Why are we so bad with money and what can we do about it?
First published at Hijacked on 22 December 2015.
In his innovation statement, Malcolm Turnbull said he wants to use millions of dollars to improve computer geekery in schools. But considering what research has found, maybe he should redirect some of that to our financial know-how, because it’s more than a little embarrassing. And it’s particularly bad among university students. What good are digital start-ups if young entrepreneurs lack good money skills?
A gap exists between what we know and what we do
QUT accounting lecturer Dr Chrisann Palm says many students are overconfident about their financial skills, and that baffles her. “More than ninety per cent of early uni students have had work experience, and so should’ve been exposed to basic money issues,” she says.
For 23-year-old Jonno Revanche, a recent graduate and nonfiction editor at Voiceworks Magazine, he founded the Adelaide-based Vaein Zine without thinking much about finances. At the start, he raised funds to print and pay contributors, but soon realised he was out of his depth. “When I received invoices I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is totally different to what I expected’,” he says.
He had to learn by using whatever resources he found relevant, including using other publications’ ways of handling money as examples. While Jonno may have missed out on official classes about being a money-handling pro, he’s kept Vaein Zine afloat by curating his own financial lessons. Still, when asked whether he would’ve liked to learn the basics before jumping headfirst into online publishing, he replies with a resounding, “Totally, totally.”
Read the full article at Hijacked.
