Financial Literacy And Planning

Clear long-term plans let me “retire” as an Amazon VP at 50, travel 5 months a year, and still make money. Here’s how I did it and how you can apply the same thinking to your own life. Bill Gates once said, “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year but underestimate what they can do in 10 years.” I agree. Here are four real long-term plans I’ve created: – A 5-year savings plan that let me retire – A 10-year travel plan to see the world – A 10-year business plan for impact – A 40-year health plan to stay fit through age 95 Plan 1: Retire in 5 Years As my career progressed, I started thinking about financial independence. I followed three simple financial rules throughout my life to make this a possibility: 1. Live on less than I make 2. Invest for the long term 3. Max out my 401(k) match In my 40s, I calculated how much I needed to retire and I realized I was about 5 years away. The plan stretched to 7.5 years, but I made it. Even if plans shift, having one gives you clarity and options. Plan 2: A Business Plan for Purpose Post-retirement, I built a 10-year business plan to help others find career success and satisfaction. The plan includes scaling my impact and reaching 1 million people. Like all good long-term plans, this one evolves, but the overarching vision stays constant. Plan 3: See the World I made a list of everywhere I wanted to go and started planning travel around those dreams. Galapagos. Iceland. Switzerland. This is my “active years” travel plan, and it only works because of Plan 1—financial freedom. But you don’t need to be wealthy to travel, just committed to a plan. Budget, partner with others, and get creative. Plan 4: Be Healthy at 95 This is the longest-range plan I’ve made. Inspired by Dr. Peter Attia’s concept of the “Centenarian Decathlon,” I mapped out what I want to be able to do at age 95 and then worked backward. If I want to lift a grandkid off the floor at 95, I need to be strong enough today. The details of each of these plans are in my newsletter. But before I link that, I want to give you some specific tips to create powerful long term plans: 1. Decide what area to focus on (my four plans were financial, business, travel, and health) Trying to create a single holistic life and career plan at this scale is likely too complex. Take it on in pieces. 2. Figure out where you want to be in 5, 10, or 40 years. What is the ultimate goal. 3. Work backwards from the end as well as forward from where you are. Meet in the middle. 4. Iterate. You can draft the plan all in one sitting, but these plans benefit from periodic revision. I have clarified, updated, and changed all of my plans once to twice a year. The end goals have rarely to never changed, but the next steps and priorities within the plan definitely do. 5. Be flexible. The plan exists to help you, not to constrain you. Link: https://buff.ly/03hEvz2 Readers—share your long-term plans.

I didn't know what a college fund was until I was 20. But my six-month old baby is already a millionaire. I remember it like it was yesterday. A classmate mentioned her parents were buying her a new apartment. We were sitting in my dumpy little Toronto apartment that I'd been paying for on my own since I was 17. Half my furniture was from the dumpster. And I had quite a few free-loading roommates: cockroaches. I nodded along. Then, she said: "Yeah, they've been saving for my school since I was born." I didn't even know that was a thing. My dad was blind. My mom was a cashier. Neither graduated high school. I wrote a letter to a billionaire asking him to pay for my tuition. He said yes. The rest came from low-income grants. That conversation was the first time I realized there's an entire playbook for building wealth that some families pass down. And some of us never even knew it existed. So here's what I'm doing differently for my son: 1. My son has a job. My son has been earning income since he was born. He appears in my content, so I pay him for it. That income goes straight into a Custodial Roth IRA. The math: $7,000/year from age 0-17. At 8% returns, that's $283K by 18. And $5.7M by retirement. Tax-free. 2. Maximized 529 + Roth IRA accounts. 529 plans used to be risky. If your kid skipped college, you'd pay penalties. But the rules changed in 2024. Now you can roll unused 529 funds into a Roth IRA (up to $35K), and you can use funds towards home-schooling or private school tuition. So I'm doing both: 529 for tax-advantaged education savings, Roth IRA for flexibility. 3. Teach financial literacy. The wealth gap isn't just about income, but about knowledge. It's the stuff no one teaches you because they assume you already know. I won't wait till my son is an adult to teach him financial literacy. I put together a free guide with everything I learned and how I'm making my child a millionaire: https://lnkd.in/gvVPKsgR Are you doing this for your kids? 🔔 Follow Jenny Stojkovic for more. ♻️ Share this with a parent who needs to see it.

