Photo by Alina Bordunova
If you’ve opened a news app or scrolled your feed lately, you’ve probably seen it: headlines about interest rates, whispers of a recession, inflation cooling one week and surging the next. Meanwhile, politicians are playing economic dodgeball with your future and the stock market is out here moving like a plastic bag in the wind.
“When the market’s blowing around like a plastic bag in the wind of political drama, financial literacy isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’—it’s your lifeline,” says George Kailas, CEO of Prospero.ai, an AI-powered platform aimed at giving retail investors better tools to survive the chaos.
Let’s be real—nobody handed out a manual for how to survive the modern economy. But if you’re working a job, trying to save, or even thinking about investing, not knowing how inflation, interest rates, or government policy works isn’t just a financial gap—it’s a trap.
What They Didn’t Teach You in School
The basics of personal finance—understanding how to manage debt, grow savings, and build wealth—should be taught alongside reading and math. But according to the Council for Economic Education, only 25 states require a personal finance course to graduate high school, and many of those offer it as an elective rather than a requirement.
The result? Millions of Americans navigating student loans, mortgages, 401(k)s, and market volatility armed with little more than vibes and TikTok advice. And in this economy, that’s a dangerous game.
Is a Recession Coming or Not?
The question on everyone’s mind right now is: Are we about to hit a recession?
And the answer is… maybe.
Inflation cooled in early 2025, with the core Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising just 3.1% in February—the slowest in nearly four years. But interest rates remain high, and recent trade tensions with Canada and the EU have added fresh anxiety to the market.
“A lot of people have been asking if we are on the brink of a recession and we just might be,” Kailas says. “If you don’t know how interest rates, inflation, or government spending impact your money, you’re not investing wisely.”
And that’s the point. It’s not about predicting the exact moment things will crash or recover. It’s about knowing how to protect yourself when they do.
ETFs, Inverse ETFs, and Other Terms You Pretend to Understand
One of the smartest tools for managing risk during market turmoil? ETFs—Exchange-Traded Funds.
ETFs are essentially baskets of stocks or assets that let you invest in multiple companies at once. Think of it like buying a smoothie instead of all the ingredients separately. You get instant diversification, lower risk, and it usually costs less than actively managed funds.
But when the market’s headed south, inverse ETFs come into play. These are funds designed to go up when the market goes down.
“Smart investors know how to hedge their bets. Inverse ETFs, for example, can help you manage risk when the market takes a dive,” Kailas explains. “Being able to understand why ETFs like SQQQ or SCC provide the best protection given these conditions could be the difference between losing 50% of your portfolio value or 25%.”
To be clear, inverse ETFs aren’t for everyone. They’re best for short-term hedging and require a solid grasp of market mechanics. But the broader point is this: if you’re investing blindly, you’re gambling.
Literacy Is Armor
Financial literacy isn’t about getting rich quick or beating the stock market. It’s about understanding how to navigate systems that are built to confuse you, especially when you’re not a hedge fund with a team of analysts and an algorithm.
And Kailas says the focus shouldn’t just be on market headlines. “Knowing what’s happening in the financial market is important, but what’s more vital to you on a personal level is understanding how to protect your money… no matter what happens. That’s where financial literacy comes in.”
The truth is, volatility isn’t going anywhere. The market will keep reacting to elections, interest rates, wars, and whatever tech company is trending this week. You can’t control that. But you can control whether you understand what to do with your money in response.
So if you’ve been putting off learning what an ETF is, now’s the time. If you don’t know what your credit score is or how inflation affects your student loan interest, go find out. Financial literacy won’t make the world less chaotic—but it will make you a hell of a lot harder to shake.
