Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Future of Financial Education Report Released

Quote from Julie Hauser of the FCAC
If you recall, back in May of 2011 I attended a conference called Partnering to Turn Financial Literacy Into Action in Toronto. Sponsored by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the conference brought together hundreds of experts from around the world who are involved in financial education through government, business and non-profits.

During our two learning-packed days, I had the chance to meet researchers like Jonah Lehrer and financial celebrities and authors like Alison Griffiths (who is going to appear on my TV show Money Moment this season and whom I will meet for coffee when she rolls into town on January 28th for a book signing at Chapters - her new book is called Count on Your$elf). Yes, it was a great conference that boosted my faith in the financial literacy movement. Things are moving and the hard work of creating financially savvy citizens continues. In fact, just this morning, the FCAC and the OECD jointly released a report from that conference called The Future of Financial Education.

According to a FCAC news release which I received this morning, the report "highlights the growing recognition, in Canada and internationally, of the importance of financial literacy." The report does a good job distilling the main themes of the conference keynotes and seminars. Some of these include: leadership and national strategies, financial literacy studies that are going on worldwide, the use of technology in financial education and in marketing financial products, the rise of government-sanctioned choice architecture, and information on the long term effects of financial illiteracy.

Like I said, things are moving. Let's keep it that way by having a glance at this report and sharing its contents with our social networks.Click here to read it online. But if you don't have time to read or share it because you are too busy working to pay off those holiday bills, just keep in mind the overarching theme: the world would be a happier place if we all had a little more control over our finances.

Copyright 2012. Laura Thomas. All Rights Reserved.
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