Entering the module
One sentence: money decisions are made not only by the bills but by the feelings — and the best strategy is not to fight your mind but to arrange your surroundings so that the good decision is the easy one.
Chapters:
- Why we are not calculators
- We get used to new things
- Money and happiness
- Mental accounts
- "Now" versus "later"
- The fear of loss
- Scarcity and thinking
- Comparing ourselves with others
- Psychological strategies
- Who talks to you about money, and why → The iron principle of the module
For the youngest · ages 6–7
🐣 The youngest: Sometimes we want something because we feel sad or bored. A new toy makes us very happy, and then we get used to it. This is normal and happens to everyone. It is good to stop and ask: "Do I really want it?"
Play together (5 minutes): Make a "wish notebook". When your child asks for something, they draw it there. After 3 days, open the notebook together and see what they still want. No blame — just curiosity.
A question for the evening: "Which of your toys still makes you happy, even though it is not new?"
A game from the catalogue: KP-02 "Lights and sparkle" — https://pecuvo.eu/igri/katalog/#kp-02 (in Bulgarian)
Chapter 1 · Why we are not calculators
👧 Child When you are sad, you feel like buying something. When you are happy, you want to treat everyone. Money and feelings go together. That is not bad — it is just good to notice it.
🧑 Teenager Old economics assumed that people decide like calculators. Behavioural economics shows that we decide quickly, out of habit and with our feelings. Richard Thaler received the Nobel Prize (2017) for exactly this ✔. We are not stupid — the brain saves energy. But money punishes quick decisions.
🧔 Adult Knowledge is not enough. Financial education raises knowledge much more than it changes behaviour (Kaiser & Menkhoff, 2020 ✔). The reason is that behaviour is driven by habits, surroundings and emotions. That is why this module does not teach "what is right" but how to make the right thing easy.
Scene for 3D: two pilots in one aeroplane — a fast one ("I want it now") and a slow one ("let me work it out"). The child sees who holds the controls in different situations.
Chapter 2 · We get used to new things
👧 Child A new toy is amazing for a week or two. Then it becomes "just a toy". This is called getting used to it.
🧑 Teenager Psychologists call it hedonic adaptation: we get used to new things and the joy fades. That is why a new phone does not make us lastingly happier. The classic study by Brickman and colleagues (1978) compared lottery winners with people after serious accidents and found surprisingly small differences in happiness after some time ✔.
🧔 Adult Newer and stronger research adds detail. A Swedish study by Lindqvist, Östling and Cesarini (2020) followed thousands of lottery players 5–22 years after the draw:
- a large win lastingly raises life satisfaction — for more than a decade;
- everyday happiness and mental health change much less.
In other words: we get used to things, but the security that money brings stays. The lesson for spending is old and true: things fade quickly; financial peace of mind fades slowly.
✔ How certain it is: Brickman (1978) is a small sample (22 lottery winners, 22 people for comparison, 29 accident victims — according to the article's abstract, opened 21.10.2026); the Swedish study (2020) is much stronger — the wins are genuinely random ✔.
Myth → truth
- Myth: "Money does not bring happiness — lottery winners become unhappy."
- Truth: according to the best data, a large win lastingly raises life satisfaction. Day-to-day mood — less so.
Who profits? Retail — from the fact that after every adaptation we want something new.
Scene for 3D: a glowing object slowly losing its colour. Next to it — a brick wall called "peace of mind", which stays.
Strategy: before a purchase ask yourself: "How long will this make me happy?" A 24-hour rule for everything above a set amount [P].
Sources
- ✔ Lindqvist, Östling & Cesarini, "Long-Run Effects of Lottery Wealth on Psychological Well-Being", Review of Economic Studies 87(6), 2020, 2703–2726 — https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/restud/v87y2020i6p2703-2726..html
- ✔ Brickman, Coates & Janoff-Bulman, "Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 36, no. 8, 1978, pp. 917–927, DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.36.8.917
- ✔ Frederick & Loewenstein, "Hedonic Adaptation", in: Kahneman, Diener & Schwarz (eds), "Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology", Russell Sage Foundation, 1999, pp. 302–329.
Chapter 3 · Money and happiness
👧 Child Money helps: with food, a home, holidays. But the best things are often the ones we share with the people we love.
