Massey’s Fin-Ed Centre encourages high school students to test their financial pulse this Money Week

Think you know all about afterpay? How about your credit card from your debit card? It’s these sorts of questions, and more, that the Massey Financial Education and Research (Fin-Ed) Centre wants high school students to answer in order to help gauge the financial literacy of the youth of New Zealand.

That’s why this Money Week they’re launching their ‘Test your Financial Pulse’ survey, which aims to gather insights as well as raise awareness of key aspects of money management. Fin-Ed Centre Director Dr Pushpa Wood says the survey is designed to assess a person’s capacity to manage finances and should highlight which areas are flourishing and which a person may need assistance with.

“We want being financially capable to be something that our youth aspire to, and taking our survey will highlight to them the areas of money management that they’re perhaps not so capable in,” says Dr Wood.

The survey covers topics including spending, credit, debt, saving and investing, and Dr Wood says the information gathered from the survey will help the Fin-Ed Centre in future endeavours. “The insights we gain from the survey will help to inform the educational programs we create and help us to understand attitudes towards finance and money in this demographic,” she says.

The information gathered through this survey will complement the insights that the Centre has been collecting through its longitudinal study and financial health checks of Massey University students.

The Fin-Ed Centre currently offers a free online course, ‘Making your money work for you’, to all students enrolled in Massey University programmes. Dr Wood says the Fin-Ed Centre plans to provide a similar free course for high school students nationwide, and they’re currently exploring sponsorship/collaboration opportunities for the course.

The Massey Fin-Ed Centre works to help New Zealanders become more financially savvy by improving their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour towards money. The Fin-Ed Centre is globally unique for the breadth of its work around financial capability, covering education, research and consultancy. They undertake research and evaluate programmes as well as run courses and professional development programmes for both groups and individuals in personal financial management.

The survey is available online here and is open to high school students in years 12-13. The survey is completely anonymous.