CORNER BROOK People today do not have sufficient financial knowledge, says Al Antle.
The executive director of Credit Counselling Services of Newfoundland and Labrador is trying to educate the public on their money.
Antle told members of the Rotary Club of Corner Brook this week there are many factors contributing to that lack of knowledge. He said the roles of financial institutions has changed from advisors to sellers, the marketplace has evolved through such amenities as online shopping, and many things such as debt and bankruptcy have become socially acceptable.
“We have learned that we are a woefully inadequately prepared society in terms of the financial knowledge we have,” he said. “Financial literacy’s time has come.”
Antle says their main responsibility is assisting people with debt, primarily those struggling to make or defaulting on payments.
“The core business we provide is getting between families and financial institutions, “ he said. “So that the family unit survives and people stay married and the children have a reasonable standard of living.”
There is a big change in the younger generation toward finances and debt, according to the executive director. Youth today accumulate massive debt through students loans, which are distributed to students without any proof of ability to pay them back.
Compounding those student loan debt loads is another common issue, he said, “our kids have confused education and tourism” — referring to the penchant for students to travel to another part of the province, country or world to become educated.
There is no longer a rapport with financial institutions and shopping has become a buy-now and pay-plater concept, he said.
Antle encouraged the business people and community leaders at Rotary to help the credit counselling organization increase its presence and spread its message. He said they want to speak to groups, especially students, but thus far have been unable to get into the school setting.
“We don’t see financial information as urgent enough to warrant a place in the school system,” he said. “I can’t get into the classroom because, ‘where does my product belong in the curriculum.’”
Credit Counselling Services of Newfoundland and Labrador has an office in Corner Brook located in the CIBC Building on Main Street.
