Are we preparing our kids for owning property and investments?

Australians are considered to live in the “lucky country” but that luck is underpinned by a lot of hard work and passed-down knowledge. When it comes to investing in property and shares, new research suggests the next generation may have to stumble around in the dark before they get a good grasp on these financial concepts.

According to research by Savvy in their Financial Literacy Survey 2020 among 199 of their customers from all over Australia, only 36.9% of respondents said they have a “Good” amount of knowledge in personal finance followed by 28.8% with “Fair” knowledge.

About one in five respondents said they have investments in property or shares; two in three said they had no investments at all.

What else is worrying is that 16% of parents said they had never discussed investments with their children under the age of 18. 32% of parents have never discussed superannuation with their kids; A third of parents have never discussed entrepreneurship; 42% have never discussed tax reduction; only 8% talk about such subjects with any regularity.

Savvy CEO and passionate financial education advocate Bill Tsouvalas says that children need the “investments talk” as much as the “birds and the bees talk” – especially when they reach the age where they can work for their own money.

“We don’t expect kids to figure out sex on their own, so why do we expect them to figure out investments and finance on their own?” Tsouvalas says. “According to our results, parents are not well equipped to pass on knowledge of good financial habits such as saving, investing, and asset ownership to their children. In light of recent economic events, this should be a top national education priority.”

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Source: Are we preparing our kids for owning property and investments? | Your Mortgage Australia