November is Financial Literacy Month and I'm going to kick things off on a positive note: you know more than you think you do.
It is true.
In a survey released today by Canada Life, the results indicated that despite having low confidence in their financial knowledge, Canadians get a passing grade when it comes to their personal finance.
General questions were asked to test our knowledge on financial topics such as saving, debt, investing and insurance. Before taking the 10-question quiz, each respondent rated their confidence in their financial knowledge.
Despite only 41% claiming high confidence, the average grade on the quiz was 71%.
That is impressive and a great place to start. However, we all know that knowledge alone doesn't necessarily lead to improving your financial situation. We may know what to do but we don't always do it. It all comes down to action.
It doesn't matter whether you are just starting out in your first job or thinking about retirement. You need a plan. Your plan. I'm not talking about a cookie cutter approach where one size fits all. Your financial plan needs to excite and engage you.
As we kick off the month with a financial focus, ask yourself how financially fit you are and whether your financial plan is aligned to you, where you are right now.
Here are a few questions to begin:
1) What is it that you want to save your money for? What is going to excite you enough to save your money and change your current spending behaviour?
2) Do you have control of your finances? Do you know how much money you have coming in and what your are currently spending your money on?
3) Do you have financial slack in your life? Could you come up with $500.00 in an emergency if you needed to?
4) In the past did you set financial goals for yourself and did you achieve them? If not, what went wrong and what sort of correction can you take to change that outcome? In the past, were you too restrictive in your spending or did you simply give in to something you wanted in the moment?
Building financial flexibility is about choices. We often know what we should do but we don't always like what we may have to do in order to achieve it.
Improving your financial position can be tough, but it’s also achievable especially when we already have the knowledge. Now it is all about taking control, developing your personal financial plan and then executing on the plan.
A final thought. Your plan isn't carved in stone and when life throws you a curveball, and it will, having a plan allows you to zero in on the corrective action you need to take. And that's OK. It is just life.
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