Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Students' Magazine

I worked in Swedbank, Finance department, Macroeconomic Analysis sub-department, but it was nothing similar to what we studied during Morten’s Macroeconomics or during the two scary months of Financial Economics courses. The reason for that was the fact that I belonged to a newly established unit which was responsible for Personal Finance. You may ask, “What do they do?” After almost 7 weeks working there I can answer: they teach people how to deal with the money they earn. At first I thought, what’s the aim of such a work? But then I got to know that public financial education is vitally important since, according to one survey, 16% of Lithuanians think that inflation is government debt and 71% have no idea what’s the difference between simple and compounded rates!

Since this sphere is very young in Lithuania (about 1.5 years), there is still a lot to do. In Swedbank only two persons are responsible for Personal Finance, therefore there was always a task waiting for me. I had lots of different tasks beginning with my main task which was to compute the proportions of how much money is normal to spend on food, clothes, transportation etc. if you are a student and what is normal if you are at your “golden age”, meaning at your 50’s or 60’s. Another task was to compose a financial IQ test so that people could check their financial knowledge level (it was the task which forced me to learn all the Lithuanian economic and financial terms). Now you can find this IQ test in the newly opened web page for personal finance management. My position obliged me to show my expertise not only in Economics but also in journalism: one more task was to write an article with a headline “How to Save Money in the Kitchen” for a magazine.

To finish, tasks were very interesting and challenging, respect from supervisors was obvious, the cabinet was very bright and large (I shared it only with my course-mate Ieva), coffee and cakes in the mornings were very tasty.

By Jolita Jakaviciute