Fin Literacy Pays.Consumers Need Protection, Redressal Too

FINANCIAL DECISION-MAKING is getting increasingly complex for most Indians. Despite the fact that we make decisions about money every day, less than a tenth in India are equipped with financial knowledge.

- Vikas Singh

Complexity of financial products, changing consumer habits and evolving behaviour is making it more difficult for Indians to manage their finances, and plan for the long term.

Retiral benefits and pension are becoming ‘fluid’, equally complicated, accompanied by an increasing shift of responsibility from employers to employees. There are several products to select from: one more sophisticated, more complicated than the other. Fixed deposits and their interest rates, bonds, and yields, etc. are dynamic and difficult to understand. Similarly, ‘insuring’ life, vehicle or home is highly intricate. Most go blind. One needs to be a genius to understand mutual funds (MF).

Financial Literacy Not a Sideshow. Key to Wealth, Wellness & Security 

Most, including the educated, fail to make judicious financial decisions. As a result, financial decision-making is getting more onerous. It’s anxiety-inducing, even stressful. The lack of financial understanding may explain why many Indians struggle with saving and investing, and underscores why the more vulnerable are in a perpetual debt trap.

A Crux study across 22,000 participants highlights ubiquitous financial ‘illiteracy’. The study measured the awareness and knowledge of different financial instruments, and the features. Only a tenth managed to score a ‘pass’; some demographic groups (women, less educated), score even lower. Only a miniscule percentage understand and possess the ability to develop a long-term financial plan. There is widespread financial illiteracy even in more well-to-do neighbourhoods, clearly dispelling the belief that education is corelated to financial knowledge.