About time!... Financial literacy finally becoming a core part of the school curriculum in England is a big moment. For children from state-school backgrounds, or families without professional experience, this isn’t just another subject. It’s opportunity. Because when young people understand: ↳ how money works ↳ how debt and interest really impact them ↳ how saving, investing, and budgeting compound over time …they gain power. Power to avoid the traps that follow people for a lifetime. Power to make informed decisions. Power to become socially mobile in a world where money knowledge is often unevenly distributed. There’s strong evidence that teaching money early leads to better financial decisions later in life, from avoiding payday lending, to building savings habits, to feeling more confident and in control. The earlier that behaviour forms, the more it compounds. As someone who works every day with students trying to break into finance from non-traditional backgrounds, I see the gap firsthand. This will help close it. A great step for the next generation, now the key is making the content practical, real-world, and part of a long-term plan, not a one-off lesson. Financial literacy shouldn’t just help students pass exams. It should help them change their future.

I have a new paper out and I want to share what it is: a manifesto for teaching personal finance in college. Business schools teach corporate finance to train CFOs, giving future executives the rigorous knowledge they need to manage the finances of firms. But individuals today are their own CFOs. They decide how much to save for retirement, how to invest their pension wealth, how to navigate student loans, how to manage debt, how to plan for the future. These decisions are just as complex as the ones made in a boardroom, and the people making them are doing so with startlingly little preparation. Less than 30% of Americans can correctly answer three basic questions about compound interest, inflation, and risk diversification. Financial literacy has not improved in fifteen years of measurement. The people who know the least — the young, women, those with lower incomes — have to make consequential decisions and are at a disadvantage. Financial education works. The evidence from schools, universities, and workplaces shows that it improves knowledge and changes behavior. It is also cost-effective. It is not mission impossible. The same rigor we bring to teaching corporate finance belongs in personal finance. Every student deserves the knowledge that can set them up for financial success. Colleges and universities have an opportunity to make that happen. The paper is out as an National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper, read it here: https://lnkd.in/gseBsh7j

Most financial advisors can't outperform a low-cost ETF portfolio that costs 10-20 bps to own. In many ways, index funds have effectively "solved" investing. Yet many people continue to delegate their investment management to financial advisors. Why? The answer is simple: people don't hire financial advisors to maximize their investment returns. They hire them to satisfy a broader set of needs that cannot be met by simply owning index funds. This fact emerges from three survey-based studies. A 2020 study on a broad survey of ~3,000 individuals finds evidence that people hire financial advisors to satisfy needs including: -purchasing “peace of mind” -having access to the opinions of an expert -and delegating financial decisions The authors classify investor needs into five categories: -knowledge -trust -personal improvement -delegation -and investment performance They find that the most important need is trust, followed by personal-improvement. The least important is investment performance. https://lnkd.in/entQkMQA This finding aligns with a highly cited theoretical paper - Money Doctors. The authors argue that trust in an investment manager enables investors to take risks, and earn returns, that they might otherwise not obtain. https://lnkd.in/e5vbBWdc In a Morningstar study, 312 responses to the question “Please list some reasons why you hired your advisor...” were analyzed. The top motivations were to alleviate discomfort in handling financial issues, the desire to achieve a specific goal, and behavioral coaching. A similar study from Morningstar analyzed 620 responses to the question “please list some reasons why you continue to have an advisor”. “Discomfort handling finances” - with specific reasons like “peace of mind” and “money makes me nervous” - was the top overall response. Index funds may have "solved" investing, but solved doesn't mean easy. Investing is inherently uncomfortable, emotional, and makes many people nervous. The needs for trust-based peace of mind, expert opinion, and delegation cannot be solved by a financial product.

Financial literacy hasn’t exactly been America’s crown jewel. We’ve spent decades rolling out “money classes,” glossy campaigns, and well-meaning brochures. The results? Record household debt, millions juggling subscriptions they don’t even remember, and credit scores that read like horror stories. The problem isn’t that Americans are too dense to understand APRs. It’s that we treated #financialliteracy like a side salad at Applebee’s - something optional and bland - when it needed to be the main course. We hand teenagers a worksheet about mortgages when they don’t even have rent money. We teach compounding interest in theory, but not when they’re staring down their first student loan. And even when people know the “right” moves, human behavior and system design get in the way. Broccoli may be healthy, but fries win. Meanwhile, the financial system itself keeps changing - #BNPL, #crypto, #stablecoins, AI-driven credit scoring; all coming on faster than any classroom can keep up. Add in the fact that talking about money is still somewhat of a family taboo, and we’re left with a generation of consumers learning the hard way. And let’s not ignore that a lot of the industry profits from confusion. Overdrafts, revolving debt, subscription traps, they’re not bugs, they’re features. Financial literacy failed not because people aren’t trying, but because the way we approached it was doomed from the start. It’s not just about teaching people the rules. It’s about designing systems and incentives that don’t punish them for being human. #communitybanking #fintech #AI #creditunions #consumerisim #economics #autolending #banking

