Back in the 1990s, I was a young, aspiring professional who wanted to do both small and big things. Things with impact and significance.
I left a steady but boring job to start my own consulting business.
Little did I know that Washington was preparing for a Gulf war, one that would upend theEastern Mediterranean and destabilise the very environment in which I was planning to operate in.
Had I known, I might have delayed that decision. My ambition was to support businesses in the Gulf, Cyprus, Greece, and Lebanon that were active in consumer, industrial, and lifestyle sectors. Instead, my business strategy had to change almost overnight. I had to be content with smaller, more contained projects, and smaller, more contained income.
When distant decisions become personal
The point is this: we can’t afford to stay detached from the “tea leaves” of politics - decisions taken far away from our daily lives, by people we don’t know, yet with consequences we feel directly.
We must be informed. We must read, deliberate, learn, and stay connected to the world around us. That includes understanding how markets move, how capital flows, where investments are being made, by whom, and in which sectors. It also means paying attention to how politics evolves: where your head of government is travelling, who they are meeting, and what they are saying.
There is no truly independent media. So read broadly. Listen to different commentators. Follow news from multiple regions. And be cautious about relying on social-media influencers or analysts delivering complex realities in short soundbytes.
This intersection of politics, markets, and capital shapes how politicians, policymakers, and central bankers make decisions. And those decisions determine the risk premium we ultimately pay with our own money. It shows up in very practical ways: the cost of food, the cost of housing, the cost of doing business, and the real value of our salaries and income.
For those of us not living in the US, and certainly not on Wall Street, where capital is pricedand traded, and where pensions and investments are heavily influenced, following developments from afar can feel challenging. But, like it or not, it is also essential.
Because without understanding how money works, we cannot safeguard our livelihoods or our future.
From state promises to personal responsibility
Across Europe, governments can no longer afford large, comfortable pensions. Increasingly, we are being asked to save and invest ourselves - to build our own cushions of future income. Are we ready to do that homework? Do we understand how to invest, how much risk to take, how costly insurance-based savings and pension products really are, and what alternative ways of saving and investing exist?
The reality is that governments are gradually passing the responsibility for pension security onto citizens. We need to be prepared for that shift.
Understanding how money works is no longer a “nice to have.”
It is a must-have.