Welcome to Money Advice (For the Rest of Us)

This is the weekend edition of Culture Study — the newsletter from Anne Helen Petersen, which you can read about here. If you like it and want more like it in your inbox, consider subscribing. I spent a lot of time in my 20s and 30s feeling pretty helpless about money. There was an initial feeling of control when I was just out college — I had a good job as a nanny and health care coverage — but that evaporated with my first massive dental bill and my first graduate school student loan. Over the next decade, I found myself with financial questions that no one in my life seemed capable of answering. When should I consolidate my loans? Should I start putting money in a retirement account even if I’m still taking out loans? What should I do about this small private loan I had to take out to cover those dental bills? Do I even attempt to try and save money for a house? Why would I ever trust the stock market?