🧑 Teenager For a long time people said that above a certain income (about $75,000 a year in the United States) money no longer increases happiness. In 2023 Killingsworth, Kahneman and Mellers — researchers who had disagreed — carried out a joint study:
- for most people, happiness keeps rising with income;
- the "ceiling" applies only to the unhappiest 20% or so — for them, the problems are not solved with money.
🧔 Adult The conclusion is not "money buys happiness". The conclusion is:
- money reduces the unhappiness that comes from not having enough;
- for most people it helps even above average incomes;
- for people whose unhappiness has other roots (illness, loneliness, loss), money is not the solution.
That is why Module 16 talks about relationships and meaning on an equal footing with assets.
⚠ How certain it is (disputed): the study is large (data from hundreds of thousands of people), but it comes from the United States. There are also criticisms of its assumptions: Bennedsen (2024) argues that the data show a happiness "plateau" at around $200,000 a year ✔ (arXiv:2401.05347, opened 21.10.2026).
Myth → truth
- Myth: "Above X euros, money does not matter."
- Truth: for most people it does — but it does not solve everything. Too little money brings great unhappiness. A lot of money does not necessarily bring great happiness.
Who profits? Those who sell "happiness" in the form of things.
Scene for 3D: a staircase towards the sun. For most steps the light grows stronger with every step up. For some people a cloud covers the sun however high they climb — there, other things help.
Sources
- ✔ Killingsworth, Kahneman & Mellers, "Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved", PNAS, 2023 — https://behavioralpolicy.princeton.edu/news/DK_wellbeing0323
- ✔ Criticism: Bennedsen, "Income and emotional well-being: Evidence for well-being plateauing around $200,000 per year", arXiv:2401.05347, 2024 — https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.05347v1 (opened 21.10.2026; a preprint, not a peer-reviewed article)
Chapter 4 · Mental accounts
👧 Child Birthday money from your grandmother feels like money "for spending", and pocket money like money "for keeping". But one euro is one euro, wherever it came from.
🧑 Teenager Richard Thaler describes mental accounting: in our heads we split money into "boxes" — "for holidays", "from the bonus", "for bills". Money from the "easy" boxes (a bonus, a gift, a tax refund) is spent more easily.
🧔 Adult The boxes can help: a separate reserve, a separate goal. That is why Pecuvo has baskets and goals. But they can also mislead: you save at 1% in one box and pay 20% interest on a loan in another. The check is simple: look at all the boxes together — your net worth.
Myth → truth
- Myth: "The bonus is 'extra' money, so it can be spent."
- Truth: the bonus is income like any other. If you have expensive debt, that debt is the fire (Module 8, principle 3).
Who profits? Shops — from "gift" money and "today only" sales.
Scene for 3D: a shelf of labelled boxes. The child sees money draining faster from the "bonus" box.
Strategy: use the boxes deliberately — goals and baskets in Pecuvo. Once a month, look at everything together.
Sources
- ✔ Thaler, "Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice", Marketing Science, vol. 4, no. 3, 1985, pp. 199–214, DOI 10.1287/mksc.4.3.199; "Mental Accounting Matters", Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, vol. 12, no. 3, 1999.
Chapter 5 · "Now" versus "later"
👧 Child One sweet now or two tomorrow? Many people choose "now", even when "tomorrow" is better. That is normal — and it can be practised.
🧑 Teenager Economists call it present bias: "now" weighs disproportionately much. That is why saving is hard and "buy now, pay later" is easy. The marshmallow test predicts less than was once thought (Watts et al., 2018 ✔). The skill can be learnt, and it is not a life sentence.
🧔 Adult The strongest weapon against "now" is to decide once, in advance:
- an automatic transfer on payday (Module 8, principle 1 — Madrian & Shea, 2001);
- a goal with a deadline;
- a limit on your card.
This is called pre-commitment. It does not need willpower every day — it needs one decision.
Myth → truth
- Myth: "I don't have the willpower to save."
- Truth: you don't need willpower every day, just one well-placed automatic decision.
Who profits? Everyone who sells "now": credit for quick shopping, pop-up offers.
Scene for 3D: two doors — "now" (bright, close) and "later" (bigger, far away). The child builds a "bridge" (an automatic transfer) and "later" comes closer.
Sources
- ✔ Laibson, "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting", QJE, vol. 112, no. 2, 1997, pp. 443–478, DOI 10.1162/003355397555253
- ✔ Watts, Duncan & Quan (2018) — see
04_Akademichna_osnova(the academic basis file).
