The theme of this National Student Money Week 2026 is Future Ready: Money Skills for Success. Setting solid foundations for financial success during and beyond education.
And just a few days ago one story broke that shows how important it is to set these foundations.
At the height of success Brewdog owned 100 pubs around the world and was worth more than $1bn - a few days ago it went into administration and was sold to US firm Tilray for a mere £33m.
Between 2009 and 2021, over 220,000 people invested in BrewDog's "Equity for Punks" scheme - putting in an average of £400, but some as much as £12,000 - drawn in by a brand that made rebellion feel like sound financial sense.
Now those investors (seem to have) lost everything. The £75 million they collectively poured in is gone.
The lesson isn't that investing is bad. It's that excitement is not a strategy.
For students already navigating tuition debt, rising rent and squeezed maintenance loans, the financial margin for error is very, very thin. High-risk investments - crowdfunding, crypto (down 36% in the last 6 months) - can feel like a shortcut out of financial stress.
They rarely are.
Financial fundamentals still hold. Manage your debt intelligently. Save into an ISA. Build an emergency fund, and when you are ready, invest in diversified, low-cost, safer-than-other-things-but-still-risky ETFs or the like.
This is why financial education matters.
This is why we are building Blackbullion.
It's also why we'd encourage every student to complete the Financial Wellbeing Score - the more you understand your own financial situation, the better placed you are to make smart decisions. Learning about investing, risk and personal finance isn't just useful.
In a world of Equity for Punks and get-rich-quick schemes, it's essential.
Being "a little boring" with your money isn't a failure of ambition. It's how you make sure you still have money to be ambitious with.
And this National Student Money Week, you can even win £50 for completing your score - so what are you waiting for?
