Two-thirds of Irish adults find financial terms confusing

TWO-THIRDS OF Irish adults struggle to understand financial terminology – and almost one third create a monthly budget only to ignore it – according to new research.

Women tend to be more confused by financial terms (73 per cent) than men (63 per cent), however females are perceived to be better at managing their day-to-day finances, according to the data collected by EBS and the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA).

Half of Irish adults say they create a monthly budget to manage their finances. However, of those who do, just 15 per cent follow their plans strictly. An additional 57 per cent say they follow their budget to an extent and 28 per cent do not follow it at all.

The EBS NALA research also concluded that constant economic pressure was having an adverse impact on retirement planning, with 45 per cent of those aged between 35-54 saying that they had not started planning for retirement at all.

Last year, EBS and NALA teamed up to develop a financial education website resource, makingcents.ie, as a tool for people who want help managing their finances. The site, which is being revamped at present, hosts videos covering important areas of personal finance including banking, savings, loans, tax, debt, insurance and knowing your rights – as well as a jargon buster to provide people with a simple explanation for a word they don’t understand.

The research findings were launched today ahead of International Literacy Day tomorrow, Thursday 8 September.