Let’s get right to it. If you’re trying to get better with money, I’ve got great news. It’s totally possible to start, today.
Here’s the thing. People have different ideas about what it takes to get a grasp on their financial situation. Some believe it’s an income issue. ‘If I only made more money, I would know how to save.‘
Others chop it up to inherent abilities that they can’t learn themselves. ‘Some people are just good at math, and that’s why they’re so good with money.‘
And when it comes to growing their money through vehicles like investing, many people write this off due to their relationship to risk. I’nvesting is risky business, and I’m just not a risky person’.
If any of those resonated with you, OR if you have other external reason as to why you don’t know more about money, then it’s time to make a shift.
Because your ability to learn better money management has nothing to do with how much you bring in, how much you like math, or even how risk-averse you are. It has everything to do with how good a student you choose to be.
What it means to be a good student
First, to be clear. I don’t mean student in the traditional sense: like someone who enrolls in a school (and takes on debt!) to move ahead. You don’t have to spend money to learn about money if you don’t want to.
Truly, you don’t. Thank public libraries and the internet for that.
What I mean is, be someone who’s hungry to learn. Don’t just chase the end destination of being better with money. Soak in the destination of getting there too, by really leaning into all the different topics & methods available for you to learn.
Put another way, try to have fun with this. It’s an opportunity to expand your mind and really grow as a person.
When you’re a true student in this way, this is what it typically looks like:
- You make time to absorb knowledge about personal finance, even if that time is a squeeze: like during your morning commute, a few minutes before bedtime, or even in the middle of a shift break.
- You experiment with different ways of learning. You aren’t just signing up for e-courses or watching Youtube videos. You’re also reading books, listening to podcasts, or even spending time in your online bank settings to understand what all is in there.
- You keep an open mind. If you had any preconceived notions about how money should work, you’re willing to be proven wrong. You understand that you don’t know what you don’t know, and make it your personal mission to try to find those out. You’re not locked into any ideas about who you are as a person when it comes to money: you’re on a journey to explore who it is you’d like to be instead.
- You’re prepared to put what you learn to use. Having the knowledge is one thing. Acting on it is the second level of learning, where you start to bridge the ‘academic’ aspects of personal finance with your reality. It may not go smoothly or be a totally consistent ride. But trying just provides a certain brand of lesson that you really can’t get any other way. (Plus, it helps build your self-confidence).
Sounds like a lot? Well you’re not alone gang. I’m right there with you, trying to be a good student myself.
How to Start Tactically Learning Today
Like I said earlier, we have lots of resources available to us. Here’s how you can start leveraging them to get better with money.
SOCIAL MEDIA
I’m only starting here because I know most people have this. But if you already spend your days scrolling through X, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok, then this is an easy on-ramp to starting to take in personal finance content.
Put your algorithm to work to help you learn more about money. Take a break from cute dog videos and doomscrolling, and make room for some videos around how to start saving, pay down debt, etc…
BOOKS / EBOOKS
Might sound archaic, but don’t discount reading. Books are a great way to learn, in part because they kinda take you off of the internet. They’re a confined, curated space for wisdom: one where we can easily take notes or flip back through whenever we need those reminders.
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel is a fantastic starter read. Remember those external factors I listed before? Well this book digs into all the internal stuff going with us, that determines how we feel about & act with money. You know, the messy stuff.
Another great one is I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi, which has more tactical advice on how to start making money moves. (Frankly, I’d suggest reading both. It’s like cleaning both the inside and outside of your house at once.)
You can purchase these books yourself OR see if you can request for free through your local library. (If these books aren’t available through your library’s network, and you really want to go the free route, do see what other personal finance books are available to check out).
PODCASTS / VIDEOS
If you like listening to personal finance content, you’ll find tons of podcast episodes about those two books above. Just go on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts and start searching.
You’ll also find tons of personal finance creators on YouTube and podcast platforms – possibly too much. So it helps to focus on the specific topics you want to learn more about, and see which creators resonate. Some of those topics could include:
- How to Save Money
- Understanding 401ks and retirement savings
- How consumer debit (loans, credit cards) work
- How to manage expenses as a single person/family/etc
For example, on my Youtube channel, I focus on teaching people personal finance through the lens of tech & systems. So you’ll find videos on topics like how to start tracking your expenses for free, how to create a system to grow your savings, and even tech hacks to help you avoid bank fees and stop overspending.
ON CHOOSING YOUR IDOLS
When exploring new personal finance creators, just remember that not all are created equal. There will be some creators whose approach or beliefs around money may not align: they may be coming from a vastly different perspective, have personally held beliefs you don’t agree with, or even because they’re acting in bad faith. It happens.
So just remember to be discerning in your initial discovery for those role models. Evaluate the credentials and personal experience of the person giving the advice. Consider how specific the advice is (because good personal finance creators don’t act as financial advisors.) And weigh the attention you give to creators who have something to sell vs something to say.
YOU CAN EVEN USE AI (UGH)
If you’re familiar with generative AI tools (AI that creates things, like text or images), then you can even begin to create a plan for yourself using platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini.
If you’re using a free plan (OR if you’re using these tools without being logged in, as I often do) then you definitely don’t want to put any personal information into those prompts. That includes your personal details like your name and address, but also bank account numbers.
p.s. The reason for this amounts to basic data privacy 101: not something worth getting into this blog, but something you’ll just want to trust me on.)
But you can certainly use AI to ask follow-up questions about the personal finance topics you simply don’t understand. To take it a step further, you can even ask it to help you come up with your own custom learning plan – that is if you’d appreciate that level of structure.
p.s. If anyone would be interested to see this example, I’ll happily demo this in a future post or video. Just let me know in the comments!
Wrapping Up: Go start learning.
I don’t mean to say that your personal finance journey will be easy if you only focus on learning. I’m just underscoring that it’s possible for anyone to start learning about money who really wants to.
Here’s the final piece I’ll leave you to think about.
Effective money management, even if it comes more easily to some people over others, is not instinctual. We’re all born (for the most part) knowing how to breathe and eat.
But no one is born knowing how to save, invest, manage debt, track their expenses, or focus on retirement planning. That all got missed in humanity’s evolutionary history.
Personal finance is also largely not taught to us in schools. If you did grow up with any lessons, it came from the people around you who knew something about personal finance: like family or friends. And many of us just don’t have those people in our lives.
So if it feels like you “should” have it together by now, just keep this in mind. If you were never taught finance basics, and you didn’t seek it out, then you can’t expect to just “pick it up” now that you have money problems.
But how lucky we are to be alive in a time where technology is destroying everything providing incredible, curate-able access to knowledge and learning. We have the best shot at learning about money than any of our ancestors ever did.
So take advantage. Let’s all go be students and get to learning.
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