Chapter 6 · The fear of loss
👧 Child Some people so much don't want to lose that they never try anything new. And some want so much to win back what they lost that they lose even more.
🧑 Teenager Kahneman and Tversky (1979) describe how losses weigh more than gains of the same size. People often say "twice as much". This explains why people hold on to losing shares "to win it back" and sell winning ones too early.
🧔 Adult ⚠ Warning — disputed (a scientific debate; sources checked on 21.10.2026). Gal and Rucker (2018) review the evidence and argue that "loss aversion" is not a general rule. The effect depends on the situation, and the famous "twice" rests on weaker ground than is usually quoted. Some researchers partly accept the criticism: the effect exists, but it is conditional.
The honest conclusion for practice:
- notice when you decide out of fear ("I'll win back what I lost");
- when out of inertia ("I won't touch anything");
- and when from a calculation.
Myth → truth
- Myth: "A loss always hurts exactly twice as much as a gain."
- Truth: sometimes it hurts more, sometimes not. What matters is not to decide while it hurts.
Who profits? Everyone who sells "protection" from fear — sometimes needed (insurance, Module 12), sometimes not.
Scene for 3D: a pair of scales with "loss" and "gain" of equal weight. The child sees that in different rooms (situations) the scales tip differently.
Strategy: a rule "I don't decide on the day of a big loss" [P]. Money decisions are taken calmly, following rules written down in advance.
Sources
- ✔ Kahneman & Tversky, "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk", Econometrica, vol. 47, no. 2, 1979, pp. 263–291, DOI 10.2307/1914185
- ✔ Gal & Rucker, "The Loss of Loss Aversion: Will It Loom Larger Than Its Gain?", Journal of Consumer Psychology 28(3), 2018, 497–516, DOI 10.1002/jcpy.1047 (opened 21.10.2026) — overview: https://www.kitces.com/blog/loss-aversion-pain-loom-larger-than-gain-gal-rucker-journal-psychology/
- ✔ The "contingent loss aversion" reply (Stanford GSB): https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/bringing-contingent-loss-aversion-down-earth-comment-gal-ruckers
Chapter 7 · Scarcity and thinking
👧 Child When you are very hungry, it is hard to think about your homework. When money is short, it is hard for adults to think about anything else.
🧑 Teenager Researchers from Princeton and Harvard (Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir, Zhao, 2013, Science) argue that thinking about a shortage of money takes up the mind. People who worry about money do worse on tests, but not because they are less intelligent — because their minds are busy. Farmers in India did better after the harvest, when they had money, than before it.
🧔 Adult ⚠ How certain it is (disputed): the study is influential, but it has been criticised — for its statistics, its tests and how far the results apply in real life. A large check in 2021 (O'Donnell and colleagues, PNAS) repeated 20 scarcity studies and concluded that, in this group, reminders of scarcity had almost no effect on cognitive ability ✔ (DOI 10.1073/pnas.2103313118, opened 21.10.2026).
So we say it carefully: worry about money can narrow thinking — and that is an argument for a reserve (Module 8, principle 2) and for simple systems, not for guilt.
Myth → truth
- Myth: "People with little money make bad decisions because they don't understand."
- Truth: scarcity itself can make decisions harder. What helps is simplicity and a reserve, not moralising.
Who profits? Quick loans — from decisions taken under pressure.
Scene for 3D: a tunnel that narrows as the wallet thins. With a reserve, the tunnel widens and the side paths become visible.
Sources
- ✔ Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir & Zhao, "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function", Science 341, 2013 — https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4511075 (related text) · the response to criticism: https://collaborate.princeton.edu/en/publications/response-to-comment-on-poverty-impedes-cognitive-function/
- ✔ The criticisms: Wicherts & Scholten, "Comment on 'Poverty impedes cognitive function'", Science, 2013, DOI 10.1126/science.1246680; Dang, Xiao & Dewitte, "Commentary: 'Poverty impedes cognitive function' and 'The poor's poor mental power'", Frontiers in Psychology, 2015, DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01037 (opened 21.10.2026).
- ✔ O'Donnell et al., "Empirical audit and review and an assessment of evidentiary value in research on the psychological consequences of scarcity", PNAS, 2021, DOI 10.1073/pnas.2103313118 (opened 21.10.2026).
