Jameela Jamil has partnered with financial service company Credit Karma to help tackle financial illiteracy and promote their new savings scheme – which enables people in the US to open free high-interest savings accounts.
While Credit Karma Savings aren’t available in the UK, Jamil’s admissions about her own finances have brought urgency to conversations about the lack of financial education for young people. According to the actor, [she](http://Jameela Jamil And Caroline Flack Got Into A Debate. So Why Are They Being Pitted Against Each Other?) lost all of her money herself just three years ago because she didn’t understand how to manage money responsibly.
‘I was never set up through school or the people around me or magazines to know how to protect myself, which is why at 30, I kind of lost all my money,’ she told PEOPLE{
Feeling intimidated by the prospect of understand money management, Jamil says that growing up ‘incredibly poor’ and after coming into an influx of cash at 22 – when she began her career in entertainment – she made a series of bad financial decisions. She never opened a savings account, nor did she get to grips with taxes, causing her to be ‘absolutely demolished’ every year by the tax office.
‘There’s no good reason that someone who isn’t completely stupid, like myself, was able to make so many stupid mistakes, other than the fact that the information just isn’t readily available to me,’ she says. ‘The whole financial aspect of life, you just don’t even know where to start. It sounds so complicated.’
Jamil says that having depression caused her to spend excessively. Attempting to improve her mood by purchasing more online, she says being depressed makes ‘you buy things that you think will make you feel better in the moment'.
After hitting rock bottom at 30, she credits her casting on The Good Life for giving her a ‘second chance’. Three years on, she now understands her finances better thanks to accounting and business experts.
There are so many things that stand against you if you have a bad credit rating
However, given she is in quite the exceptional position, she now wants to help those who don’t have easy access to finance experts to understand more about managing money.
‘There really is just no set-up in our society for young people being taught how to look after their cash,’ she advised. ‘People in America desperately need young people to learn about credit ratings. Like, they can’t even rent an apartment. They can’t get a phone. There are so many things that stand against you if you have a bad credit rating.’
She hopes partnering with Credit Karama will help her do that. But just starting this conversation is a vital step in helping young people understand money management. Because, when we’re not taught about financial literacy in school, the burden is on our parents to educate us. And what if they’re financially illiterate or have irresponsible attitudes towards money themselves? Putting that entire weight on parents only perpetuates a cycle where generations and generations are likely to make the same mistakes.
With the number of people working on a freelance basis increasing year on year, these conversations are more essential now than ever. There are currently 4.8 million self-employed workers in the UK, a 31% increase on last year. At the same time, a study by accountancy firm Deloitte found that British people lack a basic knowledge of the tax system. According to their research, carried out by YouGov, 46% of people can’t identify the 1250L tax code that corresponds to the tax-free personal allowance of £12,500.
We’re not taught how to responsibly use credit cards, how important they are to our credit rating, how interest rates on savings accounts, loans or mortgages can impact our overall finances or when to just hire an accountant to manage our taxes for us.
These are vital things that make the difference between someone ending up in debt, on the poverty line or in the green – and yet we’re not educated any of it.
Perhaps now, with more financial literacy services being made available to young people, we might actually see a change in that.
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