“Anything that gives us peace of mind will help our financial well-being.” This is how Xavier Puig, professor of Economics and Business at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona School of Management, summarizes one of the key lessons on financial education to have personal finances under control. “Getting into debt beyond our means must be avoided. And having saved some money (what we call an emergency fund for unexpected situations) or taking out insurance to protect what matters most to us will help us. [a tener tranquilidad financiera]”, explains Puig in an interview in much to doCaixaBank’s content program aimed at promoting financial education and increasing the population’s knowledge of basic personal finance concepts.
Among the different formulas that can help us improve our financial well-being, the expert points out, there is also investment: “One thing is saving, which means setting aside money for future needs, and the other is putting that saving to work. That is, invest it so that it gives us a return. To be able to invest previously we have had to save”, he clarifies. The investment, adds the specialist, can also become a tool to prepare, with time, a good retirement: “We are going to live a third of our life in retirement and we would like to maintain our standard of living. Therefore, the sooner we start planning it, the better.” Two examples of how to take the first step is to allocate money to a pension plan or investment funds.
In Puig’s words, the concepts of profitability and risk are the two sides of the same coin. “The more profitability we want, the more risk we have to take,” says the economist. For this reason, he recommends having a specialist who, after knowing what our needs are, offers us investment offers according to our situation.
CaixaBank Life, the financial culture portal
This year they have gone through much to do more than a dozen personalities from gastronomy, culture, science, education and sports, among other sectors, to highlight, from their personal experience, the importance of financial concepts such as entrepreneurship, savings, investment, family economy, indebtedness or bank security. Experiences that are complemented by the vision of an expert in finance.
Together with the programme, CaixaBank has created a financial culture content hub, located within the bank’s commercial website, which brings together articles, videos and infographics that bring basic personal finance concepts closer to all audiences. CaixaBank also has face-to-face talks and workshops aimed at customers, shareholders, young people in ESO and vulnerable groups, many of which are currently taking place virtually due to the necessary adaptation in the context of the pandemic.
