Being Savvy About Money Is The New Cool

A survey shows most Australians like to think they are ‘money smart.’

Source HuffPost Australia 20.11.16

There’s so much information on the internet to help educate you about your finances but you need to make sure the information is correct.

Money is a subject many of us either shy away from or love to talk about, but a new study shows Australians are feeling like they are becoming more financially savvy.

The Choosi survey reveals 77 per cent of us like to think we are ‘money smart’, 69 per cent believe it’s become trendy to be more money savvy and 73 per cent believe Australians are more financially savvy than ever before.

More than a third of Aussies say social media helps them learn about managing finances and 47 per cent of Gen Ys regularly research information to help make financial decisions.

Personal finance expert Heidi Armstrong told The Huffington Post Australia there’s so much information on the internet that people have the opportunity to educate themselves.

“Clearly it’s a good thing to be money smart. The big challenge is that we all know what we need to do – save and budget – but that doesn’t mean we all do it. Many of us class ourselves as average or terrible savers. We all know that saving is a good thing. But we’ve got habits that we have to overcome. It’s all about not feeling too overwhelmed. Don’t set unrealistic financial goals that seem unattainable,” Armstrong said.

Gen Ys are spending more time researching financial advice before making decisions.

“While the survey mentioned Gen Y as being financially responsible, I think it’s because they adhere to a documented plan. Gen Y often says it is difficult to save for a deposit on a house. But maybe Gen Y is good at saying, ‘I can’t save for a house but I can save up for a holiday at the end of the year.’ So, they will put aside money for a smaller goal, not for major goals like a house purchase.”

“I think Gen Y just breaks savings up into more manageable milestones.”

Jenny Brown from JBS Financial told HuffPost Australia the younger generation might be doing a lot of internet research when it comes to financial issues, but it’s not always a good thing.

“People love to turn to ‘Dr Google’ for everything these days. It’s great there’s so much information but there is a lot of very questionable and misleading information there too. Sometimes I google financial information and I can see that it’s completely incorrect,” Brown said.

We all know how to be money smart; the trick is to actually start saving and budgeting for important things.

“People in their 30’s and 40s are a lot more savvy than even the older generation, unless the older ones have been taught by their parents. So that’s a really good trend. Peer influence is also a huge factor as people are likely to listen to friends or copy what they are doing financially if they are successful.”

“But, with so much robo advice and automation coming through, it’s really helping spur on the idea that people need to be financially educated.”

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