Canadian’s who plan to pay down personal debt and save for emergencies and retirement in 2013 may find some help from the Investor Education Fund.
The IEF’s financial literacy and education website — GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca — has released its “2012 Readers’ Picks” of its top 10 resources that Canadians are using to get smarter about money.
Topping the list are tools and calculators designed to make it easy, informative and entertaining to keep spending and saving on track. Last year nearly 250,000 people visited these top 10 resources, which serve as an important barometer for what Canadians are thinking about when it comes to their financial situations:
- The Cranial Cash Clash, financial game
- RRSP savings calculator, tool
- Funny Money – get it on credit, video
- Buy or rent calculator, tool
- Love and money quiz, quiz
- Mutual fund fee calculator, tool
- Pay off credit card and debt calculator, tool
- Taking money out of your RRSP before you retire, article
- RESP savings calculator, tool
- University cost calculator, tool
Over the course of 2012, IEF tracked the specific content that money-challenged Canadians found most beneficial to accomplishing financial resolutions last year. “Last year’s most popular content on our site and our visitors’ top resolutions reflect what we’ve learned through our research – that Canadians are challenged by debt management, saving and investing,” says Tom Hamza, president of IEF.
The site now includes a compound interest calculator that will help more Canadians see the impact of saving even small amounts of money over time. In addition, the site’s pay down debt or invest calculator helps Canadians decide what best to do with extra money.
The demand for gaming and entertainment elements are an emerging trend in online financial education. The popular interactive game the Cranial Cash Clash garnered more unique visits than any other single online resource the website with nearly 70,000 visitors averaging five minutes playing the game. Traffic to the website has increased nearly tenfold since 2008.