Finance, especially personal finance seems to be such a taboo topic but why? Why does talking about money make everyone feel so ashamed and awkward? For whatever reason society has deemed this topic to be forbidden, but for the sake of our generation this needs to change. I look around at my friends and I see many of them struggling to stay above water with no clue on how to save for the near future, let alone retirement. However, I don’t believe this is entirely their fault. Unless you personally go looking for it, education on personal finance is hard to find so most people just go with the status quo of things. They see people taking out student loans so they do the same. They see friends charging trips to Europe on their visa cards so why shouldn’t they. Fast forward to 10 years later when you have $50,000 in student loans and $15,000 in credit card debt and all of a sudden you want to buy a house and start a family but the pressure is too much. If only you would have been taught about personal finance when you were 18 and entering the adult world, perhaps some of this may have been avoided.

Thankfully, there’s a safe space to talk about personal finance freely, in fact there’s an entire community dedicated to talking about it. It’s called the #DebtFreeCommunity and it’s full of some of the most supportive and kind people I have ever met. Whether you’re celebrating a win or needing support from a fail, they are there for you. They are also ready with helpful advice or some pretty great memes and for all of that, I am extremely grateful. I love talking about personal finance, and I freely talk about it with friends and family but I know that not everyone feels that way so it’s been lovely to find this group of like minded individuals where I can share all of this journey with.

That being said, I’m still trying to change the way people talk about personal finance within my own social group. I encourage people to talk about savings plans, retirement dreams, mortgage rates and anything else because I think that it’s a great start in the right direction. Even if you have no idea what you’re doing, just start asking questions and educating yourself. Your future self will thank you and I very much doubt that in 10 years you’ll look back and think ugh I wish I had never learned about personal finance.