Having knowledge in finance makes our lives easier. "A person's financial culture is made up of the knowledge, skills and attitudes that help us make conscious and sensible financial decisions," says Xavier Puig, Professor of Economics and Business at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona School of Management, in a new installment of Much to Do, CaixaBank's financial culture program created to increase the population's knowledge of the basic concepts of personal finance.
Whatever our profession, we all relate to money. “We all earn and spend so we continually have to make financial decisions in our day-to-day lives. Having some basic knowledge about finances will help us to face all of this calmly and to be more capable of achieving our goals”, comments Xavier Puig. For the expert, our skills in this area will also have an impact beyond the present, clearly influencing our lives.
“There are decisions that condition our future and financial culture can help us make them more efficiently. For example, knowing how to plan for retirement and when; what to know if I am thinking of investing; what is the best decision if I need to take out insurance or what should I take into account when requesting a loan”, explains the professor of Economics and Business. In this sense, Xavier Puig highlights what role to adopt in one of the financial issues that most concern us: savings.
In this case, the financial culture shows us that we can count on various options. “There is what we call unexpected savings, which consists of saving the money that we have left over at the end of the month. We can also set aside a fixed amount at the beginning of the month and dedicate it to savings to build what we call our emergency fund, which is money for contingencies; and there is even planned savings, which is what we dedicate, for example, to our retirement”, lists the expert.
Another recurring issue, thinking about the future, is retirement. "If we want to maintain the pace of life we lead or a similar one when we retire, it is necessary to plan for retirement and do it as soon as possible," he emphasizes in the Much to Do video. "If we plan our savings and start as soon as possible, the periodic contributions to a pension plan or an investment fund may be less and, most importantly, when the time comes to retire, the return on our money will have been higher," he advises on the strategy to follow.
For the expert, we should all aspire to financial well-being, that is, “everything that gives us financial peace of mind. The key word is balance. Achieving a good balance between income and expenses, between investments and debts, and between the short term and the long term: social security, insurance and others”. Our finances will change throughout our lives, but making conscious decisions will undoubtedly give us the opportunity to have greater control over our money.
Together with the Mucho para Hace program, CaixaBank has created a hub, through which it disseminates all the basic financial concepts linked to the most frequent vital projects of the population, which can be accessed free of charge through https://www. .caixabank.es/particular/cultura-financiera.html, located within the entity's global portal.
CaixaBank continues to work daily with the aim of disseminating knowledge and making everyone aware of the importance of acquiring a good financial culture. In addition, it promotes training activities that cover the specific needs of young people, the elderly, entrepreneurs or people in vulnerable situations, through specialized workshops, training courses and conferences.
