It’s been a summer of many ups and downs. For that reason, it’s super exciting for me anytime I see any content that isn’t depressing or downright terrifying. Luckily, so many people continue to put out amazing work that makes money fun, makes you think and helps educate us on the importance of being financially literate.

Here is a list of my favourite pieces around the web over the past few months for you to catch up on all things money:

#1. Buying a House in Canada – Why I Can’t Wait To NOT Be a Homeowner

“Why is it that when people borrow money to invest in the stock market (known as leverage) it’s considered inherently risky, but when people borrow 9x their downpayment on a house it’s considered “common sense?” When we think about how much money we’ve “made” on our home, we often forget to include all of the non-recoverable costs involved such as taxes, maintenance and repair costs, transaction fees to buy & sell, renovations that cost way more than they added resale value, etc.”

#2. I Was Taught From a Young Age to Protect My Dynastic Wealth

“If you are raised in a deeply conservative family like my own, you are taught some extra bits of doctrine: Philanthropy is good, but too much of it is unseemly and performative. Marry people “of your own class” to save yourself from the complexity and conflict that come with a broad gulf in income, assets, and, therefore, power. And, as one of my uncles said to me during the Reagan administration, it’s best to leave the important decision making to people who are “successful,” rather than in the pitiable hands of those who aren’t.”

#3. Hustle Culture: The Toxic Celebration of Working Ourselves to Death

“No human who works forty hours a week should be unable to afford to live. We shouldn’t have to try to monetize our hobbies just for a chance at survival. Life should be for living, enjoying, experiencing, and engaging. Life isn’t supposed to be one gigantic hustle. Relationships aren’t just about what you can get out of the other person. The idea that the only point of life is to work is disgusting and should be challenged regularly.”

#4. Investing Deathmatch: Timing the Market vs. Time IN the Market

“Investing is not a race, and traditional advice states that investors should be more tortoise than hare. If you want to invest your money, you shouldn’t expect an overnight return. Instead, you should invest with an expectation of returns years or even decades down the road. That’s part of why so many retirement funds are invested in stocks and bonds. You tuck your investments away early in your career, expecting them to grow exponentially over the decades. If all goes according to plan, your money will have grown like a tampon in a toilet bowl by the time you’re ready to retire.”

#5. Homeownership can bring out the worst in you

“A home is the largest asset the vast majority of Americans can ever own. Protecting its value is akin to protecting your family’s future — your ability to weather bad financial times, borrow if your kid needs help paying for college, or rest easy knowing that in a country that will leave you out to dry if you get sick, at least you can sell your house if it ever gets that bad.”

#6. How to Talk About Salary With Your Coworkers

“Most employees report deciding against talking about their salaries due to the strong taboo around discussing money with coworkers (and even friends and family!). But the fact remains that workers receive better pay and report higher satisfaction with work when immersed in a culture of salary transparency. If the company isn’t going to create that culture for their employees, you can create that culture within your working group.”

#7. America’s Investing Boom Goes Far Beyond Reddit Bros

“Survey data from Schwab analysts suggest that more than 50 percent of all new investors are Millennials, that 16 percent are Gen Z, and that more than half of the cohort started investing during the pandemic in order to build an emergency fund or to gin up another source of revenue. Only 2 percent of Robinhood users are high-use “pattern day traders,” according to the company. The median account balance of its investors is $240 and the average is $4,500 (as opposed to an average of $100,000 for E-Trade). More than 18 million people now have a funded account at Robinhood—striking, but still fewer than the roughly 30 million users at each of the more traditional brokerages such as Schwab, Vanguard, and Fidelity, which also added millions of younger users.”

#8. Toxic Work Environments Shouldn’t Be a Rite of Passage

“The myth that young people are supposed to endure abusive work environments as a rite of passage into the labor market skims over the systemic issues that allow those environments to persist in the first place. At a first job, it’s almost a cultural expectation that you’ll be underpaid, harassed, or exploited in some way, despite research that shows that early career experiences can have significant impact on the rest of our working lives.”

#9. Financial Experts Debunk TikTok’s Viral Money Advice

“Accusing low-income people of being lazy or being extravagant spenders is just straight-up classism and racism. Research shows that low-income people are far better than rich people at budgeting and managing their money, and they’re much more likely to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, which hardly qualifies as laziness.”

#10. Your bank probably funds climate change. Here’s how to save more sustainably

“While your checking and savings accounts might be only a sliver of what your bank directs to the fossil fuel industry, your decision to house them there does have an impact. “Money makes the world go round,” says Sylvia Panek, a financial advisor for Natural Investments, which focuses on socially responsible investing. “If they’re sitting at a bank that is financing natural resource extraction, very extractive, exploitative practices, your dollars essentially are being used for that.”