There are all sorts of ways to be “smart” in this life. To be “book smart” means you have a lot of knowledge you learned from studying, typically during your high school and college years. To be “street smart,” you’ve learned from the proverbial “school of hard knocks” how to “read” people, handle yourself in tough situations, and confidently navigate cities and big towns. Perhaps the most important type of “smarts” is to be “money smart.” Or, as the smarter among us call it . . . to be “financially literate.”
For the record, financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively use various financial skills, including budgeting and investing. Those who are financially literate have the essential foundation for a smart relationship with money, which will help them immensely in planning a life.
Key aspects of financial literacy include knowing how to create a budget, manage debt, keep track of personal spending and plan for retirement. Those who are financially literate are generally less vulnerable to financial fraud and are better equipped to save for life’s most important moments — everything from a honeymoon to a first home to a child’s college education.
Sqwire CEO Danijel Velicki says, “You can be very intelligent and even very successful, but not know much about financial literacy.” The Croatia-born entrepreneur knows what he’s talking about, too. Under his leadership, his Virginia-based company has developed a program that a company or organization can buy for their employees that provides the information, tools and resources needed to teach employees how to confidently handle their personal finances.
The inspiration came from the financial struggles of his father, a mechanic, and his mother, a retail worker: “I thought, ‘What chance do they have in navigating the whole financial landscape?’ The decisions that previous generations had to make versus decisions we have to make; there’s no comparison. We’re living longer. There are hardly any pensions. You really have to figure out how to provide yourself with an income for your whole life. Things have gotten more complicated, more costly, but there has been a void in teaching. I built Sqwire to put financial literacy in the hands of as many people as possible, and to teach people what and how to buy things that really will make a difference in their lives and put them in the right financial space.”
Financial literacy also helps those in the labor force do their jobs better. Those who are financially literate don’t have nearly the same stress level as those who don’t know how to manage their money. Consequently, more and more employers are promoting financial literacy throughout their workforce.
“Finances can cause bad health, and bad health can certainly hurt finances,” Velicki says. “One survey showed that, before the pandemic, people spent up to seven hours a week at work dealing with the financial problems they were having at home. That impacted workplace efficiency, the effectiveness of work and, ultimately, absenteeism.”
For these and other reasons, Sqwire is among BSCAI’s many Affinity Partners, a series of trusted providers who offer services to BSCAI members at a discounted rate. “In the BSCAI realm, it’s a big problem if you don’t have enough people to go into a place and deliver your services,” Velicki says, referring to employee absenteeism due to stress or financial problems. He sees a clear connection between his parents’ experience and that of BSCAI member companies’ frontline workers. “They are the ones who need financial literacy the most. They don’t have enough of it, but they still have to make the same financial decisions that everyone else has to.”
Sqwire developed a series of videos and vignettes, most running less than a minute, that owners and leaders can text to their staff in the field. In turn, those workers can spend their breaks, their personal time or their time between cleaning assignments watching the video content on everything from how to budget to what your car insurance limits mean and so forth.
“You would be amazed at the basic stuff that people just don’t think about,” Velicki says. “‘Why is car insurance so important?’ or ‘What does it mean when interest rates rise?’ It makes sense for companies to be able to offer a tool that makes their staff better people, not just better employees. This is not training or education on how to clean facilities better. It’s teaching employees how to pay off credit cards, how to negotiate with debtors, how to afford a child, how to buy a house — all the things that will make them a better spouse, a better parent and a better employee in return.”
The good news is that it’s never too late to begin practicing good financial habits, no matter where you are financially. A few of the most basic steps to improve your personal finances include creating a monthly household budget, making timely bill payments and periodically checking your credit report.
“The central question that needs to be asked is ‘What are the things that matter when it comes to me and my family?’” Velici says. “When you look at finances through the right lens, life isn’t nearly as scary.”
Learn more about Sqwire and other BSCAI Affinity Partners here.