#gosh I hope I don't get a million 'invest in our crypto scam!' bots now ughhh

[wildhannimal]

Money Stuff

One of the best things that young adults can do to get the lifestyle or future we want (not even like luxury but just like... stable and maybe hobby-sustaining) is to become financially literate. It's not just about knowing how to budget to not overspend, but also how to take full advantage of your resources and opportunities, making the most of what you already have.

In terms of money, what we do while young can compound as we grow up, which can be scary, but now is the best time to learn and form habits. Rather than glorify hustle culture, this post is more about spreading access to information.

One of the advantages of generational wealth is receiving financial knowledge second-hand from well-off parents; the advice isn’t always still relevant over the years, but even basic economic concepts are probably more familiar to kids who grew up with somewhat financially savvy parents. If you don’t have that kind of experience, it can help to substitute it through other means (as long as the source is reliable, ethical, and non-shame-based).

Some of the resources that have helped me and people I know include:

- The Financial Diet: Often infuses ethics and intersectionality with advice about money, careers and general big life decisions. It considers the psychological and emotional relationships we have to our income, savings and spending. (Sometimes strays too far into condescension for certain things, though, so take their voice-over style videos with a grain of salt. I think those ones are contracted out or something lol.)

- Graham Stephan: Bit of a capitalist that sometimes leans too far into bootstrap territory but a decent guy with trusted insight, usually relatable content and data to back it up despite the clickbaity titles - great for real estate and entry-level investing perspectives.

- Investopedia's financial dictionary: I used this for working in the legal industry trying to learn new stuff on the job aaaaall the time lol. Don't know what a Roth IRA really is? This is PERFECT for knowing how different financial things function, what they could give you, who they best suit, what the drawbacks could be, etc. Good as a reference if you keep hearing a term but don't understand what it means. However, it can be a bit dense.

- NerdWallet: I've used them to compare credit card offerings, bank accounts with the best interest rates, etc. Keep in mind that they do have corporate sponsors, but they're good about staying fair to all the options out there on the market depending on their pros and cons. They also have a lot of free reliable articles about money concepts (credit scores, student loans, taxes, mortgages) that might be more approachable to read than the Investopedia articles.

- Your local government: Your public library or local government might offer certain financial resources or counseling services. This varies greatly between places, so it's worth a look but might not be available depending on where you live.

To be successful with money, you don't need to day trade, afford sports cars, have a mil in the bank or whatever the clout bros on social media say. Even simply owning your own home might not be right for everybody all the time.

The actual goal of personal finance is to have the resources to lead a happy life in a manner that doesn't harm others (or at least reduce the harm that capitalistic consumption creates woooo). It's about finding a personally peace-inducing financial state, and that's something that only you can determine for yourself.