What Is Financial Literacy And Why Is It Important?

According to Futurpreneur, a non-profit organization providing financing, mentoring and support tools to aspiring young business owners, financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works: how someone makes, manages and invests it, and also expends it to help others.

So, why is it important? Today, money is used as a tool to get goods and services. Even if we no longer have a physical connection with money, as many people use debit, credit or e-transfers, it is essential to everyday life. Therefore, it is important to understand how it works and how-to mange, invest and expand money.

Let us dive into how we interact with money. From a young age we form a relationship with money, this could be through hearing about money, either in a positive or negative context, seeing money, receiving an allowance or something else entirely. In Victoria LaBillois’ presentation at the Indigenous Women in Business Conference, Introduction to Financial Management and Literacy, she touches on how our relationship with money starts from a young age. How did our parents talk about money? Was there enough money to buy groceries? How often did you get new clothes and were they of the same quality as your friends?

These answers may guide you as to how you think about money today.

There are also historical aspects that play into how Indigenous people think and act around money. Historically, ac ...