Why Most People Stay Poor: They Avoid Learning About Money

For most people, finance feels like a headache. It seems complicated, full of strange words and confusing ideas. So, they avoid it. They avoid money talks, financial news, or anything to do with investment or inflation.

But here’s the truth: what you don’t know is your biggest weakness. And not understanding finance comes at a very high cost—through inflation, poverty, and constant financial stress.

Finance Isn’t Difficult—The Language Is

One big reason finance feels so hard is because of the jargon. Finance professionals often use fancy terms that make simple things sound complex. And that’s no accident. The more people feel confused, the more they rely on “experts”—a small group that really understands how money works.

Take this term, for example: Quantitative Easing—or QE, as it’s called.

Sounds technical, right? But all it means is this: the central bank prints more money. When too much money is printed, it causes inflation—meaning the value of your savings goes down. So, your hard-earned money in the bank becomes worth less over time. Yet, because a central banker says, “QE is necessary to save the economy,” people blindly accept it.

Finance Can Be Simple—and Profitable

Let’s break down a sentence that might sound intimidating at first but is actually simple once you understand it. In fact, if you can grasp this, you’ll understand a money-making trick that could make you a millionaire in 20 years.

“When the futures price of a commodity is in contango, the best strategy is to short the futures and buy the actual commodity to profit from arbitrage.”

Sounds like gibberish? Let’s decode it.

Futures are contracts where you agree today to buy or sell something (like copper or oil) at a future date.
Contango means the future price of a commodity is higher than its price today.
Arbitrage is when you make money from price differences in two markets.

So, if copper is $100 today, but the futures price for delivery after 6 months is $120, here’s what you do:

Sell the futures at $120
Buy the physical copper at $100

Six months later, you deliver the copper you bought cheaply and fulfill the futures contract you sold at a higher price—making a RISK-FREE profit of $20 per unit. That’s arbitrage. And such opportunities happen more often than you think!

So, Why Don’t People Make Use of It?

Because most people never bother to learn. They think financial markets are gambling. But the truth is:

Gambling is when you don’t know what will happen.
Finance is about placing smart bets based on logic, knowledge, and information.

If you know what you’re doing, the game changes entirely.

It’s All About the Hunger to Learn

Last Saturday, I wrote about five habits that set rich people apart from the poor. The last one was this: they keep learning new things—constantly.

Finance isn’t impossible. It’s just unfamiliar. But once you start understanding it, you’ll see it’s not about numbers—it’s about how the world works. It’s about power, creativity, and freedom.

Maybe it’s time to stop fearing finance and start learning it. Because the future belongs to those who understand money—not just earn it.

bhaskar saikia