Disclaimer: This article reflects my personal experiences and research for educational purposes only and should not be considered professional financial advice.
As graduation inches closer and my footing in the “real world” starts to feel a little more concrete, I can’t help but wonder: when exactly are we supposed to start learning how money works? There are seemingly endless components of financial literacy: high-yield savings accounts, Roth IRAs, retirement funds, investing, credit, taxes, and, quite frankly, you might catch me making fun of a business major or two to maintain my STEM superiority complex. Secretly, though, I have to give them credit. The second someone starts throwing around words like “investment banking,” “consulting,” “stocks,” and “trading,” I suddenly lose my ability to understand English.
But here’s the thing: money really isn’t as impossible to understand as we convince ourselves it is. While admitting that you have no idea what to do with your money might be painfully relatable in your early 20s, I don’t think we should be comfortable staying that way, especially as women. We belong to a generation of women earning degrees, pursuing ambitious careers, and increasingly defining success on our own terms. If we’re going to work this hard to earn our own money, shouldn’t we know what to do with it once it reaches our bank accounts? Financial independence isn’t simply about receiving a paycheck. It’s about understanding how to manage, protect, and grow what we earn. So, as someone whose career has absolutely nothing to do with finance—and who would much rather stick to her microscopes and Petri dishes—I decided it was time to figure out what I should actually know about money. And if you feel just as lost as I do, consider this our crash course.
A Paycheck Isn’t the Same as Financial Independence
I’ve been ambitious for as long as I can remember. I want to work hard, build a career I love, become successful, and make money. A lot of it. Some might call that money-minded. And when it comes to women, there’s always the ever-so-charming accusation of being a “gold digger.” But while money undoubtedly comes with plenty of nice things, much of the appeal is what it can represent: independence, discipline, good decision-making, and the ability to build a life for yourself. We also live in an era where women are still frequently told—sometimes jokingly, sometimes not—that the easiest financial strategy is simply to marry rich. If anything, that only strengthens my argument. If you love money so much, why not learn how to make, manage, and grow your own? And then, by all means, marry the rich businessman too.
When you enter a high-paying, high-reward field, money can start coming in larger amounts than you’re used to managing. As a child, one appeal of becoming a doctor was the hefty salary. I remember thinking, “If my net worth ever reaches $1 million, I’m buying every nice car in the world.” Clearly, my childhood financial plan was incredibly sophisticated. But earning more money also means greater responsibility. Making six figures doesn’t automatically teach you how to save, invest, budget, or build wealth, and for most of my life, I was clueless about all of the above.
My parents, however, started saving for my brother’s and my futures when we were babies. They’ve invested heavily in property, planned years ahead, and learned to balance saving with enjoying their hard-earned money. My dad knows we’re a high-spending family, so rather than treating budgeting as deprivation, he strategically finds ways to cut costs while allowing us to live comfortably and have fun. Because of them, I grew up in a financially conscious household, even if I didn’t always understand money myself. And with a fiercely independent mother—MBA in hand—I learned early that financial literacy matters for women. Not because every woman needs an escape plan from a man, marriage means anticipating divorce, or accepting financial support makes you less independent. It matters because understanding the finances of the life you’re building allows you to participate in it as an equal. Even if your husband is the breadwinner, you should still understand the bread.
If I’m Investing This Much in My Career, I Should Be Investing in Myself
When people hear words like investing and saving, it’s easy to get intimidated. I certainly did, until I finally sat down one day, gave myself 15 minutes, and researched what I actually needed to know about managing my finances. I’m nowhere near having it figured out. I only opened my Roth IRA shortly after my 20th birthday, my savings aren’t exactly where I want them to be, and I work part-time while I’m in college. But I’ve realized: financial literacy doesn’t begin when you finally have a six-figure salary. It begins when you understand what you’ll eventually do with one. I may not have much to invest right now, but I do have time, and hopefully, those emergency “Dad, can you please send me money?” texts will eventually become fewer and farther between. Your 20s give you something arguably more valuable than a giant paycheck: time.
Take a Roth IRA, for example. I had heard the term plenty of times before I actually knew what it meant. Essentially, it’s a retirement account where you contribute money you’ve already paid taxes on, allowing qualified withdrawals in retirement to be tax-free. And no, opening one does not mean you are prematurely preparing for your senior citizen life at 20. Starting young gives your investments decades to potentially grow and compound. Something embarrassingly important I also learned: putting money into a Roth IRA doesn’t necessarily mean that money is invested. You generally still have to choose investments within the account. This is why understanding these things matters, rather than just opening an account because TikTok told you to and feeling financially sophisticated afterward.
