The Czech Banking Association conducts an annual survey on the financial literacy of the population. Compared to last year, Czechs\’ awareness of good stewardship, investing money, and debt risk has not improved much.
[Who is the most disadvantaged?
The survey found that young people between the ages of 19 and 29 are the most disadvantaged. Often they are students who are still living at home with their parents and have not yet directly encountered the realities of daily life and independent farming. Debt and the need to save money are addressed in their education, but apparently not with success. Perhaps when these young people encounter the realities, they will have a greater educational impact.
But even those who are economically active are often bystanders…
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Many people do not know about credit insurance, prepayment, and various penalties, not to mention annual interest rates. What people are primarily interested in is how much they will pay back and for how long. That is the basis for whether to take out a loan and how much it will cost each month. The final repayment amount is not the important criterion at this point. Nor is it important to us to insure the loan in the event that we are unable to repay it. Often that amount is included in the repayment amount, but if it is an additional payment we would be twice as reluctant.
Those who save have three
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However, a pleasant finding from this study is that Czechs have increased their savings and have begun to accumulate more money. However, this fact alone is a positive factor. Older people are trying to think about the future, so they are building savings for illness and retirement. Young people tend to save for vacations and household items.
For young people, saving for retirement is currently a secondary investment; they want to enjoy the present and do not think much about retirement.
The average monthly savings amount is about SEK 5,000. It may also be affected by wage increases and economic growth.