Hassan Brown

If you walked through communities across this country and asked everyday Americans to explain why groceries and gas cost more, why interest rates continue to go up, or optimal investment approaches, you’d hear a wide range of answers. This wide range would show you how differently everyone — including myself — experiences and understands how our financial system truly works. Fresh out of college, I had to learn the basics of money management and finances through life’s hard knocks. I remember feeling like I was finally “adulting” when I opened my first savings account that had about a 3-4% interest rate. But at the same time, I never explored alternate methods of saving, like a certificate of deposit, which earns interest on a lump sum over a fixed period of time and I was definitely too risk-averse to put any money into the market — so investing was out of the question. Looking back, I now realize  that my financial understanding, like so many in our country, was not where it...