We’ve all been there: first week at a new job, sitting across from someone in HR, nodding along as they walk you through your benefits package: pension enrollment, health insurance tiers, your tax timeline, etc. 

Somewhere in the middle of it, you realize you have no idea what they’re saying. You smile anyway. You got the job, that’s the win. You sign the forms and move on. 

I’ve been there – more than once. I say that as someone who has spent most of her career in financial services, an industry where we talk about money for a living. I was handed a W-4 form expected to figure it out. 

My frame of reference is American: the W-4, the 401(k), the annual W-2 reckoning. But I’ve worked alongside colleagues in London, Singapore and Sydney who tell versions of the same story. The details change. The nodding along doesn’t. 

April is Financial Literacy Month. The timing, it being tax month, feels almost too convenient. 

The gap is knowledge 

I am, proudly and unashamedly, a card-carrying member of “little treat” culture. A coffee here. A candle there. A “well, I’ve had a week” purchase that arrives in two days and brings me joy. 

But here’s what I’ve come to understand: the gap between earning a good income and actually feeling financially stable isn’t about discipline or willpower. It’s almost always about knowledge. Growing up, I was never taught the mechanics of cash flow, retirement compounding, or tax withholding. 

What firms should do differently 

Firms should do something different. Set aside dedicated time during onboarding, separate from the standard HR walkthrough, for a real conversation about money. Not a lecture. A conversation. 

The topics are not complicated: what your 401(k) match truly means for your total compensation, why your W-4 elections matter more than your April refund, what the gap between gross and net pay is telling you. Most new hires in finance could not explain these concepts in the context of their own paycheck – even if they walk clients and journalists through financial nuances daily.  

Create space for the questions that feel embarrassing to ask anywhere else. Tell them there are no dumb questions about money, only questions that, left unasked, end up costing them. 

What actually changes 

When firms do this, the results are predictable in the best way. People enroll in the 401(k) at the right contribution level. They withhold the right amount. They set up a cash flow rhythm that makes the little treats feel deserved. They might stop dreading tax season. (That’s probably a stretch.) 

But most importantly, they feel like their employer fully sees them – not as a headcount, but as a whole person with a financial life that matters. 

It’s sitting down with someone in their first week and saying: here’s what all of this means, here’s what to do next, and there are no wrong questions here. 

Angela Byrne is US Director of Business Strategy at Cognito