November is financial literacy month.
We have healthier relationships, and better mental and physical health when we are free of financial problems. Our ability to manage our finances, in a way that makes us comfortable and in control, helps us reach our goals.
There’s a new booklet with great information and advice for anyone sharing financial literacy information. I wish I had read Welcome to the Financial Mainstream, by John Stapleton, before I began facilitating financial literacy workshops for the NWT Literacy Council!
This publication highlights why lower-income Canadians are not part of the financial mainstream and some barriers they face, including poor or no credit histories and lack of access to banking services. Welcome to the Financial Mainstream validates my own experience facilitating financial literacy workshops.
First, understand the realities that lower-income learners live with. If you have a comfortable bank balance it’s no big deal to wait a few days for the hold period on a cheque at the bank. Not so if you are scraping by to pay for rent and food. The hold policies of mainstream banks push people to costlier cheque-cashing options and payday loan stores with their high fees.
Understanding all the forces that come into play for learners takes time. As this publication noted, “it was several weeks…before people started to share personal stories about debt. What they revealed was disturbing.
“…It is received wisdom in financial literacy courses that filing taxes and having a bank account are good things. And they can be good things...but we must not teach about these benefits without delving seriously into the issue of personal debt and its ramifications.”
In addition to knowing our learners and the social assistance and other systems they work within, we need to know about the additional financial pressures that exist in small Aboriginal communities that influence financial decisions.
Second, we need to be clear that lower-income learners need more than information. The learners in this book and ones who took the NWT Literacy Council’s financial literacy workshops appreciate the information they receive. But no amount of information is enough to help lower-income learners take control of their financial situation when the rules work to their disadvantage.
We need to also be consumer advocates. We need to look for those unfair policies as we discuss financial literacy with learners. Then we need to push for changes that will make banking more accessible and that protect vulnerable lower-income consumers.
-- Aggie Brockman
