Money Matters (www.money-matters.in) is a new online financial services education portal that simplifies financial concepts by Cartoon Mascot Duo - CMD Rajesh Sharma and Brajesh Sharma. Both are brand mascots of the education portal. The website has detailed information in the form of short articles, educational videos, infographics and question-answers by the duo.
Research has shown that most Indians still park majority of their financial savings in traditional bank fixed deposits (FDs). The small percentage of people who have ventured into high risk investment avenues for better returns have mostly faltered due to their limited understanding of financial concepts or mis-selling. For Money Matters Financial Services education led by Cartoon Mascot Duo - CMD Rajesh Sharma and Brajesh Sharma aims to deliver financial literacy and drive awareness in a simple, easy and fun manner.
According to Money Matters, financial services are still a nascent area where instead of trust-based solutions, a sales push is the key focus. A recent Standard and Poor's survey suggests that three out of four Indians are not financially literate. At Money Matters, financial services need to be delivered while enabling financial education and awareness in parallel. The online portal has been founded with a mission to ensure that every Indian with a basic smart phone and internet connection should be able to benefit digitally from financial knowledge to make informed decisions. As per the report, India constitutes 17.5 per cent of the world's population out of which 76 per cent of the adults do not even understand basic financial concepts.
Today, any family first goes to a PSU bank like SBI, Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank, Dena Bank, Bank if India, Central Bank, BOB, etc. to open a savings bank account and FD. Next, they go to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for buying insurance or savings for retirement or for life events like daughter's marriage or child's education. As a next step, Indians dream of building a home or buying a flat for which they go to mostly PSU housing finance companies - PNB Housing Finance, LIC Housing Finance or HDFC.
In recent times, private banks like HDFC Bank, Axis Bank have grown, and MNC insurance companies and mutual funds have come into the picture. However, other than FDs and regular LIC policies, financial products with higher risk-return ratios like mutual funds and income-linked insurance schemes have not garnered much success.
Basic concepts like simple interest, cumulative interest, principal amount and financial asset classes like mutual funds, real estate etc. are not well understood. In the current scenario, Indians need to graduate to understand the implications of inflation and risk. Even a basic understanding of investing idle cash to work and earn interest in a bank account (Cash Bank Interest - CBI) are not understood by most people. According to research, most financial services education content is focused towards the knowledgeable or sophisticated buyer, and simple financial concepts are not explained in layman language by companies or content developers.
More From This Section
For Money Matters, financial services concept simplification is the key motto. The logo of the portal with the tagline "Finance made easy" has been created with the aim of bringing a sense of education and learning towards financial well-being. Reckless decisions or ignorance about "Money Matters" can ruin the financial journey and security of the entire family. Thus, to engage in a trust-driven yet fun way, the fictitious characters of two brothers - CMD Rajesh Sharma and Brajesh Sharma - will provide cartoon examples-led financial education. This will help in making a serious finance topic simple and non-intimidating for any online visitor.
The names of the Cartoon Mascot Duo - CMD Rajesh Sharma and Brajesh Sharma are fictional and inspired by common names that any Indian can relate to and recognize in a middle-class family. In the future, tricky and difficult financial concepts will be launched through conversational cartoons by CMD Rajesh Sharma and Brajesh Sharma, instead of regular descriptive articles.