Insurance company Partners Life has teamed up with Banqer - which provides financial education for primary, intermediate and secondary schools - to launch the Money Month Challenge.
The free two-week financial literacy training course is designed for adults and begins on August 12.
Participants will gain hands-on experience with financial concepts, learn new money skills and help close any knowledge gaps in managing finances.
From earning and budgeting to debt management, property investment and risk management, the course is designed to equip Kiwis with the tools needed for financial success.
Recent research by Partners Life showed the majority of Kiwis (62%) believed that worrying about finances was affecting their relationships with friends and family and close to half had lost sleep or experienced stress because of their finances.
Just over two-fifths struggled to pay their monthly expenses and nearly a quarter relied on credit cards or loans to make ends meet.
While three-quarters of Kiwis acknowledged the heightened importance of financial literacy amid the current cost-of-living crisis, most had never received professional financial literacy training.
Banqer co-chief executive Simon Brown said it was widely acknowledged that times were tough for Kiwis and financial education and literacy were more important than ever.
Banqer was looking to build from its experiences and resources with school pupils into adult financial education to help Kiwis grow their financial capability. The company intended working more with adults and the Money Month Challenge was the start of that, he said.
Banqer was used by more than 200 secondary schools and 25,000 secondary school pupils in New Zealand and a further 130 Australian secondary schools, including 13,000 pupils.
More than 50,000 New Zealand primary school pupils accessed the platform each year along with a further 22,500 Australian primary school pupils. A handful of schools in the United Kingdom and United States also used it.
Banqer’s platform for secondary pupils, Banqer High, was a real-world financial education experience, introducing them to and letting them explore financial concepts through an online simulation.
Students manage their budget, explore career paths, go flatting with friends and dabble with investing. They regularly face decisions that have financial impacts, learning the consequences of their choices first-hand in a safe environment.
Unlike future generations who would benefit from Banqer’s in-school programmes, nearly half of adults had learned what they knew about money through potentially costly mistakes, Mr Brown said.
Money largely remained a "taboo" topic - people tended not to talk about something so inherently personal - and that led to a continuation of poor financial habits, he said.
Asked where he believed New Zealand sat in terms of financial literacy globally, Mr Brown said it was challenging to get comparability but he thought it was probably "upper middle of the pack".
Kiwis’ ongoing passion for investing and buying property remained front of mind for many, particularly as it became more challenging to get into property, while the rise of platforms such as Sharesies and Hatch had meant people could invest more easily.
