Originally published in the Stock Savvy Dad newsletter on July 14, 2026.

A cousin of mine bought a car a couple years ago hoping it would be a fresh start. Her credit wasn’t great, but the plan made sense on paper. Make on time payments, raise her score, refinance later, get ahead. Instead a dealer sold her a $35,000 SUV at a 22% interest rate, rolled in debt from her old car, and packed the contract with add-ons she never fully understood.

The monthly payments looked manageable. The math behind it wasn’t. That $35,000 loan was on track to balloon into more than $65,000 over time. Her early payments were barely touching the principal, and one financial setback meant she couldn’t keep up.

Eventually she had to turn the car in, which led to a voluntary repossession that further hurt her credit. A generous friend stepped in and gave her an old car to get by on, so at least she wasn’t left without transportation. But she’s still left owing the difference between what the SUV sold for at an auto auction and what she owed on it.

Watching her go through this taught me something that goes way beyond car loans.

Financial literacy isn’t really about picking stocks or building a portfolio. Before any of that, it’s about understanding how money moves. How interest compounds. What a rate actually costs you over the life of a loan. What you’re agreeing to the moment you sign something.

This isn’t only about cars. It’s mortgages, business loans, credit cards. The terms change but the risk is the same. A bad contract signed without fully understanding it can set someone back years, especially if they were already trying to climb out of a hole in the first place.

The people hurt most by this aren’t reckless. They’re often doing exactly what they think is the responsible thing, trying to rebuild credit and get ahead, in a system that isn’t built to make the real cost obvious in the moment you’re signing.

That’s exactly why financial literacy has to come before the negotiation, not after. Knowing your credit score before you walk into a negotiation. Knowing what rate you actually qualify for instead of accepting whatever number gets handed to you. Knowing the total cost of a loan, not just the monthly payments. None of that is advanced. It’s basic literacy, and not knowing it is expensive in ways that go far beyond a missed investment opportunity.

— Stock Savvy Dad
​Invest smarter, build wealth, be a savvy dad.