Canadians aren’t exactly geniuses when it comes to money: report | Daily Hive

Canadians aren’t exactly geniuses when it comes to money, new study suggests

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Canadians like to think we’re pretty good with money, but a new international study suggests we may want to crack open a textbook (or, at the very least, Google what “compound interest” means).

Canada ranked 22nd out of 27 countries in a new global financial literacy study by Remitly, with Canadians answering an average of 75.5 per cent of questions correctly.

The international money transfer service company surveyed more than 5,000 individuals from around the world and tested their knowledge on everything from interest rates and inflation to dollar conversion and cryptocurrency.

Being financially literate is more than just being good at math. Remitly says it involves the “knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to make sound financial decisions and achieve individual financial well-being.”

So when it comes to putting that knowledge into practice, Canadians appear to have some room for improvement.

The study found that financial literacy varies depending on the topic, with currency conversion proving to be the biggest challenge globally. Just 60.2 per cent of respondents answered those questions correctly.

Now, this doesn’t mean Canadians are wandering around clueless about their finances, but the results seem to suggest that there are some gaps in the knowledge many of us need in order to make everyday decisions like budgeting, saving for retirement and paying off credit cards, for example.

And, it turns out, we’re not getting much help from schools, either.

One of the biggest takeaways from the study was that many people feel formal education doesn’t do enough to prepare them for the financial decisions they face in everyday life.

Globally, 70.5 per cent of respondents said school didn’t give them enough financial knowledge to confidently manage money as adults. So, where are they learning it? Mostly on their own, with 82.9 per cent saying they’ve had to become largely self-taught when it comes to finances.

Canada’s 75.5 per cent score puts it just behind Ireland, which came in at 75.6 per cent, and just ahead of Italy at 75 per cent.

The Czech Republic, “the savings champions,” topped the global financial literacy rankings, with respondents answering an impressive 90.9 per cent of questions correctly on average.

In second place is another European nation, the Netherlands, where respondents got 86.1 per cent of questions right.

Here’s a look at the full ranking with final scores: