knowledge of money and how it works impacts every facet of our lives. What is financial literacy? Why is it important for everybody?


The book titled “How Money Works-Stop Being a Sucker” by Tom Mathews, Steve Siebold, and Andy Horner provides a definition for financial literacy that is as follows: the understanding of how to earn, spend, save, manage and invest money” (Mathews et al., 2023 p. 6).  On the following page, the book explains that financial illiteracy impacts three-fourths of the world and that governments and corporations use this ignorance to their advantage (Mathews et al., 2023, p.7). Later, the authors break down that statistic, explaining that this would mean that with seven point five billion people in the world, five billion of them would be considered financially illiterate.


Referring back to the definition of financial literacy, that implies that most of the population lacks the knowledge on how to earn, spend, save, manage, and invest money. Basic skills that will improve our relationship with money and how we make and spend it. Most people can say that they did not spend time building financial literacy skills throughout their schooling, so this may not be a surprise. If it wasn't considered a priority when we were learning some of our most foundational skills, it may never become a priority.


As we go through life, we become inclined to develop and refine specific skills based on the everyday demands we face. If you have a busy schedule, you may start to improve your time management skills.


If you earn and spend money, financial literacy skills are essential and should be regularly improved. We are the only ones in charge of our money, so it is on us to learn the skills needed to ensure that we are managing it most beneficially.


On page three, the authors explain that some skills do not require us to spend a lot of time building them without having a significant impact on our everyday lives. However, a lack of knowledge of financial literacy will result in errors that impact the quality of your life while the rich continue to get rich.


The most important takeaway from this is that even though financial literacy skills were not a priority in our education, it is still essential for us to be aware of them because they impact the way we earn, spend, save, manage, and invest OUR money. Today is the day to take on a new skill that will benefit you for the rest of your life.






Works Cited

Mathews, T., Siebold, S., Horner, A. (2023). How Money Works-Stop Being a Sucker. Hammerheads Publishing.

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