ASG develops financial literacy guide

Non-for-profit organisation and education benefit provider, the Australian Scholarships Group (ASG), has launched a free financial literacy guide called Planning Counts, which the group say will help Australians establish good financial habits.

Planning Counts covers a range of topics including planning for future goals, solutions for financial problems, investing, navigating Government benefits and budgeting.

The main goal, however, is to help parents provide education opportunities for their children.

ASG general manager development, Frida Kordovoulos said the group developed the guide in response to research released by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which found that access to simple financial information and advice could help Australians overcome the barriers to making sound financial decisions.

Kordovoulos said ASG’s members nominated financial literacy as one of the top issues they wanted to know more about.

“While dealing with money can be overwhelming for many of us, research has shown that people are in fact relatively financially literate,” Kordovoulos said.

“There just seems to be a lack of simple and direct tools and information for families to help them practice what they know, and this is supported by the recent findings of the ASIC report,” she added.

Following its Financial Literacy and Behavioural Change report, ASIC launched its own financial literacy website, Money Smart, which offers budget calculators, debt consolidation tips and information on superannuation and retirement, as well as borrowing and investments.

In developing the Planning Counts guide, ASG corroborated with financial writer Justine Davies.