South Korea Ranks Among Asia's Lowest in Confidence for Children's Financial Education... Must Overcome 'Financial Illiteracy'

Eastspring Asset Management Conducts Survey of 10,000 Parents in 9 Asian Countries
Economic Education Confidence Index: Indonesia Ranks 1st, Korea 8th, Japan 9th

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Despite the increasing activity in various financial investments and the growing importance of children's financial education, Korean parents appear to be less confident in educating their children about finances compared to parents in major Asian countries.

According to the "Insights on Korean Parents' Methods of Children's Financial Education" published on the 23rd by Eastspring Asset Management Korea, a survey of 10,000 parents from nine Asian countries, including Korea, on their perceptions and current status of children's financial education revealed that Korean parents scored 0.59 on the "Children's Financial Education Confidence Index," ranking near the bottom among the nine Asian countries surveyed. Although 94% of parents responded that teaching their children financial awareness is very important, their confidence index was measured low.

The "Financial Education Confidence Index" is a metric developed by Eastspring by combining various factors from research data, scored from 0.01 to 1.00. A score of 1.00 means parents are completely confident in financial education. In this survey, the average index across all nine countries was 0.65, with Indonesia ranking first (0.73) and Japan last (0.50), indicating that a country's economic strength and confidence in children's financial education are unrelated.

Korea also showed a lower tendency for parents to share responsibility for financial education compared to other Asian countries. The proportion of parents who believe that children's financial education is a joint responsibility of both mother and father was 46%, lower than the overall average of 59%. This was reflected in actual educational situations, where mothers played a leading role in 34% of Korean households, but fathers took the lead in only 10% of cases.

The starting age for children's financial education was also relatively later. Only 23% of Korean parents responded that children should start learning about money usage and management at age 6 or younger, much lower than the average of 37% among the surveyed Asian countries. Conversely, 41% of Korean parents said financial education should begin between ages 7 and 10, the highest proportion recorded.

To overcome low confidence in children's financial education and enhance its effectiveness, Korean parents identified the following needed support (multiple responses allowed): ▲support for children's financial education skills and tools (36%), ▲inclusion of financial education in school curricula (36%), ▲improvement of parents' financial management knowledge (33%), and ▲sharing of financial education methods among parents (31%).

Park Cheon-woong, CEO of Eastspring Asset Management Korea, stated, "We live in a 'financial civilization' generation within a capitalist society, so it is necessary to understand the value of money from an early age and develop the ability to make wise economic decisions." He added, "We will strive to help parents become better financial role models for their children and provide the knowledge, skills, and methods to teach children better about money and the future."

Meanwhile, the "Korean Family Children's Financial Education Report" was published based on a survey conducted by Eastspring Investments in collaboration with Dr. Mansur Kamitov of Nanyang Business School in Singapore and Duxton Consulting Group. The survey targeted 10,000 parents from nine Asian countries: South Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.