Personal finance used to be a land of DOS:
- DO get a bank savings account.
- DO get the best rate on your savings.
- DO pay off your debt in order of highest to lowest rate.
- DO invest in an index fund.

It was almost simple, and millions of people dug their way out of the red with feel-good gameplans that could fit on an index card. (Dave Ramsey, arguably the most influential personal finance author ever, still calls his playbook "baby steps." And there are only seven of them.)

Two things have happened in recent history to completely change this landscape.

First, content creators seized on the fact that we respond more to negative information than positive. Cut to the idea that buying coffee or avocado toast will ruin your finances, or that college is a bad deal—oversimplified, context-free bits of financial "tips" that run rampant online. TikTok and Instagram, in fact, have become forums of narrowly differentiated advice for the same basic principles, designed to maximize clicks, attention, and subscriptions at the expense of recall.

Second, the gamification and digitalization of finance has opened the door to a million bad actors, some marauding as above-board financial companies. E-gambling, prediction markets, in-game purchases, loyalty apps, and myriad other financial technologies are constantly at work separating us all (including kids as young as teenagers) from our money, and we need to know to avoid them rather than learn how to interact with them.

And so personal finance is now a land of DON'TS: What NOT TO DO is equally important, sometimes more important, than what TO DO. It's crucial we're all educated, especially our young people, on this new reality.