Today sees the start of Financial Planning Week, an initiative created by the Institute of Financial Planning in order to promote financial advice within the UK.
It’s a worthwhile effort, given the following statistics:
- Recent research from Scottish Widows shows that we’d rather talk about sex and health than money.
- One in three adults do not plan their finances, and those that do, only set aside a miserly five minutes a week.
- About 15% of 18 to 24 year-olds think an ISA is a iPod accessory, and one in ten reckon it’s an energy drink.
The Financial Planning Week website has a useful 5 step plan for getting yourself “financially fit”, which includes setting goals, working out a budget, planning for the unexpected, savings and investments. There’s a few events going on around the country, although there isn’t too much detail on the events.
There’s also a forum for you to put your personal finance questions to an expert, although there’s not much on there yet, so head on over and make the experts earn their money.
All in all, it’s a good idea, but the execution of it seems a little lacking – it would have been good to have seen more events around the country to get people involved in thinking about their finances, and dare I say it, a good move would have been to get more personal finance bloggers talking about it beforehand to help spread the word about the week.