Savings: Test your financial knowledge and that of your children

Financial education progresses in France, but shortcomings persist, in particular on the calculation of interests. On the occasion of financial education Week, test your knowledge with the questions that give the most enthusiasm to the French.

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Financial education extends to an increasingly wide audience. Since 2020, even if it is still not compulsory, the “Educfi” passport has been for example to 4th grade students. A two -hour module with a questionnaire to approach the fundamentals (budget, bank account, savings, credit, means of payment, prevention against scams, etc.) which was completed by 340,000 college students Last year. On the occasion of financial education Week (from March 17 to 23), the Banque de France also took stock, during a press conference, on the extension of this system, which has opened, since the last school year, to second school classes in professional high schools, agricultural high schools, and – since January – to places of detention.

A sign of this extension of financial education, the culture of French people in this area also tends to progress. To assess it, it is an survey conducted at the OECD scale (38 member states of the organization of economic cooperation and development) which refers. Carried out every two years, the last one was conducted in 2023, and the next version will be this summer. Using a common questionnaire addressed to all member countries, the OECD can thus conduct international comparisons. When the latest results are published, the Banque de France noted that “The French aged 18 and over hold a financial culture close to the average of the OECD (…). France ranks 14th out of the 39 countries Having participated in the survey “.

What notions do the most difficulty give the French?

In its synthesis, the Banque de France noted, for example “Let the French better master the impact of inflation on purchasing power, as well as the relationship between risk and yield”. On the other hand, “Knowledge of the mechanism of simple or composed interest rates and the impact of inflation on savings deserves to be improved”. To realize the difficulty of this test, we submitted the 11 questions putting more in difficulty the French to three experts in savings and personal finances. To get your own idea, you can also try to answer them below.

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First good point, “We see that a significant basic notion as the rate of booklet A is addressed”notes Thomas Perret, and president of my little placement, a fintech that seeks to democratize financial investment. Concerning the following questions, relating to the calculation of interests, “They are fundamental too” For Marc Tempelman, co-founder of the cashbee savings application: “It is indeed from three questions, including these two, that the economist Olivia Mitchell developed a test allowing to measure financial education worldwide.” Alas, as noted by the Banque de France, the calculation of interest is a concept that is still poorly understood: 50% of respondents respond correctly to question n ° 2 and 40% only to n ° 3.

Online resources to understand the calculation of your interests

To better understand the concept of compound interests behind-that is to say the fact that the interests generated each year generate interests in the following years, with an exponential effect-, Vincent Grard, France director of the Trade Republic Savings Platform, recommends the use of an online savings simulator: “You just have to enter a fictitious amount of savings, its return and its duration, to see how the interest increases exponentially as the number of years of savings increases.”

Another crucial notion addressed in this questionnaire, that of costs: “It is important to seize on a long -term investment how even 1% of costs over 20 or 30 years can considerably nibble on your capital”Note Vincent Grard. Hence the relevance of the question on the TAEG (annual overall effective rate) that the borrowers face. To measure this impact, a simulator is also available on the website of the Financial Markets Authority (AMF): “What is the impact of costs on your return?”

Very specific, less crucial products

Conversely, certain notions seem less essential to our experts, who have broken their teeth themselves: “Even as a professional in the sector, I admit that I do not know the average rate of agios practiced by banks”admits Thomas Perret. It is therefore not surprised that 40% of respondents also concede not knowing the answer. Likewise, it is not alarming for our experts that all French people do not know the“Specific banking offer” – reserved for people in financial fragility – or the “Renewable credit”which is a type of special consumption loan. “It is important to know the risks associated with this last product”notes Thomas Perret, however, but not being aware of its detail operation is not a lack of financial culture.

If you also want to test the level of financial knowledge of your children, you can find below the questions asked of the middle school students as part of the “Educfi” passport, in principle spent in the 4th class. The questionnaire already addresses notions on which adults are questioned, such as calculating the interests generated by a placement.