This is Financial Literacy Month in Canada, an initiative designed to encourage each of us to enhance our grasp of personal money matters.
There is a ton of research on this topic and most of it leads to one common conclusion: we’re not all that strong when it comes to managing our money. For some, it is too complicated. For others, it’s just something they never learned about in their formative years, largely because money talk was taboo in most families. Polite company just didn’t discuss it. It is private and could sound like bragging or complaining so we ignored it.
There is some daylight emerging on that angle. TD Bank launched its financial literacy month effort with a report suggesting more than 80 per cent of Canadian families do indeed talk about money these days. That’s roughly double the number of adults who remember similar conversations when they were young.
It has resulted in higher confidence levels on the subject of money management and they’re finding that kids are quite interested in the subject.
— For more than 50 years, Paul Martin has specialized in coverage of the business and political scenes. His career has spanned radio, television and print and electronic media.
