What does a Hippo called Petal have to do with financial education? According to entrepreneur Emily Boxall the answer is ‘a lot’.
Petal the Hippo is the flagship character in her recently launched financial education app, 2mins. Boxall, who dreamt up the character, says Petal and the app as a whole can change the way that adults learn about their finances, and could help to close to UK’s financial literacy gap.
The co-founder of financial education firm Microfact has launched the app to get people to engage more with the basics of money in a playful way.
She says: ‘I thought Petal was such an original, absurd image for finance. I really wanted to distance us from boring images… financial education is very dry and long-winded and it feels like you have to be an expert at the first place.
‘What I want to prove with this app is that you don’t need prior knowledge of finance to dive in and start learning.’
When it comes to money, Britain does need to learn. Currently, 47 per cent of people say they aren’t confident in managing their own money, the FCA says.
Boxall founded the company with her father, who has spent his career in financial services, while she has a background in marketing and communications, and investment journalism
Progress is being made, and it was announced last year that financial education will become compulsory in all schools in England from 2028, but this still leaves a significant gap in financial education among adults.
The UK ranks 24th globally for financial literacy, with just 39 per cent deemed ‘fully financially literate’, according to research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research and Principal Financial Group.
‘The really important time to target people with financial education is when they are actually using money and having to make life decisions relating to it,’ Boxall said.
‘That happens in the workplace,’ she added.
Microfact is calling on the Government to require employers with 250 or more employees to offer financial education as a standard workplace provision.
The firm published a whitepaper earlier this month urging the Government to take action on a lack of financial education, which it says has resulted in 12.5million people under saving for retirement.
Microfact says financial literacy is a ‘prerequisite for economic stability, individual wellbeing and effective participation in the modern workforce.’
Boxall founded the company with her father, who has spent his career in financial services, while she has a background in marketing and communications, and investment journalism.
Boxall said the decision to include animals came partly out of an aim to differentiate 2mins from other financial education platforms
How can a Hippo help with financial literacy?
Microfact’s app, 2mins, is currently offered on smartphones as a free resource for financial education.
While the current app is a stripped-back free version for anyone to use, Boxall says it was designed to be offered to businesses as an employee financial wellbeing tool.
She said: ‘At the moment it’s a trimmed down version of a larger product with additional features, just to show what we’re about and to get feedback and get it in schools and in the areas that that need it most.’
Like many education-based products, 2mins employs gamification to push users into engaging with the app.
The app offers three new games for users every week, released on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Each week is also focused on a new topic, such as pensions, investment or saving.
On pensions, for example, Boxall says the app will take users through what pensions are and why they are important, with the third weekly game going into more detail on the subject, such as teaching how to find a lost pension.
Each game features animal characters, like Petal, that Boxall says are key to getting people engaged in learning.
She added: ‘Getting people interested in the first place is what’s lacking, that’s where I think the real opportunity is for us.’
Alongside a host of other animal characters, Petal acts as a virtual avatar that increases in happiness as users grow their learning streak.
Boxall said: ‘I want people to be emotionally invested in their avatar… I think it is quite powerful, especially with these characters. As you play the games you get to know them.’
‘They’re really lovely, innocent characters that you really don’t want them to, you don’t want to lose your streak and have them looking sadly at a puddle… if you break your streak your animal will look very miserable.’
Boxall said the decision to include animals came partly out of an aim to differentiate 2mins from other financial education platforms.
She added: ‘I wanted to make sure we were doing something original. A lot of people apply gamified elements as maybe a gimmick and I really didn’t want that. I wanted it all the elements to be fundamental to the actual experience and the fun of the app.’
Where children face organised learning in schools, there is no equivalent for adults in work.
Boxall said: ‘It is so important for learning to be lifelong and ongoing rather than something you learn as a young person and then forget about.
‘We need something that will be long term, which is why I want to have long term users of this app who are regularly refreshing their knowledge, understanding new rules, new products, and growing alongside the financial world, which is ever changing.’
Boxall added: ‘I’d really like Microfact to be seen as a low-cost provider of financial education, which is very easily implemented in workplaces. But not for us to be the only solution, I want to be part of this network of financial educators.
‘I don’t want to replace in-person education, I think that is crucial.’