Financial education in Colombia: Challenges from the perception of its population with socioeconomic vulnerability

Abstract

inancial education is recognized as the process through which knowledge and skills are developed to make financial decisions that strengthen people's life plan within a society. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify the opinions of the vulnerable population in Colombia regarding money saving based on the realities of their financial education. Pearson's correlation coefficient, simple correspondence analysis and symmetrical normalization are used in the different obtained associations to determine that, there are different perceptions associated with money saving according to the age and academic background of the population studied. It is highlighted that the older population is disinclined to assume risks in financial investment processes, while the younger people agree to personally monitor their financial affairs. However, the elderly and the population with a level of professional and technological training do not believe that “money is there to spend it, living day to day without worrying about tomorrow”, unlike people who have only basic primary schooling, who do agree with these ideas. This demonstrates the need to strengthen the training in financial education for the socioeconomically vulnerable Colombian population, becoming an alternative for the improvement of their quality of life.