Friday Links – Financial Literacy

Since Jim Yih wrapped up his excellent 4 part series on financial literacy yesterday, I thought I’d put together some further reading on some basic topics to help with improving your own financial literacy.

One of the first steps to improving financial literacy is to start young. Whether it’s the parents, or a structured class in school, knowing how to handle your finances is a skill that often isn’t learned by the time children are finished high school and heading out to college.

Moolanomy shares some lessons on how to teach your children the four pillars of money management. This article makes it simple to understand money by breaking it down into four parts; how to make money, spend money, save money and give away money.

PT Money lists 10 opportunities for teaching kids about money. Some great ideas here, including how to handle allowance and showing your children how you pay the bills.

Personal Dividends adds some important strategies for teaching kids about money and savings. Broken down into three age groups, these tips suggest how to best teach your children about money at different stages of their development.

Of course even as adults, most of us do not have perfect finances and could benefit from improving our financial literacy.

Free From Broke explains the difference between credit report versus credit score. While a credit report simply states your history, a credit score assigns a number to your credit risk.

All Business points out when saving isn’t saving. While it’s nice to get something on sale, if you didn’t really need it then you’re not saving, you’re spending.

My Wife Quit Her Job uncovers the secrets to building wealth. When it’s all put together, compound interest, tax optimization and increasing your income are great ways to grow your wealth.

Possibly the biggest financial decision we make in our life is when we buy our first house.

Real Estate Pro has some insight on how to improve your credit score before buying a home. Looks at how to raise your credit score, which can lead to the best mortgage rate.

Money Ning provides the next steps with a list of first time home buyer tips. Lots of great points made to help you throughout the process of buying your first home.

The last stage in our lifelong learning about personal finance is what we want from our retirement and how we can reach those goals.

Bible Money Matters says you need to own your finances, it’s your choice to struggle, not save, or live without a plan. A look at how the decisions we make, or don’t make, effect our lifestyle in the future.

Good Financial Cents warns that the 80% rule may not be enough to retire. This rule is based on the idea that our spending will be lower in retirement. However, this may not always be the case.

Wanting to know your views on financial literacy, Canada’s Task Force on Financial Literacy starts their cross-country sessions next week. You can also have your say on their online forum or by sending in a written submission.

• Four Pillars included What is Financial Literacy? Part 3 in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance.
• Frugal For Life included Frugal Getaways: 5 Ways To Treat Yourself With A Frugal Vacation in this week’s Festival of Frugality.
• Cool To Be Frugal included Lower Your Credit Card Interest Today With A Few Simple Psychology Tricks in this week’s Yakezie Carnival.
• The Skilled Investor included Budgeting Tools Online And Beyond in this week’s Carnival of Financial Planning.

Related Posts:

• Task Force on Financial Literacy
• Financial Literacy Month is here again
• What is Financial Literacy? The Final Segment