Financial literacy is one of the important life skills for children to learn. However, according to the Personal Financial Literacy survey conducted by Jump$tart Coalition from 1997 to 2008, it was found that the questions on bank accounts, credit cards, savings, investments and insurances correctly answered by US high school students has dropped from an average of 57% in 1997 to 47% in 2008. This is an alarming result, reflecting the poor understanding of financial concepts amongst young generations. We can also find a related phenomenon in Hong Kong. The report from Student Financial Assistance Agency in 2010 stated that since 2007, there had been about 600 notifications on bankruptcy of university students and it was on a rising trend. The reasons for bankruptcy included stock investment and over spending on luxurious items. After incurring a debt, some of the students chose to go bankrupt to avoid paying it. 

Financial literacy and sensible personal financial management skills are vital to ensuring the long term well-being of our children. The concept of money is covered in arithmetic under mathematics; however, the broader role of money, the importance of financial responsibility, budgeting, and decision-making are not covered in most national education curricula around the world.

As parents, how can we encourage our children to develop an interest in personal financial management? What are the concepts they need to understand? How can we simplify such concepts? How do we help them develop related skills in managing their money? There are direct and indirect ways in which financial decision-making capabilities can be improved through a combination of fun games and everyday life examples.

We are very honoured to have one of our parents, Dr. Christine Chow, to share her insights and experiences with our parents. Dr. Chow is the founder of Homage Consulting Ltd., with over ten years of investment and consulting experiences for institutional clients. She participates in academic and industry conferences on responsible investment and shareholder engagement as a subject specialist. She was invited to speak at University of Sydney (Australia), Sustainable Investment Research Platform (Sweden) and Oikos Foundation (Switzerland), amongst others. Prior to her move to Hong Kong in August 2011, she was an investment adviser to American School of Bombay (ASB) in India (2010-2011). She encourages the introduction of financial literacy and personal financial management since a young and appropriate age because they are essential skills that enable our next generations to live responsibly and happily.

Details of the event:
Date:            February 25, 2012 (Saturday)
Time:           10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Venue:         Yew Chung International School – Secondary, 3 To Fuk Road, Kowloon Tong
Speaker:      Dr. Christine Chow
Language:   English (with Putonghua interpretation)

Registration: Closed