Young people have little awareness of the value of money. The vast majority of young people do, however, have a good approach to money. Those are the findings of a survey carried out by Millward Brown commissioned by the Delta Lloyd Group Foundation amongst young people aged between 12 and 18 years old.
- Young people don't know the value of money
Young people have little awareness of the value of money. The vast majority of young people do, however, have a good approach to money. Those are the findings of a survey carried out by Millward Brown commissioned by the Delta Lloyd Group Foundation amongst young people aged between 12 and 18 years old.
Young people are more focused on money than they used to be. With money they acquire status and identity. Most young people are not price-aware and have difficulty gauging the value of money. 72% of those with less training and qualifications state that they do not know what an average Dutch family needs per month by way of housekeeping money. The young people who do think that they know estimate that a family spends on average €130 per month on housekeeping.
Young people also have no idea of the level of salaries. Thus the salary of a journalist is estimated on average at €3,188 a month after tax and that of a cook at €3,061. Young people have no real conception of the future. "I look at it from the point of view that later on as a postman I'll be earning something like €5,000 a month, because that's pretty much what I'll need if I leave home but still want to keep doing all those nice things."
Nevertheless, the limited awareness of the value of money on the part of the vast majority of young people is not causing any problems at this moment in time. 84% of young people have savings and 93% of students in primary, secondary and further education are (as at September 2008) free of debt. In those cases where money is already owed, this is either a debt for something very small (a sandwich in the playground) or for durable goods (a scooter). "I sometimes borrow something from my mother or friends, if I've forgotten my purse or that sort of thing. I always pay it straight back the next day. I'm actually against borrowing really big amounts of money. You just get into debt doing that."
It goes without saying that there is a group of young people who have an approach to money which is considerably less good. This is, however, a very small and not at all representative group.
42% of the parents of those surveyed say that they worry about their children's future. They feel responsible for how their children deal with money (92%), but realise that they themselves regularly provide the wrong example. Children also realise that their parents do not always deal responsibly with money. "My mother has an even bigger hole in her pocket than I do. She's still a child herself. She goes out and shops and is constantly broke. So that's not a good example at all."
The Delta Lloyd Group Foundation supports initiatives which provide awareness and opportunities and which are focused on the avoidance of or solution for financial problems. One of the Foundation's target groups are young people. In order to be able to increase young people's financial awareness, greater insight was needed into the youth target group and their outlook on the world, and that is why this survey has been conducted.
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For further information:
Eliza de Waard
Telephone: (+31) 20 594 44 88
Website: www.deltalloydgroepfoundation.nl/