– How do you manage your portfolio?
– I always put it in the same place, so I don't lose it.
The dialogue is between two comedians – Paolo Calabresi and Lillo – but the argument is a more serious one: the Financial Education Month, a container of initiatives aimed at promoting the development of financial, insurance and pension knowledge. To illustrate the contents of the fourth edition, entitled "Take care of your future", There Bank of Italy published a presentation-show staged at the Salone Margherita in Rome.
"Today the reality of credit and savings is much more complex than in the past, and if you are not able to understand, to ask the right questions, you risk losing opportunities - explains the deputy director of Bankitalia, Piero Cipollone, from the stage of the Roman theater – The point is that there is no one investment that is good for everyone, nor one that fits in every moment of life: you have to learn to know your own needs”.
Some general rules, however, it is better to keep in mind: “The first is that it is necessary diversify investments, in order not to keep all the eggs in the same basket – continues Cipollone – the second is to know that high returns correspond to high risks; the third, closely related to the second, is doing beware of smoke sellers: if someone proposes a zero-risk investment with 20% returns, it's better not to listen to him".
Having a financial education, therefore, also means figure out who to trust, as evidenced by Alessandra De Caro, entrepreneur from Salerno who relaunched the family leather goods a few months ago: "I took over the business in January of this year and I take care of everything, I'm my only employee - she says - For me, financial awareness is a recent acquisition. At first the accountant helped me select the current account that best suited my needs, then it was time to talk to the bank. When they asked me for the business plan, I was worried. But then I turned to a financial advisor and I figured out how to do it”.
But the need to manage savings according to a project it's not just for entrepreneurs. “In my sporting career I had to invest to move forward – he says Alessandra Sensini, who has won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals in six editions of the Games on windsurfing – My first contract with a sponsor was when I was 19: they gave me boards as gifts and I resold them to have the necessary resources to organize the next season's regattas. I had to decide what equipment to buy and where to go. For example, I often went to Hawaii to train, but it cost a lot: in the XNUMXs I paid two million for a ticket. Planning and saving, therefore, has always been fundamental”.
visit our Financial Education Month calendar of events.
