Study: Young Romanians spend their savings on clothes, bicycles, mobile phones and gadgets

Money School launched a challenge for children, teenagers and adults to say what they did with the first money they saved, and from over 2,500 responses collected by BCR, it found that young Romanians mostly spend their first savings on mobile phones and gadgets.

The study conducted by BCR, through the Money School, shows that when it comes to savings and investments that Romanians make with them, the differences between generations are huge. While people aged between 26 and 79 most often choose to purchase clothing, children and young people aged up to 25 years invest their first savings predominantly in mobile phones and accessories.

According to the study, today’s children start saving early, including at the age of four, while parents and grandparents only did this after turning 18. Most children save an average of between RON 350 and 800 per year, which they spend on bicycles, cameras or TV games, while those who invest most in education are teenagers aged 16 to 20.

“Our study shows how much financial education is needed. No age category places long-term investments such as education, health, pensions, but it is worth noting that young people aged between 16 and 20 allocate the highest amounts towards education. I also noticed a difference in the age at which Romanians start to put money aside: today’s children and young people do it at an early age, even as young as four, while the children before ’89 just started to do so during high school or university. We believe there is still much to be done about Romanians’ financial education, which has to go beyond saving, to controlling personal budgets, setting realistic life goals and adopting a calculated and fair financial behavior. Through financial independence you can build a better life,” says Nicoleta Deliu, coordinator of the School of Money program.

Here are the main conclusions of the Money School study:

Children are starting to save at the age of 4.
The first money collected by children aged 11 to 15 goes on bicycles and roller skates, then on toys, phones and accessories in the order of preferences.
Teenagers – aged 16 to 20 – have spent the first savings on phones and accessories, then on gifts and studies.
All phones and accessories have been a priority for young people aged 21-25, followed by bicycles, skates and holidays, for the first time in the top.
Romanians aged between 26 and 79 say they spent their first savings on clothes and footwear.
Mobile and home appliances are getting into the top-ranking choices for first-time savings from 26 years old and get even more popular with age.

Although preferences differ from one generation to another, a top of investments from the early savings of Romanians of any age would look like this:

Clothes and footwear
Bicycles and roller skates
Gifts for others
Travel
Investment in studies
Phones and Accessories
Furniture and home appliances
Laptop / computer
Toys
Car / Driving School

BCR launched the largest financial education campaign in Romania between August-October 2018: For 10 weeks, 1,000 employees offer free courses at 100 bank branches through the Money School. Romanians who want to get more out of their money are welcome, until October 18, to join the “Money School” courses.

1,000 employees of the bank, ready to act as true financial education teachers, await participants every Thursday in 100 branches of BCR across the country. Courses are free of charge and take place outside work hours with the public of BCR units, which are visually marked and whose availability can be checked at www.scoaladebani.ro.

Testimonies of the Romanians about the first money saved

From the interviews gathered following the BCR study this summer, the youngest “saver” said that he had started this activity for four years and raised RON 350 to buy a bicycle. Another kid raised money in the piggy bank and, 10 years later, decided with his mother “to move to the next level”, so now, at the age of 13, he already has the money in an investment fund.

Among teenagers, there are also some with original investments, from bee-keeping to some online: “With my first money saved (RON 600), we invested in a cryptocoins platform. We started the investment at the age of 15 when I did not have any experience with RON 400. Startingfrom the age of 14 years I started to learn about the crypto world, so I did not allow myself to lose all the money. At present, with an investment of RON 400 (USD 100), the daily profit is one dollar,” explains a 16-year-old girl.

Among the statements are also the anecdotal ones: a young man tells that he used his first savings to buy a vase from his mother, because he had broken one and his mother asked him to pay. The other one had a complex financial route:

“My first saved money was at the age of 10 years, somewhere at 100 lei, and I remember that I did not want to spend anything on it, but someday it came to some candies and I took some of that money. After that, there were other small expenses that led me to bankruptcy. Later on, at 14 years old, bored with my old computer, I got my eye on a laptop and cleaned the house so my mother would pay me RON 10 a day, plus the money I was collecting on my birthday, everything was going into the laptop account. After a while I was legally working and I got the money to get my laptop I wanted and also had enough money for an office, a desk chair and a mouse; I still have that laptop and use it. At age 17, I opened a bank account and put all my savings there,” says a teenager.

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