Hello and welcome @mordekaimoriarty, first things first, I found your post via a shout out that @apolymask gave in his chatroom.

by the time I finished collage I believed I knew how everything worked. Until I didn't.

One of the great mysteries of life. Why didn't I know what I didn't know. It keeps happening throughout your entire life well at least to the age of almost 60, but I am pretty sure it is going to keep happening.

I only learned a couple of things about finance in my late 20's. Number one, only ever have one credit card. That is all a person needs, and try not to use it, (Yeah right, I will die with a balance owed on my card). The other thing, buy a house. You never get to own it, make sure it is a fixed rate loan, and don't fall for that variable loan crap advice they give out. That way you know how much your rent is going to be for the next few years. rent keeps going up, house insurance keeps going up, but so does renters insurance, so pretty much a was.

There are a lot of different, groups on steemit, find a group of nice people for the social side, then find a group of this is what I am interested in side. Overlap is great of the two groups, but does not need to really be there. Then start having fun.