In 1820, only 12% of the world could read and write. Financial literacy is where reading was two centuries ago.

In 1820, roughly 12% of the world's population could read and write. Reading was a specialist skill, belonging to the church, clerks who kept records, and the wealthiest.

Today it's close to 90%. Society decided literacy was a basic requirement rather than a profession, and built a school system around that decision.

Financial literacy today is roughly where reading was two centuries ago.

The European Commission surveyed all 27 member states. Share of citizens scoring high on financial literacy: EU average was 18%. Illiterate people back in 1820 knew they couldn't read. Most people today don't know what they don’t know.

The OECD found that only 42% of adults could correctly answer a question about compound interest. That's not an advanced topic. It's the mechanism behind every mortgage, pension, fund and credit card in your life.

In Spain, 86% say they never had a single lesson about money at school although 91% think there should be one.

We were taught many things in school: Analyzing poems. Photosynthesis. Making a birdhouse in woodwork. We found plenty of hours for this in the timetable. We never found an hour for "what a mortgage actually costs.", "choosing the right pension" or "understanding an insurance policy".

Someone benefits from that knowledge gap. A 2% annual fee sounds small to someone who has never seen it compounded over twenty years. "Your money is safe in the account" sounds reassuring to someone who has never calculated what 3% inflation does to it.

The 18% is a fact about what we chose to teach. We can't fix the curriculum but we can close the gap for the people already living with it.

Just imagine for a second you couldn't read or write. Every day would be a nightmare, and you do something about it.

Financial illiteracy doesn't announce itself like that. But 8 out of 10 Europeans don’t understand money well enough to manage it. They go through life signing things they can't evaluate and end up over-paying for it over decades.

Our children are in the same system we were. Nobody is going to teach them this either. They'll leave school able to analyse a poem and unable to read a mortgage offer.

So we have a choice; either we learn it and pass it on, or we hand them the same disadvantage we got, and hope government eventually fixes the curriculum.

That's why we built Senso. So oordinary people can sit across from the experts, ask the right question, and understand the answer before they sign.

Nobody should need a finance degree to avoid buying something expensive they don’t need.

Senso reads your actual situation and explains it in ordinary language: what you own, what it costs you, what the small print in that policy really means, what you're being charged and by whom. No jargon, no products to sell, no commission on the answer.

Free trial at www.sensofinance.com (no credit card needed)