The Star: Improvement in Financial Literacy Needed

As Malaysia is predicted to be affected by the expected global economic slowdown, much focus is on the Finance Minister’s Budget 2023 speech on October 7th, 2022 which would hopefully detail how the country will respond to this. Kimberly remarked that we can expect to receive some handouts from the government as the 15th General Elections (GE15) are approaching. However, these are undoubtedly short-term solutions meant to ease the people’s present financial strains. 

Kimberly strongly believes that in order to improve financial literacy in the country, schools should be teaching the basics of personal finance with topics such as savings methods, simple cash flow management, spending/expenditure and how to identify schemes or scams. She further stated that adults are automatically expected to know how to manage their finances, but this isn’t always the case and she noted that this can be developed by introducing them to personal finance from a young age.

The financial planning industry would like to see incentives in the form of relief for fees paid by taxpayers to attend financial management related workshops, seminars and conferences. Kimberly trusts that these incentives will serve to motivate people and subsequently raise financial literacy in the country. 

This article can be found online here.