70% of U-30 adults interested in financial matters: OP

About 70 per cent of adults under 30 say they are interested or very interested in financial matters, according to a survey conducted by financial group OP.

A vast majority, 80 per cent consider their personal finance skills to be good, said OP in a press release, quoting the survey.

However, nearly one in two young people say they are anxious when it comes to talking about money, and not everyone has close friends or family with whom they can discuss finances.

Highly educated young people were particularly confident, with as many as 87 per cent saying that their personal finance skills were good.

Among those young people still living with their parents, just 69 per cent considered their personal finance skills to be good.

Of those young people aged 18–29 who responded to the survey, 68 per cent said they are interested in financial matters and 54 per cent are happy to talk about money.

“These are very encouraging numbers. 72 per cent of those surveyed also say that they keep savings, which would indicate that young people today are smart about their personal finances. Building financial skills takes time and when you’re young, it’s important to be interested in learning new things,” said Kai Kalajainen, Director, Wealth Management Customers at OP.

Young people get financial information mainly from friends and family (81 per cent), traditional and social media (40 per cent), and banks (36 per cent).

Although young people are interested in discussing finances, there are also other emotions at play. As many as 48 per cent of those surveyed say that they are anxious about discussing money. Among those unemployed, 58 per cent expressed this view.

Not everyone has a person in their circle of friends and family with whom they can discuss finances.

About one in six of the respondents, 17 per cent, said that they have nobody they can talk to about money. As many as 23 per cent of men responded in this way, while the figure was only 9 per cent for female respondents.

“One in four young people still living with their parents say they have no-one with whom they can discuss finances. I encourage everyone to take the time to sit down with young people and talk about money and spending. Reliable financial information in an easily understandable format is readily available from public sources,” said Kalajainen.

The survey was an online questionnaire carried out in September with 611 young people aged 18–29. The survey was commissioned by OP and carried out by Taloustutkimus.

The margin of error is up to 4.1 percentage points.