Across the country, students struggling to make sense of how to keep track of all their dollars and cents can take advantage of Financial Literacy Month.
From Nov. 12-28, students can learn about how to manage their money after graduation, how to budget, and how to repay their student loans.
Financial Literacy Month is an annual event that was first launched by the federal government in 2012. According to the Government of Canada website, “organizations and individuals from across the country are encouraged to host and participate in events and share resources aimed at helping Canadians learn how to manage their personal finances successfully.”
A 2017 study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the personal finances of American millennials (defined in the study as those born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s), found that 24 per cent of those surveyed had basic financial literacy skills. Only eight per cent demonstrated a high level of financial literacy.
The survey also classified millennials as “financially fragile,” meaning they would have a hard time adjusting to unexpected expenses.
Maheep Sandhu, a global and international studies student at Carleton University, said he considers himself to be relatively financially literate.
“I feel like I’m able to, you know, live within my means but as a student, it’s kind of interesting—you have rent, you have tuition,” Sandhu said. “It’s just a matter of balancing things.”
Sandhu said he was not planning on attending any of the Financial Literacy Month events at Carleton, but added that it would be good to have workshops explaining how students will be impacted by any potential changes to Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) grants and loans that may arise under Ontario’s recently elected Conservative government.
A 2017 report by BMO Wealth Management found that 39 per cent of millennial men were worried about their level of financial knowledge, compared to 29 per cent of millennial women.
According to the BMO report, 29 per cent of millennials considered carrying too much debt to be their biggest financial worry.
In an annual report from earlier this year, the Canada Student Loans Program found that, on average, university students graduate with $16,727 of debt. The average debt for doctoral students was $29,000.
—With files from Tim Austen