- ✔ Mullainathan & Shafir, "Scarcity", 2013 (book); the study: Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir & Zhao, "Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function", Science, vol. 341, 2013, pp. 976–980, DOI 10.1126/science.1238041
Chapter 8 · Comparing ourselves with others
👧 Child If your friend has new trainers, yours suddenly look old — even though you liked them yesterday.
🧑 Teenager We compare ourselves — and on social media we compare with the best moments of other people's lives, not with their whole lives. A study by Luttmer (2005) links higher incomes of neighbours with lower satisfaction in the person themselves ✔. It matters not only how much you have, but who you compare yourself with.
🧔 Adult Comparison drives a large part of spending: the house, the car, the wedding, the holiday. The question is: who am I spending this for? Values (Module 13) are the antidote. If you know what "enough" means for you, comparison loses its power.
Myth → truth
- Myth: "They can, so I should too."
- Truth: you see their purchase, not their debt.
Who profits? Advertising and platforms — from the fact that you keep seeing something you don't have.
Scene for 3D: a shop window in which the child sees their own reflection next to other people's beautiful things. Behind the window — the labels with the instalments.
Strategy: a list of "my enough" — five things that, for you, mean "I live well" [P].
Sources
- ✔ Luttmer, "Neighbors as Negatives: Relative Earnings and Well-Being", Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 120, no. 3, 2005, pp. 963–1002, DOI 10.1093/qje/120.3.963
Chapter 9 · Psychological strategies
Summary — what works (with honest markers):
| Strategy | What it does | How well supported |
|---|---|---|
| Automate the good | a transfer on payday, automatic payment of bills | [F] — Madrian & Shea (2001) ✔ |
| Decide once, in advance | goals, deadlines, limits | [F/P] — pre-commitment is well studied: Thaler & Benartzi, "Save More Tomorrow", Journal of Political Economy 112(S1), 2004, S164–S187, DOI 10.1086/380085 ✔ (opened 21.10.2026) |
| The 24-hour rule | for purchases above a set amount | [P] |
| Don't decide from strong emotion | fear, loss, euphoria, sadness | [P], consistent with research on emotions and decisions |
| A reserve against the tunnel | a small buffer reduces stress and expensive credit | [F] — CFPB, "Emergency Savings and Financial Security" (2022): https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/emergency-savings-financial-security-insights-from-making-ends-meet-survey-and-consumer-credit-panel/ ✔ (opened 21.10.2026); the scarcity claim — ⚠ disputed (see Chapter 7) |
| Boxes — deliberately | goals and baskets, but a look at everything once a month | [F/P] — Thaler (1985, 1999) ✔ |
| Know your "enough" | your own measures instead of other people's | [P], supported by research on comparison (Luttmer, 2005) ✔ |
| Talk about money | at home, with the children, with your partner | [F] — parents are the strongest influence (Shim et al., 2010 ✔) |
Chapter 10 · Who talks to you about money, and why
Level: B · I · A
👧 Child Everyone who shows you something nice has their own reason. Your grandmother shows you her favourite book because she wants you to read it. An advert shows you a toy because someone wants you to buy it. Both are fine — it is just good to know what the reason is.
The "Who profits?" game: when you see a video in which someone is delighted with a new thing, ask:
- Who made this video?
- What do they want me to do — laugh, learn something or buy?
- Who will profit if I buy it?
If you don't know the answer, ask an adult. Working out an advert is like working out a magic trick: it is still fun afterwards, but now you know the trick.
🧑 Teenager 1) The influencer — where their income comes from. People who make videos and posts earn money in several ways:
- paid posts — a company pays them to show its product;
- affiliate links and discount codes — they get a percentage of every purchase made through their link;
- gifts — the product is free for them;
- a share of the adverts the platform shows next to the video;
- their own products — courses, clothes, "secret methods".
None of this is forbidden. What matters is that it is said. The framework wants young people to know how influencers work, including financial influencers, and how they make money (competence 231), and to recognise advertising even when it is not presented as advertising (226).
2) "Why am I seeing this advert?" Apps record what you watch, how long you stay on a video, what you like and search for. From this they build a profile — who you are, what interests you, when you buy. Adverts reach you based on that profile. The framework calls this a digital footprint and says that companies use it, including with artificial intelligence tools, to make personalised adverts (233). The good news: in the EU, large platforms must show you why you are seeing a given advert and who paid for it (see 🧔). Look for the button next to the advert.
