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Top1. Introduction
Financial literacy is a combination of basic knowledge in the field of finance, banking, insurance, as well as personal finance budgeting, which allows a person to correctly select the necessary financial product / service, soberly assess, take on risks that may arise during their use, competently accumulate savings and identify dubious (fraudulent) schemes for investing money. Good money management is at the core of financial literacy. This applies to all major areas, such as (Khikmatov and Koichueva, 2015:9):
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rational use of monetary resources for consumption;
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a culture of savings for the purpose of asset formation;
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efficient use of monetary resources for investment.
The level of financial literacy also shows the impact on the current financial planning and financial management of individual citizens and households, as well as on their ability to long-term savings and investments. Consumers who do not effectively manage their growing financial liabilities become vulnerable to financial crises, which threatens the stability of the financial system both nationally and internationally (Manakhova, 2011:41).
To date one of priority directions of strategic development of the domestic economy are increasing the indicators and indexes its change, build increased competitiveness, strengthen economic growth, which will be the basis to form a sustainable business and investment climate, maintain a decent standard of living and material well-being of compatriots and strengthening the role and status of Russia in international economic relations. Undoubtedly, the realization of the aforementioned goals will require a decent level of financial literacy from the population, since the redirection of economic development towards an extensive way, especially during the inception and large-scale spread of new financial markets, having their technology and services, predetermines their extensive use by the population, attracting citizens to all types of financial and economic relations. All this causes it importance to organization of increasing financial literacy in Russia, including at the federal level.
Financial literacy presupposes having a person such a level of knowledge and skills in the financial sphere, which would allow him not only to give an objective assessment of the situation on the financial market, but also to make informed rational decisions. Basic knowledge of financial concepts and techniques allows the population to rationally form savings, generate savings, plan capital investment and use complex financial services that are now actively moving into the financial market.
The methods of organizing financial literacy are personality-activity, integrative, practice-oriented, competence, subjective, contextual.
When considering the substantive aspects of financial literacy, we take as a basis the definition formulated by Leontiev A.A.: “A functionally literate person is a person who is able to use all the knowledge and skills that are constantly acquired during his life to solve the widest possible range of life tasks in various spheres of human activity, communication and social relations.” The definitions of actual learning outcomes Ermolenko (2015) are in contact with the above interpretation and include some components of functional literacy, such as “21st century skills”, “core competencies”, “learning metrics”, UNESCO indicators (sustainable development and global civil competencies) (Ermolenko, 2015). Their main differences are in the structure and approaches to the description, but the essence remains the same everywhere: functional literacy is the ability to apply the received knowledge, skills, competencies, values, behavioral strategies to solve practical problems (not theoretical) in a variety of conditions. Such an interpretation makes it possible to identify significant differences in functional literacy from minimal competence, mastering the basics of skills or abilities.
The logic of the study is as follows. Initially, we will clarify the definition of social development. Next, it is necessary to clarify the social importance of such a phenomenon as financial literacy and its consideration through the prism of social development. In conclusion, after reviewing actual scientific articles in the field of popularization and promotion of economic knowledge, we have developed recommendations for implementation using the example of the Republic of Azerbaijan.