India - the country with least financially literate people??

Visa carried out an interesting survey early 2012 in 28 countries to guage the strength and weaknesses of financial education worldwide.  Five simple questions were asked like 

• Do you have and follow a household budget?, 
• How many months worth of savings do you have set aside for an emergency?, 
• How often do you talk to your children ages 5 - 17 about money management issues?, 
• To what extent would you say that teenagers and young adults in your country understand money management basics and are adequately prepared to manage their own money? and
• At what age do you think Govt. should require schools to teach financial literacy to children, so that they can better understand money management issues?

It was surprising to see that out of 28 countries surveyed, India stood 23rd, country with one of the least financially literate people.  Per the findings of the survey, only 35% of its population was termed financial literate.

Average savings set aside by Indians for an emergency is approx 1.9 months.  In addition, 41% of the younger respondents aged 18-24 were more likely to have no emergency savings at all compared to older respondents.

Families generally do not talk to their children about money and finance.  Indian families spends only 10 days a year as compared to global average of 19 days / year with their children discussing money issues.

43% of women said they do not understand personal money management issues.

This may sound surprising to many of us, but be practical and ask the above questions to yourself.  

When was the last time you made your household budget and followed it?  Do you even have emergency fund?  Do you know who much amount is available in emergency fund or ideally required?

One may argue that even though I do not do / know the above, I spend my finances rationally and am overall informed about by financial condition.  It is true that above questions alone can not determine whether you are financial literate or not, however it is also true that having a budget and keeping track of it, etc are the preliminary steps one needs to carry out in financial planning.

Are you amongst the one who does not keep track of your finances or do not know about emergency funds?

Source: 

1. Visa's http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/resources/barometer.php

2. First post's news article