{"id":9547,"date":"2015-07-15T04:35:13","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T11:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ietransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=9547"},"modified":"2017-06-30T11:08:33","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T18:08:33","slug":"financial-empowerment-training-a-good-idea-for-young-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/articles\/financial-empowerment-training-a-good-idea-for-young-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial Empowerment Training – A Good Idea For Young Girls?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Girl<\/a><\/p>\n

Toyota Financial Services (TFS) has partnered<\/a> with Girl Scouts of the USA and pledged $2.1 million to provide financial literacy training for young girls.The program, which aims to empower 26,000 young girls, includes rolling out a new line of Girl Scout badges, providing college scholarships and conducting financial literacy events across the country.<\/p>\n

Financial Skills for Future Business Leaders<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The CEO of Girl Scouts, Anna Maria Ch\u00e1vez, has a goal<\/a> of closing the \u201cleadership gap between men and women within one generation.\u201d\u00a0\u2013 a goal that will require teaching young girls business management skills. While this may sound ambitious to achieve in one generation, Girl Scouts already has a reputation for breeding strong female leaders with more than two thirds of U.S. Congress women and 80 percent of female business owners former Girl Scouts.<\/p>\n

Not to mention, the current generation of Girl Scouts is already ripe with driven goal-setters. In 2014,\u00a0the Girl Scout cookie sales record was broken by a 12-year-old, Katie Francis<\/a>, who sold 21,477 boxes. This translated to 7 hours\/day on weekdays and 12-13 hours\/day on weekends, with sales targets of 30-46 boxes per hour. She marketed herself with a daisy in her ponytail, an Irish jig at her cookie booth and a story about which charity the proceeds from the sales would benefit.<\/p>\n

But why financial literacy training though? Is financial illiteracy even a problem? Do young girls even want to learn about financial literacy? And what would a financial literacy program for young girls look like?<\/p>\n

Is Financial Illiteracy Even A Problem?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Turns out, yes, it is<\/a>\u00a0a problem.\u00a0An international financial literacy study by the OECD Programme for International Assessment tested 15-year-olds<\/a>\u00a0and found that approximately \u201c18 percent of American students couldn\u2019t perform basic financial literacy tasks.\u201d This figure was higher than the 15.3 percent average for all OECD countries. For the assessment, basic financial literacy tasks included: \u201crecogniz[ing] the difference between needs and wants, mak[ing] simple decisions on everyday spending and recogniz[ing] the purpose of everyday financial documents such as invoices.\u201d Now, if you also happen to feel insecure in your financial literacy capabilities, here<\/a> is a top ten list of money management tips.<\/p>\n

Financial literacy has increasingly become the focus of policy makers as of late due to an increase in economic uncertainty and complexity and the shift in decision rights for retirement planning from the institution to the individual. Financial literacy has also become a hot topic in poverty alleviation circles. In recent years, poverty reduction strategies have shifted<\/a> from job creation and housing subsidies to financial empowerment training.\u00a0This shift is based on the premise that increasing an individual\u2019s income is not enough to reverse poverty if the individual does not know how to manage that money through saving and asset-generation.<\/p>\n

Financial literacy’s\u00a0effect on wealth is not just speculation. Research has found that financial literacy positively affects financial status. Financially literate individuals outperformed<\/a> financially illiterate individuals in studies on budgeting, saving and wealth-accumulation.<\/p>\n

Financial Illiteracy in the Female Population<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Certain parts of the population are also more likely to be financially illiterate \u2013 women in particular. Research has found that, on average, women underperform<\/a> men in financial knowledge and are less confident in their financial skills.\u00a0The testing included questions on calculating interest rates and explaining concepts of risk diversification.<\/p>\n

Girl Scouts Financial Empowerment Study<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Turns out, the Girl Scouts also did their own study<\/a> on financial empowerment.\u00a0They surveyed 1,000 girls aged 8-17 and found:<\/p>\n