What’s the smartest move you can make in your 20s if you think you want a future in finance—but you’re not sure where to begin? Most people assume it starts with a job title or a killer resume. It doesn’t. It starts with habits, mindset, and getting honest about what the field really demands. In this blog, we will share what actions set you up early for long-term wins in finance.
Understand the Game Before You Play It
Most people don’t really understand how finance works until they’re already neck-deep in it. They hear “finance” and picture either Wall Street power suits or Shark Tank pitches. The truth is far less glamorous, and honestly, far more useful. Finance is about clarity—about tracking, forecasting, cutting, justifying, and creating value in situations that change fast and usually involve people under pressure. It’s math, yes, but also patience. It’s policy, but also human error. It’s navigating systems that don’t care how tired you are.
Getting ahead early means seeing that. It means watching how businesses operate, asking what decisions led to profit (or collapse), and noticing how money moves through systems. That could mean reading a 10-K instead of another article about generative AI. It could mean sitting in on a small business budget meeting, even if it’s your uncle’s diner. Learning the texture of real money movement—outside of schoolwork or clickbait—is what separates passive learners from those who can adapt fast once real money’s at stake.
The bigger move, if you’re in school or just starting out, is putting structure around that curiosity. A Master of Accounting degree, for example, isn’t just about credentialing—it gives you a disciplined approach to financial systems, internal controls, and how regulation shows up in everyday decisions. If your goal is long-term, not just a job offer, getting formal training in how money actually gets managed across industries adds clarity to your instincts. That matters when stakes get high and errors cost real money—not just grades.
Know What the Numbers Don’t Show
Finance people are often trusted to translate uncertainty into numbers. Problem is, numbers rarely tell the full story. You might see a line graph go up and to the right and assume things are going well—until you find out that growth came from mass layoffs, risky leverage, or short-term cost cutting that will backfire next quarter.
Learning to ask better questions—about context, about people, about downstream risk—pays off later. It teaches you to read between the lines. That skill becomes a career advantage, especially now, when AI tools can generate surface-level summaries in seconds. What machines can’t do (yet) is sense misalignment between financials and reality. That’s where sharp humans win.
A current example: Commercial real estate is wobbling in major cities post-COVID, but some earnings reports still look fine on paper. If you take them at face value, you miss what’s coming. If you dig—look at vacancy trends, shadow inventory, changes in tax receipts—you start to see the storm forming before it hits headlines. Being early to that understanding isn’t just smart. It’s job security.
And in finance, job security isn’t just about keeping your role—it’s about being seen as the person who sees things before others do. That trust is everything.
Watch Where People Trip
One of the more ironic things about working in finance is how often smart people make terrible decisions with their own money. They’ll model an entire P&L down to the cent, then blow five figures on a lifestyle upgrade they can’t sustain. Or they’ll understand interest rate exposure for clients but ignore how credit card debt affects their own savings rate.
Start paying attention to the gap between what people say they understand and what they actually do. Study it. Your boss might quote Buffett but spend like Logan Paul. Your coworkers might use Excel like wizards and still get shocked when their rent goes up.
You don’t need to be perfect yourself. You just need to build enough internal stability to absorb shocks. In practice, that means automating savings, tracking spending without getting obsessive, and avoiding the trap of treating salary jumps like permission to inflate your lifestyle. The less pressure you’re under in your own financial life, the more room you’ll have to think clearly on the job—and the less likely you are to chase short-term wins at long-term cost.
Make Peace With Boredom
Not every moment in finance feels urgent. In fact, some of the most important work is repetitive and painfully boring—checking reconciliations, cleaning datasets, confirming that yes, the same invoice got entered twice under different codes. It’s not thrilling. But it teaches you to spot errors fast. And over time, pattern recognition becomes your secret weapon.
Right now, the workforce is flooded with people looking for “meaningful” work. They want purpose, creativity, flexibility, and if possible, kombucha on tap. Finance rarely gives you that upfront. What it gives you is structure, leverage, and long-term tools for decision-making that apply across everything—from business deals to home buying to whether or not you should trust that startup pitch.
People who treat the slow parts with respect end up with better instincts than those who only want to chase the next exciting trend. And once you’ve seen a few up cycles, down cycles, rate hikes, and layoffs play out—you stop reacting and start planning. That’s the payoff.
There’s a myth that finance careers depend mostly on certifications or luck or who you know. In truth, people get pulled upward when others realize they don’t have to worry about them dropping the ball. That’s a form of invisible capital that’s hard to fake, but once it’s there, it opens doors quietly and often.
Stay Sane in a World That Isn’t
Finally, keep your head on straight. Finance will tempt you to believe that everything is measurable and that every measurable thing matters. But real life is messier than the spreadsheets.
You will meet people who seem to know everything and flame out within two years. You’ll see others who barely talk but show up every day and outlast the chaos. Some companies will reward precision. Others will reward charisma. Most will pretend to reward both but secretly chase revenue at all costs.
Figure out what kind of environment you’re in. Adjust without losing your footing. Let your values stay steady even when the world around you doesn’t. Learn to manage your own expectations just as much as your performance. The people who last aren’t the ones with the best title in year three—they’re the ones still learning in year twenty, with fewer emotional bruises and better sleep.
Finance is full of fast starts and even faster exits. The people who play the long game—who take early steps toward clarity, consistency, and calm—end up with careers that not only survive, but stay interesting. The payoff is real, but it doesn’t come overnight. It builds slowly, and then all at once.
Peyman Khosravani is a global blockchain and digital transformation expert with a passion for marketing, futuristic ideas, analytics insights, startup businesses, and effective communications. He has extensive experience in blockchain and DeFi projects and is committed to using technology to bring justice and fairness to society and promote freedom. Peyman has worked with international organizations to improve digital transformation strategies and data-gathering strategies that help identify customer touchpoints and sources of data that tell the story of what is happening. With his expertise in blockchain, digital transformation, marketing, analytics insights, startup businesses, and effective communications, Peyman is dedicated to helping businesses succeed in the digital age. He believes that technology can be used as a tool for positive change in the world.
