why financial literacy is the power move 2026

three steps to becoming financially literate

Becoming financially literate was singlehandedly the best self-improvement hack I could have stumbled on in my late teens. I know what you’re thinking, ‘isn’t it just a basic life skill?’. Well, I didn’t learn about it from my parents or from school. Unless you come from an informed family or go to private school, you have to proactively work on it, the same way you would with health or fitness.

For me, I didn’t just learn what compound interest and an ETF was, I took it a step further and am now on a path to financial freedom (aka hitting £1m) in my 30s and 40s. I started with £0 (or rather -£51,820 from my student loan) and clumsily learnt myself through education and trial and error. It was a process that has almost taken a decade and now with over £100k invested at 25, it seems like I always knew what I was doing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

£0 to £100k: the truth

I never grew up learning about money in any meaningful way, and although my parents were careful and disciplined, they were also deeply risk‑averse, which meant that investing was never discussed, entrepreneurship was not considered, and wealth was framed as something to protect rather than something to build, so I quietly absorbed the belief that money was fragile and that mistakes were dangerous.

In my teenage years, I was cripplingly shy, insecure and most importantly never thought I would be wealthy. Being a Chinese adoptee meant I was almost destined for a lifelong diagnosis of imposter syndrome and this manifested in my spending habits.

I grew up middle-class, but money didn’t feel abundant for most of my upbringing. Like most people trying to signal wealth, every time I got paid I would spend it all on branded clothes with flashy logos, hoping that would lead to acceptance.

At university however, I swung to another extreme. My frugal tendencies were born when I had to budget my student loan. I washed all my clothes by hand in my dorm room sink, trying to avoid the costly £3 per go fee of the washing machines. I would cook everything from scratch while my judgemental flatmates got Deliveroo. I carefully sourced my wardrobe from charity shops, turning up to lectures feeling like I didn’t fit in.

This experience of both extremely frivolous and frugal spending gave me two unhelpful perspectives. Money was meant to be spent to have an immediate outcome, or money was meant to be squirreled away. Neither are conducive to building wealth.

The turning point

The turning point was when I asked my male friends what they were investing in. Seeing one of them with £100k invested (clearly from parents) made me think ‘wow I want to do that one day’. It never really occurred to me that he had it easier, I didn’t care where the money came from, it was just being able to visualise those six-figures made me realise I wanted to emulate it in my own way.