Almost 40 Percent of Young Brazilians are or Have Been “Blacklisted”

By Arkady Karpov, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilians in early adulthood suffer from higher unemployment and lack of financial education, although they have to help with household expenses and to spend on education and food, most of them become indebted for purchasing consumer goods.

An unprecedented survey conducted by the National Chamber of Store Managers (CNDL) and the SPC Serasa credit bureau has mapped the financial situation of Brazilians between the ages of 18 and 24, taking their first professional steps.

Currently, four out of ten young adults have or have had their names blacklisted. The main reason for this is the requirement to contribute to household expenses, combined with a lack of control over personal finances.

Of those interviewed, 78 percent have some source of income, and 65 percent say they contribute financially to the subsistence of the household.

The main commitment is towards nutrition (51 percent). The survey interviewed 801 young men and women from all over Brazil from February 20th to March 6th.

The debt of the young is not very different from that of older Brazilians, as 40 percent of the country’s total population ended 2018 indebted, according to the CNDL.

However, it is more worrying as it shows that younger generations have not been financially educated and the issue tends to persist.

“It is necessary to conduct some kind of public policy to increase the financial education of this population,” says Daniel Sakamoto, project manager at the CNDL.

For Guilherme Prado, president of Bem Gasto – a financial education project – in addition to working to complete the household budget, young people enter the adult world without references on how and where these new resources can be managed.

As far as he’s concerned, talking about money is taboo in the household.

“Parents don’t tell their partners how much they earn,” he says. “When the young start working, they have no idea what to do with the money. All they know is that they want to buy a cell phone and new trainers.”