Financial Literacy as the Basis of the Culture of Ukraine’s Population

Abstract

It has been noted that the modern development of the financial sphere of Ukraine is one of the priorities of the state administration agencies. Economic awareness of the population leads to a decrease in unemployment, stability of the national currency and the formation of a new economic culture of the population, which requires, above all, an adequate level of the financial literacy. It has been concluded that the functioning of all spheres of society is not possible without the use of the financial information, application of financial knowledge. Financial awareness helps to understand key financial concepts and use them to make decisions about income, expenses and savings, to choose the proper financial instruments, to plan the budget, to accumulate funds for future goals. Existing scientific approaches have been studied and the authors have offered own definition of the concept of «financial literacy», which means awareness, knowledge, skills, attitudes (life guides) and behavior, which allow to make sound financial decisions for achieving personal financial well-being, as well as financial activity of every citizen of the state to ensure social stability in society. The authors have distinguished a number of factors that affect the financial literacy of the population and they include: ignorance in the financial sphere; ignorance of how financial institutions of the state operate and their advantages; distrust to financial institutions and financial organizations; inability to distribute income and expenses; fear of starting own business. It has been noted that increasing the level of the financial literacy of Ukrainian citizens will enhance their ability to exercise effective financial control over the use of their own financial resources and to make sound financial decisions, and in our opinion, would become an integral element of the financial culture of society. It has been substantiated that there is no agency in Ukraine responsible for the implementation of the state policy in the field of the financial literacy of the population, which would develop, implement the National Program for raising the level of financial literacy of the population, and would also monitor the situation on this issue in Ukraine. Perspective research areas are the study of the effectiveness of teaching the discipline «Financial Literacy» in general secondary schools.