Liverpool, UK – Over the pandemic, lots of young adults have been trying to take control of their money but have often found this difficult due to a lack of available information and education.
Ola Majekodunmi, a 23-year-old business management graduate with a passion for informing young people about finance, spoke recently with Youth Journalism International.
To her, financial literacy means having a broad general understanding of personal finance and everything that comes with it, from learning how to save, investing or just understanding what taxes mean.
Majekodunmi explained that having a basic understanding of money is essential for adults and young people.
The current education system is not doing an adequate job of informing students about their money, according to Majekodunmi, and there is a huge lack of teaching in school regarding this information.
Despite studying business management in her secondary school and university, she shared that she did not have a thorough understanding of personal finance from these experiences.
To combat this, Majekodunmi founded ‘All Things Money,’ a personal finance platform designed to share tips, tricks and information about the financial world and to help others navigate the adulting world.
She described it as “budgeting, investing, saving tips – and everything in-between!”
Majekodunmi mentioned ‘Pennies to Pounds,’ and ‘Make Money Simple’ as helpful online resources for young people, while highlighting that Martin Lewis from ‘The Money Saving Expert’ also provides helpful tools for tackling this topic.
‘All Things Money’ is accessible – operating online, on social media and in podcast form. This makes it engaging for the audience and educates them in an interesting way about how they can take ownership of their money.
Majekodunmi discussed the impact of covid on financial literacy. She said being more educated about money is as important as ever, emphasizing that emergency funds are a must-have.
“Young people may have in the past associated savings with buying a house or a car but actually not realizing how important it is to have a pot of money should the worst-case scenario happen.”
Majekodunmi’s number one tip for effective money management? Budgeting.
She said it is one of the steps that young people can implement to have those emergency savings.
“It allows you to see how much money you can spend on a day-today basis and how much you can save or afford to invest.”
For those unsure of where to begin, a budget might just be the best place to start.
Rosie Evans is a Reporter and Illustrator with Youth Journalism International
