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Kerala can of course boast of cent per cent literacy. But when it comes to financial literacy, the State is at the lower rung, according to statistics, with the majority being illiterate and rely more on traditional ways of investments.
It is in this background, Hedge School of Applied Economics have taken up a knowledge initiative to spread the concept of financial literacy from government offices to corporate houses through its programme “Gateway to Financial Freedom” (GTFF).
“The objective is nothing but to spearhead a revolution to change the investment habits of people and ensure them that wealth creation is within their reach,” says Alex K Babu, Managing Director, Hedge Group of Companies.
Though majority in Kerala are earning a handsome income, their expenses seem to have skyrocketed due to lifestyle changes. With massive amount of salaries being spent on EMI’s, bills, shopping, healthcare, etc, there is a feeling among people that wealth creation is a far-fetched dream, he said.
GTTF, he said, is getting encouraging response.“Since August 15, we have been able to conduct over 200 programmes, reaching to over 4,500 people. The plan is to carry out 500 events before 2018. Through this, people are made aware of various financial products they can invest in by calculating the risk return trade off they are taking for each.
Gung ho response“We started this exercise as a CSR but at the end of the session we circulate a feedback form asking whether they need financial planning and interestingly more than 60 per cent responded positively. We are seeing more than 200 per cent jump in new customer acquisition and our assets under advisory had already grown by 100 per cent to ₹750 crore,” he said.
GTFF aims to spread the benefits of financial literacy by helping people to manage their money and at the same time improving their chances to realise all their financial goals. Through this financial literacy initiative, Hedge School is spreading the message that no matter how small the amount of income, investments can be done and wealth can be created.
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