Then there’s the 401(k), an employer-sponsored retirement account that becomes especially relevant once we enter full-time jobs. Some employers even match part of your contributions. Translation for my fellow non-finance girls: your employer may put extra money toward your retirement because you’re contributing your own.
When comparing job offers, I don’t want to focus solely on whichever flashes the prettiest salary. Health insurance, retirement contributions, paid time off, and other benefits are compensation too. There’s also the less glamorous emergency fund. Unfortunately, “emergency” doesn’t mean the Aritzia sale ends tonight. It means your car suddenly needs a $1,000 repair, you lose your job, or life gets expensive at the worst possible moment. Having accessible savings keeps those situations from immediately becoming debt—or another emergency call to your parents.
That brings me to high-yield savings accounts. If I’m going to have money sitting in savings anyway, I’d rather have it earning more interest than sitting in an account paying practically nothing. A high-yield savings account functions similarly to a traditional one but generally offers a higher annual percentage yield. Rates change, of course, and it’s still important to consider fees, withdrawal rules, and whether the institution is appropriately insured before throwing your savings somewhere because the APY looks pretty.
None of this means I plan on becoming the next Warren Buffett. I still have a career to build, classes to pass, and a million things I’d rather read about than retirement accounts. But I’ve spent years thinking about my resume, grades, internships, graduate school, and everything I need to eventually earn the salary I want. It seems ridiculous to put so much effort into learning how to make money without learning what to do with it. Sometimes it starts with $20, opening an account, or spending 15 minutes Googling the financial term you’ve pretended to understand for years. If I’m spending this much of my 20s investing in the woman I want to become, I want her to know what to do with her money, too.
I Want a Partner, Not a Financial Plan
There’s one thing I want to emphasize strongly: financial independence does not mean rejecting marriage, shared finances, or depending on other people at all. It simply means never being completely removed from understanding your own financial life.
Our generation seems drawn to two extremes. On one side, there’s the “trad wife” phenomenon, where women online romanticize financial cluelessness as femininity, joking that money, bills, and work are “big boy responsibilities” while baking sourdough and doing laundry represent the idyllic alternative. On the other hand, some women treat marriage and financial dependence as inherently dangerous, warning that relying on a husband is practically counting down the days until he leaves for someone half your age. I don’t particularly like either narrative.
There’s nothing inherently empowering about earning every dollar yourself, nor is there anything empowering about pretending you don’t know where it comes from. You can be a stay-at-home mom, a surgeon working 70 hours a week, or somewhere in between. Financial literacy isn’t about proving you don’t need anyone; it’s about understanding the life you’re building. Whether you and your husband earn equally, one significantly out-earns the other, or one doesn’t work outside the home, you’re both adults sharing a household. You should know what’s coming in, what’s going out, what you own, owe, save, and what your financial future looks like. You can be cared for without being kept in the dark, and share finances without outsourcing your understanding of them. To me, that is financial independence.
One thing I’ve always believed in is the financial advantage of a dual-income household. For most of my life, my mom has been a homemaker despite being highly qualified. She supported my dad as he climbed the career ladder and reached major success milestones. But as the financial mastermind behind much of what he earns, she has always emphasized the unique advantages of having two incomes. I once came across a couple who explained that they live almost entirely off one partner’s salary, using it for everyday expenses and leisure, while putting the other partner’s paycheck straight into savings and investments. Of course, not every household can afford to do that, but it made me realize that a dual-income household isn’t simply about two people working and therefore making more money. It’s about the opportunities that additional income can create: greater financial security, flexibility, and the ability to build wealth together.
Whether both partners work or only one brings home a paycheck, I firmly believe that both should be equally involved in their shared financial decisions, because financial abuse is a very real issue that can affect anyone. Having access to financial information, understanding your assets and obligations, and maintaining some degree of personal financial security aren’t signs of distrust. They’re signs of responsibility. Ultimately, financial independence doesn’t have to mean doing everything alone. You can love someone, trust them wholeheartedly, build a family together, and still take an active role in understanding the money that supports your life because being an equal partner isn’t an equal paycheck. It’s about having an equal voice in the future you’re building together.
The Bottom Line? Know Your Money, Know Your Worth
I may not have my finances entirely figured out yet, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that financial literacy is just as important as the ambition that drives us to earn money in the first place. Whether you dream of becoming a CEO, a homemaker, or somewhere in between, you deserve to understand, manage, and have a say in your financial future. After all, we work so hard to become the women we want to be, so why not make sure those women know what to do with their money?