‘Overwhelming response’ to Summer School finance paper

Ling Liao says the earlier people start thinking about their personal finance, the better.

Kiwis, how's your emergency and retirement fund looking? If FINC204 Personal Finance lecturer and PhD candidate Ling Liao had to guess, she'd likely say 'not good'.

According to an annual research by the Financial Services Council, 39% of New Zealanders could not access $5000 to cover an emergency within a week without going into debt in 2023. Also, she's read about a retired 72-year-old struggling because of having not saved enough for the retirement, while knowing that many younger Kiwis are living pay cheque to pay cheque.

Ling's personal experience in finance has given her good perspective on how different cultures plan their short-term, mid-term and long-term finances, and she says Kiwis could be doing better.

Regardless of your background, the earlier you expose yourself to financial concepts and skills, the better, Ling says.

The FINC204 summer school paper will "revolutionise your thinking" and equip people with the right mindset for short, medium and long-term financial planning, she says.

While the subject of 'finance' might not sound exciting to all, the paper continually attracts an "overwhelming response". So much so that there is a now a cap of 50 students.

The paper starts off covering a "very fundamental" time value of money concept and explores practical matters in everyone's life such as mortgages, investments and retirement planning, she says.

Historically, the student body comes from all divisions, which shows students from diverse backgrounds are "eager to grow their financial literacy" while gaining personal finance skills, Ling says.

People don't need to have strong numerical skills to take the paper; anyone with strong interest and dedication can pass, Ling says.

- Kōrero by internal communications adviser, Koren Allpress