For many of us, education comes hand in hand with our childhood and teenage years – whether that’s learning to read and write or getting to grips with life’s everyday tasks and challenges. However, when it comes to money, each person has their own experience of gaining financial responsibility.
Looking to those around us to inspire better money habits could be key. Over a third of us (36%) say they’re regularly investing and saving having picked this up from others, and the same goes for paying off debt as quickly as possible (29%) and paying attention to savings rates and current accounts (19%).
Half (50%) of us admit to not discussing finances with family, friends, or peers until at least aged 19, while 15% confessed to leaving it past the age of 30. A further 20% of us aren’t open to discussing savings with family and friends at all, and just 14% are very open to discussing investments and pension contributions.
This late awakening could be impacting how hard UK consumers are making their money work, with 39% of consumers having not discussed savings products like ISAs at all when growing up – despite the potential benefits of the tax-free accounts.
Lifting the lid on those influences, only one in eight (13%) consider themselves to be very money savvy, but this more than doubles to 29% for those who consider their parents or guardians to be very money-savvy too. But money savviness doesn’t just come from friends and family.
Looking at wider influences, half (45%) of Brits mention experts like Martin Lewis, followed by banks (37%), newspapers or magazines (20%), and forums or the internet (20%). Schools or higher education (15%) and employers (14%) all rank lower.
The research from Nutmeg comes as we approach the end of the current Tax Year, at what can be a confusing time when many people may not be aware of the steps they can take to spring clean their finances. Claire Exley, head of advice and guidance at Nutmeg, is available for interviews to discuss the research, champion financial education, and share her top tips for building better financial health – from more discussions about money with our children and those around us, to how the late starters among us can catch up.
Looking to those around us to inspire better money habits could be key. Over a third of us (36%) say they’re regularly investing and saving having picked this up from others, and the same goes for paying off debt as quickly as possible (29%) and paying attention to savings rates and current accounts (19%).
Half (50%) of us admit to not discussing finances with family, friends, or peers until at least aged 19, while 15% confessed to leaving it past the age of 30. A further 20% of us aren’t open to discussing savings with family and friends at all, and just 14% are very open to discussing investments and pension contributions.
This late awakening could be impacting how hard UK consumers are making their money work, with 39% of consumers having not discussed savings products like ISAs at all when growing up – despite the potential benefits of the tax-free accounts.
Lifting the lid on those influences, only one in eight (13%) consider themselves to be very money savvy, but this more than doubles to 29% for those who consider their parents or guardians to be very money-savvy too. But money savviness doesn’t just come from friends and family.
Looking at wider influences, half (45%) of Brits mention experts like Martin Lewis, followed by banks (37%), newspapers or magazines (20%), and forums or the internet (20%). Schools or higher education (15%) and employers (14%) all rank lower.
The research from Nutmeg comes as we approach the end of the current Tax Year, at what can be a confusing time when many people may not be aware of the steps they can take to spring clean their finances. Claire Exley, head of advice and guidance at Nutmeg, is available for interviews to discuss the research, champion financial education, and share her top tips for building better financial health – from more discussions about money with our children and those around us, to how the late starters among us can catch up.
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00:00 So Nutmeg's research shows that looking to those around us could inspire better money
00:07 habits. Over a third of us say that we're regularly saving and investing because we've
00:11 picked this up from others. And I should expect parents and guardians are a big influence
00:16 here. So a third of people credit dads with being their main role model and 26% of people
00:21 credit mums. So it shows that actually having these conversations with people around us
00:27 can make a big difference. But one of the things in the research that's a little bit
00:32 concerning is that a lot of people don't have those conversations until quite late on in
00:38 life. So half of people over 19 and 15% once they're over 30. So they could be missing
00:45 out on making their money work harder for them.
00:48 One interesting bit of the research is that only one in eight Brits consider themselves
00:53 money savvy. So what factors contribute to this low percentage?
00:58 I think so one in eight consider themselves to be very money savvy. On a bit more of an
01:03 encouraging front, 55% of people did say that they were savvy, just not very savvy. So I
01:09 think it's a confidence thing. So having the confidence to build that financial knowledge
01:14 and have those conversations, I think will really help. The other angle to it is people
01:19 think their needs are simple and they don't really need that financial advice and guidance.
01:24 But quite often people don't know what they don't know. So by assuming they don't need
01:29 any help with the finances, they might be missing out.
01:33 We are taught a lot in schools, but one thing that perhaps I would have benefited from would
01:37 have been some financial advice on sort of how to run a bank account, those sorts of
01:42 things. Is that something you would support?
01:43 Yeah, I think that financial education remains a bit of a big challenge country wide. And
01:47 it'd be great if we could do more in education settings to help that. I think it's important
01:51 to recognise lots of teachers won't feel like they've got the tools, the expertise all the
01:56 time, but trying to build that capacity is a really important piece of the puzzle.