‘Poverty doesn’t have to be my reality’: I thought I’d have to rely on Social Security. Then I taught myself how to invest.
Quentin FottrellSat, September 5, 2026 at 4:01 PM GMT+3 6 min read
I'm a chef who is in the process of switching careers. I plan to pursue the Enrolled Agent credential. I'm also an avid investor. About four years ago, I started studying everything I could about investing and personal finance. I also encouraged my sister to do the same.
For most of my life, I had no idea that building wealth and having a positive net worth was something I could realistically achieve. I genuinely thought I was destined to depend almost entirely on Social Security in retirement. Now I know that poverty doesn't have to be my reality.
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I've also built an emergency fund. It's relatively small in dollar terms, but it covers about six months of my monthly expenses, which gives me some peace of mind. I'm incredibly glad I decided to educate myself financially, and even happier that I decided to go back to school.
The funny thing is that I didn't know what I didn't know. It wasn't until I got myself into some serious debt that I finally became willing to learn about personal finance. I was never taught anything about stocks, bonds, index funds — or investing in general.
I only knew about a basic savings account; I didn't even know high-yield savings accounts existed. Because of that, it always baffled me how some people managed to retire with significant wealth. I simply couldn't understand how they did it.
Now, having learned about investing, retirement accounts, taxes and the power of compounding, it's incredibly comforting to know that I have a path forward. And I'm going to keep learning, because financial education has genuinely become a major interest of mine.
My wife is willing to learn and build a better future. I honestly wish more personal-finance education were mandatory in high school. Not everyone goes to college, yet financial decisions affect every single person throughout their lives.
The Late-Blooming Investor
You have cooked up something remarkable. You started with almost no financial knowledge, climbed out of serious debt and used that experience as motivation to turn your life around. You taught yourself about investing, the power of compounding — where your principal and the interest earned on that principal make money — taxes and, finally, retirement accounts. Not only that, you built a six-month emergency fund, went back to school and are pursuing a role as an EA. Not content with that, you're spreading the word among your family. Bravo.
Believe it or not, 39 states require personal-finance lessons for high school graduates, according to the Council for Economic Education Survey of the States. Not all are standalone courses. Four states — California, Delaware, Colorado and Hawaii — are now mandating that students take a semester-long personal-finance course before graduating. "Additionally, Kentucky and Texas strengthened their existing policies transitioning from embedded personal finance content within other courses to dedicated stand-alone courses."
However, approximately 22 states require economics for graduation, although some states, including Texas and California, replaced economics requirements with personal finance. Experts say that personal finance and economics should both be taught, given that finance focuses on practical money skills while economics develops understanding of markets, policies and broader financial systems. The FinEd50 coalition, a movement backed by both nonprofits and corporations, is working to expand and improve financial education.
That progress is not entirely reflected in the number of working adults with a retirement plan. Roughly 40% of Americans report that they do not have any money invested in a retirement savings plan like a 401(k), 403(b) or IRA, either alone or even with a spouse, per a May 2026 poll from Gallup. The more you earn, the more likely you are to have a retirement plan, because you will have a job with a company that more likely offers a 401(k) with an employer match, and because you're not living paycheck to paycheck.
Roughly 83% of adults with at least $100,000 in annual household income have a retirement-savings plan, significantly higher than the 28% rate among those in households earning less than $50,000 a year, Gallup says. More revealing and to your point about education: 81% of college graduates compared with 39% of adults with no college education have a retirement-savings plan. Some 68% of non-Hispanic white adults have a retirement savings plan versus 42% of people of color. Men (61%) are also more likely than women (57%) to have a plan.
There is, as you have experienced, a gap between the number of personal-finance courses in high schools and the number of people actually implementing those lessons. The reasons are complex: Not every student has access to such classes, but even when they do, they're not always standalone classes, and the quality of the teaching, as with all high schools, varies. Add to that underfunding for schools, a shortage of sufficiently trained teachers, and bias among schools when it comes to more traditional subjects. A shift in thinking takes years, if not generations.
The secret to having a comfortable retirement? There is no secret, really, more than a succession of small steps and, as far as education and career goes, good fortune. Attending college is expensive, and not everyone can afford to give themselves that kind of start in life, despite the $1.86 trillion in student debt held by millions of American graduates (and some nongraduates). Start saving early, but know that it's often never too late, even if you haven't started by your 30s or 40s. There is also a fine line between sensible budgeting and sacrifice.
You are a powerful example for others. It's never too late to turn your finances around.
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