3) Advertising dressed up as a lesson. "Five things school doesn't tell you about money" — and at the end, "sign up for my course" or "open an account through my link". The framework warns that some sources of financial education are not impartial and are hidden advertising (208). The sign is simple: the lesson ends with a purchase that earns the author money.
4) Advertising made with artificial intelligence. Today the voice, the face and the whole video can be created by a machine. A well-known person can "recommend" something they never said. So don't trust the face — check the source: the person's or the institution's official page, not the video.
5) The question that works everywhere: "Who profits from this?"
- Who made the content?
- Who paid?
- What do they want me to do?
- What do I lose if I do it — money, time, data?
- Where can I check the same thing from an impartial source — an institution, an independent organisation (203, 204)?
🧔 Adult What the law says — in brief (EU rule):
- Paid advertising must be clear. Directive 2005/29/EC, Annex I — always unfair are: point 11 — "using editorial content in the media to promote a product where a trader has paid for the promotion without making that clear in the content or by images or sounds clearly identifiable by the consumer (advertorial)"; point 22 — "falsely claiming or creating the impression that the trader is not acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely representing oneself as a consumer" ✔. A secretly paid "personal opinion" falls here.
- Advertising on online platforms (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act, Article 26(1)) ✔: for every advert, the user must be able to identify "in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner and in real time": (a) that it is an advertisement; (b) on whose behalf it is presented; (c) who paid for it, if that is someone else; (d) "meaningful information directly and easily accessible" about the main parameters used to determine the recipient, and how to change them. Under Article 26(2), platforms give content creators a function to declare that their content is a commercial communication, and other users then see it with a visible label ✔.
- No personalised adverts for children. Article 28(2): platforms do not show adverts based on profiling with the user's personal data "when they are aware with reasonable certainty that the recipient of the service is a minor" ✔. Article 26(3): no adverts profiled on sensitive data (health, beliefs and so on) ✔.
- Recommender systems (Article 27) ✔: platforms set out in their terms and conditions the main parameters by which they suggest content to you, and how you can change them.
- AI-generated content (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the AI Act, Article 50) ✔: providers of systems that generate audio, image, video or text ensure that the output is marked in a machine-readable format and is detectable as artificially generated or manipulated (paragraph 2); deployers of an AI system that generates or manipulates a deep fake — a convincing fake image, sound or video — "shall disclose that the content has been artificially generated or manipulated" (paragraph 4). The Regulation applies, as a general rule, from 2 August 2026 (Article 113) ✔. The 2026 amendments (the "Digital Omnibus" on artificial intelligence, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744) do not move this date for Article 50; for systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026, machine-readable marking under paragraph 2 is required by 2 December 2026 ✔ (new Article 111(4), added by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of 8 July 2026, OJ L, 24.7.2026; official text opened 21.10.2026: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/1744/oj).
Advice and conflicts of interest. The framework wants 16–18-year-olds to tell independent advice from dependent advice (212) and to know that advice can involve a conflict of interest (213). The practical rule: an adviser who receives a commission on the product they recommend is not necessarily dishonest — but you need to know it. Ask directly: "How are you paid for this advice?" (see also the module "Fraud, pyramids and getting rich quick", Chapter 10).
Financial influencers — five red flags:
- Income promised "guaranteed" or "risk-free".
- Urgency: "today only", "only 3 places left".
- Pictures of wealth instead of an explanation of how it works.
- A link or discount code for the product they are talking about.
- No name of a licensed provider and no way to check who is behind it.
Each of these is a reason to stop. In the EU, banks and investment firms are licensed and supervised; their licence can be checked in the public register of the national supervisor (see the module "Fraud, pyramids and getting rich quick").
Example: Bulgaria — The licence of a financial services provider is checked in the registers of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) (https://www.bnb.bg/BankSupervision/BSCreditInstitution/BSCIRegisters/index.htm) and of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) (https://www.fsc.bg/registri-i-spravki/) ✔ (opened 21.10.2026; the pages are in Bulgarian). Complaints about unfair commercial practices go to the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) ✔.
Check in your country — find the public registers of your central bank (for banks) and of your financial supervisor (for investment firms, insurers, crypto-asset service providers), and the authority for consumer protection that handles hidden advertising. On the platform itself, look for the "Why am I seeing this ad?" option and for the label "paid partnership" or "advertisement".
Myth → truth
- Myth: "He uses it himself, so it's honest."
- Truth: he may well use it — and still be paid. The two do not exclude each other. The honest thing is to say so.