One of my favorite leadership quotes: "Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to." This is exactly what happens when you teach your marketing team to speak finance. Train them well: → Show how cohort data translates into company revenue → Explain how revenue and margin flows through P&L → Teach the principles of variable vs. fixed expenses → Demonstrate how investment shifts impact short- and long-term outcomes ✅ Now they understand the impact of the investment they deploy and how it maps to the company financials. Treat them well: → Make sure they have clear targets → Stop having strategy meetings without them → Let them own the north star and give them the tools to track progress → Actually listen when they share what’s working ✅ Now they’re challenged, trusted, and empowered to execute the how while working with you on the what. In turn, as CMO you elevate yourself to focus on what matters - the why 1️⃣ Challenge the company’s long-term assumptions and investment strategies with CEO 2️⃣ Brainstorm with the CFO on new ways to win 3️⃣ Have a real seat at the board table Everyone working toward the same goal That’s when marketing turns into growth. * * * I talk about the real mechanics of growth, data, and execution. If that’s what you care about, let’s connect.

This is the biggest money mistake I made. When I got my first adult money from my consulting job, I was tempted to upgrade my lifestyle with fancier indulgences. Before I knew it, my expenses inflated to match my new income. The raise didn't feel so significant anymore. That's the pitfall of lifestyle creep. As income elevates, spending habits tend to inflate alongside it. You loosen the purse strings because you can "afford" more luxuries now. But that prevents you from truly getting ahead financially. So how can you dodge this trap when your income increases? Here are 3 things you can do: 1) The Pause Period: Bank that raise for 6-12 months before spending more. This allows you to build a bigger savings buffer and lifestyle cushion first. 2) The Smarter Split: Prioritize increasing retirement and investment contributions with any income boost before inflating your lifestyle. Pay yourself first. 3) The Raise Ago Mindset: Live at your previous lifestyle level from 1-2 raises ago as long as possible. This prevents spending from canceling out the benefits of your new higher income. Building wealth isn't about a luxurious lifestyle, it's about resisting lifestyle creep as income grows. Have you fallen into this trap before? Let me know in the comments below! . . #lifestyleinflation #consulting #linkedinforcreators #personalfinance

As a leader in risk and fraud, I’ve seen firsthand how financial literacy, or the lack of it, can shape lives, businesses, and entire economies. Today, on National Financial Awareness Day, I want to challenge us all to think beyond budgets and balances. Financial awareness isn’t just about knowing how to save or invest; it’s about understanding risk, recognizing fraud, and making informed decisions that protect your future. In a world where digital financial management is the norm and fraudsters are more sophisticated than ever, financial awareness is your first line of defense. Whether you're a consumer, a business leader, or a policymaker, understanding how money moves and how it can be manipulated is essential. At the intersection of technology, trust, and transparency, we have an opportunity to empower people with the tools and knowledge they need to thrive. That’s why I’m proud to work alongside our SAS teams, who are committed to building smarter, safer financial ecosystems. Let’s use today as a reminder: financial literacy is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. And it starts with awareness.

National Financial Literacy Month is a good reminder that financial literacy is evolving. For many younger people, AI is quickly becoming a first stop for questions about money, credit, budgeting, and investing. That is a real opportunity, but it also comes with risk. When it comes to using AI for financial guidance, here are three tips to remember: 1. Use AI for education, not delegation. AI can help you understand concepts, compare options and build a plan, but it should not be the final decision maker for major choices. Treat it like a tutor, not an autopilot. 2. Verify, then act. AI can be wrong, outdated or overly confident, especially on topics like taxes, interest rates, product terms and investing. Double check key facts in primary sources, read the fine print, and pressure test recommendations against your goals, time horizon and risk tolerance. 3. Protect your data and watch for manipulation. Be cautious about sharing sensitive personal information. Also remember that misinformation and scams can be packaged to look credible. If an answer creates urgency or sounds too good to be true, pause and validate. I'm curious how others are using AI for budgeting. Are you using it to build a budget, understand credit, plan for a big purchase, or to learn investing basics? What guardrails have you put in place? #FinancialLiteracyMonth