You can curse your teachers for prioritizing the periodic table over personal finance, but we’re in the golden age of self-education, and it’s time to take matters into your own hands. Financial literacy may not boost your income, but it will help maximize those hard-earned Uber checks. Here are the best resources for learning how to budget, save, invest, and thrive.
Download:
Mint
…is the easiest way to create and manage budgets, a one-stop dashboard that syncs accounts, credit cards, loans, investments, and property holdings to organize all your financial activity.
Acorns
…is an automated portfolio management service that tracks your daily purchases and automatically invests any change (like the leftover quarter from that $2.75 coffee) in whichever of its five portfolios you choose.
Read:
Two Cents
…is the personal finance blog from famed productivity website Lifehacker. It explains financial news for non-wonks, spotlights tools around the web, and offers creative challenges like a “splurge tax” to curb impulse spending.
The Billfold
…is a blog about money that answers the questions everyone is too afraid to ask—like how to save enough to say “fuck off” if your boss harasses you. It’s now published exclusively on Medium.
Listen To:
Money Girl
…is a crucial resource for auditory learners from Laura Adams. The episodes, rarely longer than 20 minutes, answer practical questions—“How Many Credit Cards Should You Have for Good Credit?” or “401k or IRA: Which One Should You Invest in First?”—without shying from technicalities.
Stacking Benjamins
…explains major economic news when it happens, but focuses mostly on the “lighter side of personal finance”—topics like how to game free products from CVS, or how to avoid sneaky car dealer tricks. This year’s St. Patrick’s Day episode looked at purchasing habits while intoxicated.
Bookmark:
Money 101
…functions like the back of a textbook—it has all of the answers. The website, published by Money magazine, offers straightforward explanations to the 101 most basic personal finance questions.
Numbeo
…is a database that tracks the cost of living around the world, based on information from over 290,000 contributors. The data is comically detailed, comparing cities not only by indexes and rent, but also by the average price of a movie ticket or the cost of a dozen eggs.
