Written by Greg Knowles, freelance content writer.

As of 2022, just 23 states mandate the teaching of financial literacy in the United States. The number will increase slightly in 2023, with 25 also mandating a high school economics course.

However, this is not enough, as over half of the country’s schoolchildren will not learn enough about managing their day-to-day finances or the various kinds of financial products that are out there. This can cause significant problems for them in the long run as they may fail to save, invest wisely, or get themselves into difficulties.

Several surveys over the years have established that people are interested in increasing their financial literacy, particularly in terms of investments, debt, and credit. A lack of financial education has led to generations of citizens having high debt levels, low savings, and little knowledge of how to invest.

If you want to increase your financial literacy, there are several ways about it.

Learning as you go

A large section of society learns through doing. These are people that don’t like to read books, attend courses, or listen to podcasts. They are people who like to like to try things out through trial and error before they get it right.

For example, with trading equities or even a CFD, there are online platforms designed for beginners. They can provide information and guidance, as well as risk-free demos where traders can execute trades without putting down real money until they are confident to do it.

This is a very effective way to improve financial literacy in terms of financial markets such as stocks, equities, CFD trading and other forms of assets. Once they feel confident, they can go on to invest with real money and also explore other options. This gives you good exposure to the financial markets and lets you see how market dynamics can impact the global economy.

Formal learning

There are many courses you can follow which provide financial literacy. Adults can enrol in various formal qualifications in banking, accounting, economics, monetary policy, and much, much more.

These can cause accredited certificates or qualifications or are non-accredited. They can also count towards professional obligations or even job obligations.

But more than that, these courses can provide a high level of knowledge and specialisation, which can help learners on a personal level.

Another bonus of this kind of learning is that the individual can choose exactly what to focus on, be it financial markets and trading, economics, or banking.

Additional learning

Thanks to modern technology, it has never been easier to expand our knowledge via the internet. A wealth of new opportunities are now open to us, including video, reading material, and audio.

For example, there are hundreds of specialist podcasts out there dedicated to various aspects of need-to-know financial information. For example, savings, busting credit and investing.

You can also follow blogs on Medium, influencers on Twitter and Instagram and even financial professionals on TikTok and YouTube. This has significantly increased the amount of information that can reach users, and the best thing is most of it is free.

Content can be listened to on-demand and often for free to individuals can learn at their own pace.

Financial literacy is incredibly important. When we cannot rely on the government or state to teach it, it is important to understand there are other options available. Being proactive and making use of available, free and paid resources, is one of the best ways to improve your perception and understanding of finance.

[Image – Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash]