If you dropped $100, would you pick it up? What about 5c?
According to research recently released by ING, more than half of the Australian adult population don’t pay attention to their loose change. Additionally, 93% of survey respondents have not just dropped and ignored, but thrown away, 5c coins[1].
Take care of the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves.
5c may not be the difference between getting on the property ladder or remaining in the rental market, nor is it going to fund your retirement dreams, but valuing your 5c coins might be the difference between having a healthy respect for money or treating it as ‘just money’. Indeed, all those lost 5c coins across Australia add up to $466 million a year.[2]
Coming-of-age millennials (those born between the early 1980s and early 2000s) are the worst offenders, with almost half of this generation loosing $10 a month in loose change.[3]
According to ASIC, not seeing money exchanged for purchases makes it harder to understand the genuine cost of goods and services and the value of money. Money may appear as an abstract and unlimited resource[4]. As we increasingly transact in a cashless society, abstract money is a problem that has no signs of abating.
Millennials are a generation marked by total familiarity with digital technology – especially in financial services. Even back in 2012 one in four millennials carried less than $5 cash[5], and with instant access to money and credit via their phone, watch or old-fashioned plastic debit or credit card, why would they?
This technological dependency is one that is leading to a generation of adults demonstrating a significant gulf between real financial literacy and financial confidence.[6] Given children are led by example and 93% of Australian adults are litereally throwing money away, this is hardly surprising.
Trilogy Funds recently released an eBook examining Australia’s declining financial literacy standards and what we can do to turn the trend around. Download your free copy at www.trilogyfunds.com.au/fin-lit or by clicking here.
[1]http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/aussies-losing-millions-in-loose-change/news-story/8c0515183da36c263c54d92c863c9524
[2]http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/aussies-losing-millions-in-loose-change/news-story/8c0515183da36c263c54d92c863c9524
[3]http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/aussies-losing-millions-in-loose-change/news-story/8c0515183da36c263c54d92c863c9524
[4]https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/life-events-and-you/families/teaching-kids-about-money
[5]https://www.visa.com/blogarchives/us/2012/07/05/millennials-believe-in-a-cashless-future/index.html
[6]https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahlandrum/2017/08/04/millennials-technology-and-the-challenge-of-financial-literacy/#24fb397428e6
