"Strangers" Did More for My Financial Literacy Than Any Expert Ever Has

I finished reading Strangers by Belle Burden over the weekend in one sitting, and damn, did it live up to the hype. I've always been a sucker for a good memoir — Educated and Wild are two of my all-time favorites — but I genuinely can't remember the last time I stayed up way too late finishing a book and didn't regret it the next day.

When I put it down, what stuck with me wasn't the betrayal (though, oh, the betrayal), or even how quietly a life can be dismantled by someone you trusted completely. It was the financial piece. Burden acknowledges her privilege throughout the book, but her story still lands as a warning: even with resources, even inside a marriage, even as the mother of his children, she had no idea what was happening with her own money until it was already gone.

And she's not alone in that. Financial abuse occurs in as many as 99% of domestic violence cases, and it doesn't always look dramatic. Sometimes it just looks like one person handling everything while the other person trusts them to. 

That's the part that stayed with me. Not the worst-case scenario, but the everyday version: the woman who stopped paying attention because her husband "handled it," who couldn't tell you her own credit score, who'd have to start from scratch if everything changed tomorrow.

I'm not saying distrust your partner. I'm saying know your numbers. Have your own account. Understand where the money lives. SoFi Checking and Savings is a genuinely easy place to start — no account fees, up to 3.10% APY with eligible direct deposit, and something that's actually yours. Member FDIC.

Strangers is a lot of things. But mostly, it's a reminder that financial literacy isn't a backup plan. It's just taking care of yourself.