Article
It depends how you feel about money
April 30, 2026
There’s a version of ourselves we like to present when it comes to money. Capable. In control. Reasonable. And most of the time, if you ask people, that’s exactly what you’ll hear. Santander’s Currency of Learning report found that 71% of people in the UK feel confident in their money knowledge. That’s brilliant, right?
Yet, only 40% understand basic concepts like inflation.
It’s not that people are lying. It’s just that money is an odd and sensitive topic. Even in a day and age where we are more open than ever about mental health struggles and physical ailments, money matters still seem to be too personal and exposing. That goes for intimate confessions of debt as much as simple acknowledgement we don’t understand something we deem ‘basic’, such as pensions. So, we default to feigned confidence. Or at least something that sounds like it.
Part of it is expectation. Having a good handle on your money feels like something you’re meant to have figured out "by now" (which is also a completely arbitrary indicator). In general discourse, it’s not strongly framed as something you’re still learning as an adult. So when you’re unsure, it’s easier to gloss over it than admit it. You nod along, you move on, you tell yourself you’ll look into it later. And heaven forbid you ask your friends, colleagues or family… What would they think if they knew you are no master investor?!
Disengagement with money and finances is rarely a big, conscious decision. More a series of small moments like the above where you feel a bit disappointed in yourself, and don’t go any further. You skim instead of read. You avoid asking the question. You leave things as they are, because it feels easier than confronting the fact you’re not entirely sure.
From the outside, none of this is particularly visible. People are still logging in, still checking balances, still technically engaging with their finances. But the intent behind that engagement has shifted. It becomes more tentative, a bit more surface-level, easier to step away from.
That shift is quite difficult to pick up if you’re only looking at what people are doing. Nothing has obviously broken. There isn’t always a clear drop-off point or a moment where someone consciously decides to disengage. It just becomes lighter, less committed, and over time, easier to deprioritise altogether.
What’s interesting is that nothing has really gone wrong at that point.
The journeys are still there. The information is still there. But we tend to assume that people arrive ready to engage with it in a straightforward way, when in reality, that’s not always the case. Because before anything else, there’s often a quieter question sitting underneath all of this. How do I actually feel about money right now?
It’s not something people are usually asked, and it’s not something they always take the time to work out for themselves, for all the above reasons. Yet, it shapes everything that follows.
It’s something we’ve been exploring with Santander UK in their recent release of My Money Vibe. Rather than starting with heavy and immediate decisions, it creates a simple moment of reflection. A way for people to recognise their own relationship to money without judgement, and without the pressure to immediately act on it.
Sometimes the most useful starting point isn’t telling someone what to do next. It’s helping them understand where they are. Like a therapist would, for all those issues we do love to talk about in 2026.
And maybe, just maybe, when people have comfortably accepted how they feel about money, decisions may not seem so scary anymore.
