To quote my dear friend Will Ferrell,

“It’s provocative, it gets the people going”

Okay maybe he’s not my dear friend, but there’s some truth within the quote.

When was the last time society talked about stocks and investments as much as we did in 2020? The fact that we had nothing to do with our free time and it felt as if stocks could only go up definitely played a large role in the popularity of investing conversations, but prior to the 2010s, no one had the access to investing that they do now.

Largely in part, thanks to Robinhood.

Don't get me wrong, I do not agree with everything they do.

And with new investors rushing to Robinhood, I do want to note that uneducated investing can be risky - however in the same breath, learning about investing and trading stocks with a couple hundred dollars isn't going to make or break your financial future.

So what's the benefit nobody's talking about?

The fact that everyone was talking about it. It's helping create conversations around money that haven't existed before.

And I think that by creating conversations around the stock market and money and investing, those conversations will *hopefully* trickle over into other areas of personal finance and money in general.

Every shift in culture has to begin with conversations around the topic and we're long overdue for a shift towards financial literacy and learning the language of money.

While Robinhood definitely isn't the end solution, it’s been a leader in removing the previously high barriers to get into the stock market and it's helping change the landscape of personal finance.