Teaching Financial Independence to Youth

Much has been said about millennials and their financial habits that are in dire need of management and monetary allocation in the right places. For a generation that believes in splurging and living a flamboyant lifestyle, the lack of savings and investment raises a huge question mark on their future security. However, the two years of uncertainty and monetary fluctuations have taught one thing to young parents and professionals – the need for financial awareness and implementation at the right time for hassle-free living.

If only our schooling system paid more attention to financial literacy, a lot of us wouldn’t have to struggle to save our hard-earned money. In fact, the art of taxation, investments, and making correct financial decisions from a young age is turning out to be an important skill in new age society. As children are learning and adapting to a fast-paced environment fuelled with modern technology and constantly changing economies, it is a must-have skill to learn for debt-free life and be financially sustainable in the long run.

“Financial literacy is a core life skill for participating in modern society. Children are growing up in an increasingly complex world where they will eventually need to take charge of their financial future. Poor financial decisions can have a long-lasting impact on individuals, their families, and society. Low levels of financial literacy have also been associated with a lower standard of living, decreased psychological and physical well-being, and greater reliance on government support,” mentions Parichita Bansal, Founder of Young Wealth Creators Organization (YWCO).

The YWCO is a one-of-a-kind educational program designed for school kids that teaches them the value of investments and introduces them to the nitty-gritty of budgeting, savings, investments and risk management of assets for a rainy day. It is also an informative way to learn about money-related matters and plan a stable means of income for old age, health care, and other types of crises. The curriculum is conducted for a period of five months in twenty weeks after school. It is designed by Parichita Bansal, a serial entrepreneur and retail investor, who comes from a strong business background.  An engineering graduate and Postgraduate from New York University, she is a firm believer in imparting financial knowledge to kids and teaching them the impact of short-term and long-term investments for building a corpus amount. Her interests include value investing, digital marketing, and social enterprise.

“Financial education is a long-term process. Building it into School curriculums from an early age allows children to acquire the knowledge and skills to build responsible financial behaviour throughout each stage of their education,” believes Parichita. Some of the important topics covered under the YWCO curriculum are about making good money decisions, the art of budgeting and developing a financial plan, buying a home, banking services, credit, and credit cards, buying a car and car loans, the influence of advertising, saving and investing, fundamental investing, value investing, consumer awareness and privacy, tax planning and Section 80D, insurance and protecting interests.

In a candid chat, we ask Parichita about her project and why did she plan to start it

Question: Why did you think of starting this?

• Lack of financial knowledge has painful consequences
• There is no formal education on how to plan one’s financial journey, how to take loans, or understand tax planning and make the best use of Section 80D
• We all want a radical change in education veering towards a more relevant and hands-on curriculum, however, the availability or willingness was lacking
• Everyone wishes to create huge wealth but very few know how to do it. It is important to understand that you will be able to create wealth only if you can grow your money at a higher rate than inflation. And how is this possible? This magic that converts money inflows into abundant wealth is called the power of compounding. Einstein considered the power of compounding to be the 8th wonder of the world. He also said, those who understand it, can earn from it and those who don’t understand end up paying it..
• We all study for more than 16 years to earn money yet no one really teaches us how to manage it properly and make the best use of it
• Teenagers have the most valuable component to accumulating wealth – time. Young adults must take advantage of the time that is on their side and learn money management and investing skills and build a better future for themselves.
• As a parent, it really bothers me that we are not emphasizing enough important life skills like financial literacy, mental health, etc. and it’s important to build it in an ecosystem that’s consistent such as school. 

Question: What is the need for it?

Parichita: Financial literacy leads to a healthier life

• We are the World’s largest youth population, the World’s largest democratic system, yet we are not the most prosperous nation, we are more than 2000% behind USA, more than 1300% behind Japan, more than 500% behind China, primary reason is lack of awareness. We have more than 10 lakh schools in India, yet our HNWI population is a meager 1% of the World’s total population.
• If we don’t teach this in schools, where else will they learn it
• At 18 years old, kids are thrust out into a world where every step they take from graduation to retirement has a direct relation or impact with financial knowledge and money management skills. For example, Making the right money or career decisions, buying your first house, getting married, having children, money or finances all play an integral role in each of these life events. And it’s not just the major ones; finance touch every aspect of our life. Whether it’s where we eat, what we buy, traveling, going out with friends or negotiating prices, every day we are faced with financial decisions. Young adults lack the experience and education to make these decisions – big or small. Most of our youth begin their responsible life by taking loans be it for education or home, if they are better prepared they can start their life without loans hence deterring debt, and I believe that’s the primary reason our country is so down below on the global happiness scale.
• The earlier we begin to master any skill the better our chances of becoming proficient at it, as Malcolm Gladwell said, you need to put 10,000 hours into a skill, to call yourself a master of the said skill.

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