April marks National Financial Literacy Month, but this year, experts are sounding the alarm: Americans may be more misinformed than ever.
At a time when mass layoffs—especially among federal workers—are threatening pensions, benefits, and long-term financial security, conversations around personal finance have become increasingly urgent. But according to Michael A. Scarpati, CEO of RetireUS, the public is getting only a fraction of the information it actually needs.
“We’re stuck in a loop talking about budgeting, credit scores and saving on coffee, while ignoring the other 80% of the financial picture,” Scarpati says. “People need to understand taxes, insurance, asset management, income gaps, estate planning and how their benefits actually work especially if they’re all of the sudden thrown into retirement. But because of what’s trending online, they’re not even thinking about those things.”
Scarpati isn’t criticizing the idea of teaching budgeting or building credit. But in a world where economic disruptions are happening more frequently—from large-scale federal downsizing to increasingly complex retirement regulations—he believes that financial literacy must be expanded to include real-world scenarios and more comprehensive planning.
One major concern? Where people are turning for advice.
“Most of the influencers giving financial advice online aren’t licensed or registered. If they were, they wouldn’t be posting half of what they do due to strict regulations,” Scarpati explains. “That’s a huge red flag. The financial advice dominating your feed is likely coming from people who have no professional obligation to protect your best interest.”
Scarpati argues that media literacy must now be part of the broader financial literacy conversation. With the rise of social platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where creators can go viral offering everything from investing tips to tax “hacks,” the line between entertainment and education has become dangerously blurry.
This shift has coincided with growing economic pressures for many Americans. In recent months, the federal workforce has seen mass layoffs across agencies like the IRS and the Department of Education. Many of those affected are discovering, sometimes for the first time, the complexities of their benefits packages—or the reality that those benefits may disappear entirely without the right planning.
Scarpati sees this as a symptom of a larger issue: a national financial literacy framework that doesn’t go far enough.
“In light of mass federal layoffs and the growing complexity of retirement and benefit systems, this Financial Literacy Month needs to be different,” the RetireUS team emphasized in a recent statement. “It’s no longer enough to ‘talk money’—people need to be equipped to make real financial decisions with complete, regulated, and relevant information.”
To help meet that need, Scarpati and his team at RetireUS have launched Government Transition Decision HQ, a free crisis-response hub aimed at helping federal employees and everyday Americans make more informed financial decisions. The initiative includes expert-led webinars on buyouts, pension planning, and TSP rollovers, one-on-one financial transition reviews, and a comprehensive Federal Employee Transition Guide.
The goal isn’t just to provide information—but to help people act on it before it’s too late.
As layoffs, inflation, and financial uncertainty continue to shape the national landscape, Scarpati says the country must move past surface-level advice and begin addressing the harder, less viral truths about money management.
The takeaway from RetireUS is clear: Americans need a financial literacy conversation that reflects the world they actually live in—not the one presented in short, attention-grabbing social media clips.
Photo by Markus Winkler