Getting financially sorted

20 June, 2013

Getting financially sorted

The government wants New Zealanders to improve their financial literacy and in response, the University of Waikato is offering a paper on financial literacy in semester B starting Monday 8 July.

Finance Professor Stuart Locke from Waikato Management School says Finance 101, Financial Literacy and Wealth Management, is aimed at everyone who wants to better understand financial decision-making.

Professor Locke will be taking most of the lectures which are being held at 6 o’clock for two hours on Monday nights to enable people working full-time to attend.

“We owe it to ourselves to improve our financial literacy,” says Professor Locke. “Whether we’re a student, or starting our first job, wanting to buy a house, planning to make investments or planning for retirement, we need to understand all the different options.”

Professor Locke says for every financial decision there’s a risk element and a return element. “A bit like choosing a boyfriend or girlfriend, and the more information you have, the better your decision and therefore your return is likely to be.”

He says Finance 101 will cover savings and investment, purchasing and consumer credit, risk management and insurance, financial markets and schemes such as KiwiSaver. “It strikes me that people will accept that dieting takes sustained effort and willpower, but so many people aren’t prepared to do a little work to become financially literate and secure a better financial future.”

New Zealand’s retirement commissioner is on the Advisory Board of the OECD International Network for Financial Education, a group seeking ways to understand the drivers of financial literacy.

“If you have financial literacy you’re far more likely to have a happier lifestyle and people need to know enough to make sensible decisions rather than rely on government to regulate away all risk and all choice,” says Professor Locke.

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