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Each of us is a potential investor, even with a small amount of our salary

How can this become a reality in Bulgaria?

Photo: freepik.com

In the modern world, it is no longer enough to know the individual monetary units of countries and to know how their currencies relate to the Bulgarian lev. Converting leva into euros and vice versa is not part of financial literacy in today's extremely dynamic world. The money of the future will be digital and no one will hold banknotes and coins in their hands. The path of money has changed significantly, and this inevitably raises the question of our role as active or passive consumers. ‎

We live in a new world with many challenges and new unlimited possibilities, but how do we - Bulgarians - stand on the threshold of the so-called "third financial revolution"? It's no secret that most people in Bulgaria are mainly aware of two models for managing their funds - either a bank deposit or an investment in real estate, everything else feels like "terra incognita". 

"We, Bulgarians, have very low self-esteem, and politicians and all kinds of external forces are trying to convince us that we are more illiterate, more incapable and that we live in a country with a weak economy. Even school instills in people a sense of inferiority," says Prof. Daniela Bobeva from the Institute for Economic Studies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, in an interview for the BNR's Hristo Botev channel. 

In order to raise the curtain on investments through our personal income, Daniela Bobeva wrote the book "Personal Finance. The Third Revolution", which is already a practical guide for thousands of students from various majors:

Prof. Daniela Bobeva (right), Prof. Krasimir Marinov (left), Junior Achievement CEO Irina Ilieva (middle)
‎"We are traditionally brought up with the belief to "save money for a rainy day", and not to invest. Modern personal finances are unthinkable without investment. It is a part of our existence. Now our opportunities for such investments are expanding enormously. You can invest with small amounts in some business of people who currently need money to develop. This is done through platforms. For example, with 200 euros you could support some nice project that will develop and will bring returns in the future. This form of investment guarantees a higher return than that of a bank deposit. But the good thing is that now you can get information from many places. And every person is different, there are people who are prone to risk, others less so, but in investments there is a place for everyone. The big platforms through which one invests, be it in currencies, cryptocurrencies, in stocks or in shares, they have e-consultants and there they give individual advice to everyone according to their attitude."‎

The preferred form of investment in Bulgaria is in real estate and bank deposits, but there are also positive changes - 75% of Bulgarians are currently using  electronic payments and digital services in some form. There is an extremely large share of internet commerce, about 60% of the population buys goods and services in a digital environment. "There is great progress and Bulgarians are becoming more and more financially literate," notes Prof. Daniela Bobeva:‎

"And while 15-20 years ago no one talked about financial literacy, now everyone has some knowledge and gives an opinion on this topic. However, it is very important to get the information from a reliable source, and not to believe in false claims and ready-made recipes. There are no ready-made recipes, we make the recipes ourselves, but for this purpose we need knowledge that we can obtain ourselves from the sources of information."‎

Daniela Bobeva is a professor of international economics and has been working on the topic of personal finance for 10 years. She published her first textbook 6 years ago, with the support of the Junior Achievement foundation, and teaches at six Bulgarian universities. Her lectures are also listened to with great interest by students from various majors.‎


"Unfortunately, our education system is focused on risks, on problems. This means that we create uncertainty for people, and thus a person misses an opportunity that they can judge and manage on their own. We know how many people lose their money in gambling, and in this case we are talking about investments that are meaningful, that, in addition to some profit, can bring you the satisfaction of supporting a given cause", says Prof. Daniela Bobeva.


Compiled by Gergana Mancheva (based on an interview of Nina Tsaneva from BNR's Hristo Botev channel)



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