- Myth: "Advertising doesn't affect me."
- Truth: advertising is not made to convince you straight away, but to make things familiar. That is why it works even on people who think it doesn't affect them (228, 232).
- Myth: "I saw it with my own eyes in the video."
- Truth: today a video can be created by a machine. You check the source, not the face.
Who profits? Whoever pays for your attention — if you don't know they are paying. You do — when, before every "buy", "sign up" or "invest", you ask "who profits from this?" and check with an impartial source.
Scene for 3D: a puppet theatre. In front — a cheerful video about a thing. The child lifts the curtain and sees the strings: "paid by …", "a percentage of the sale", "profile: loves bicycles". The strings light up, but the show goes on — now you know who is pulling them.
Example (fictional): a video "How I made €1,000 in a month from my phone". If you work it out: the author sells a course for €199; if 50 people buy it, the author earns €9,950 — from the course, not from the method. The question is not "does the method work?" but "where does the income of the person telling me this come from?"
Your step in Pecuvo: before a purchase above an amount you choose, write three lines in the note on the goal: "Where did I hear about this? Who profits if I buy it? Where did I check it?" If the third line is empty — wait 24 hours (the rule from Chapter 2 of this module).
→ Continue at the source
- Directive 2005/29/EC (unfair commercial practices), Annex I, points 11, 22, 28: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2005/29/oj ✔
- Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act), Articles 26–28: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj ✔
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (Artificial Intelligence Act), Articles 50 and 113: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj ✔
- Example: Bulgaria — Consumer Protection Commission: https://kzp.bg ✔ · Financial Supervision Commission — registers: https://www.fsc.bg/registri-i-spravki/ ✔ · BNB — registers of credit institutions: https://www.bnb.bg/BankSupervision/BSCreditInstitution/BSCIRegisters/index.htm ✔ (opened 21.10.2026; in Bulgarian)
EU/OECD-INFE framework for children and youth (2023) · competences no.: 203 · 204 · 208 · 210 · 211 · 212 · 213 · 214 · 224 · 226 · 228 · 231 · 232 · 233 · 234
The iron principle of the module
Don't fight your mind — arrange your surroundings. The right decision should be the easy decision.
- 👧 Child: "What do I feel when I want to buy this?"
- 🧑 Teenager: wait 24 hours. If you still want it — think again.
- 🧔 Adult: automate your saving, write down your rules and follow them on the bad days.
Your step in Pecuvo: set up a goal with an automatic contribution and a five-minute weekly review (Module 8). Let the tool think for your tired mind.
Check yourself (3 questions per level)
- 👧 1. Why does a new toy stop making us happy? 2. One euro from Grandma and one euro of pocket money — are they different? 3. What do you do when you want to buy something straight away?
- 🧑 1. What did the Swedish study of lottery winners show? 2. What is present bias? 3. Why is comparison on social media misleading?
- 🧔 1. Why is "loss aversion" more disputed than it is usually quoted? 2. What is pre-commitment and why does it work? 3. How does a reserve help thinking?
Check yourself — Chapter 10
- 👧 1. What are the three questions in the "Who profits?" game? 2. How is an advert like a magic trick? 3. Who do you ask if you don't know who made the video?
- 🧑 1. What are the five ways an influencer earns money? 2. What is a digital footprint and how does it reach the adverts you see? 3. How do you recognise a lesson that is really an advert?
- 🧔 1. What must you be able to find out about every advert on an online platform (Article 26 of the Digital Services Act)? 2. What is the difference between independent and dependent advice, and why does it matter? 3. What are the five red flags of financial influencers?
Sources (summary)
- The sources for Chapters 1–9 are in the text of each chapter.
- Chapter 10 · Who talks to you about money, and why (addition of 21.10.2026, EU/OECD-INFE framework for children and youth):
- ✔ Opened (21.10.2026): Directive 2005/29/EC, Annex I, points 11, 22, 28 (official text in the original version, Publications Office of the EU; later amendments were not searched); Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Articles 25–28; Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 50 and Article 113 (applies from 2.08.2026); EU/OECD-INFE framework for children and youth (2023), competences 203–214, 224–234.
- ✔ Opened (21.10.2026): Example: Bulgaria — the registers of the BNB (credit institutions) and of the FSC ("Registers and enquiries"); the CPC website.
- ✔ Opened (21.10.2026): Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 ("Digital Omnibus" on AI), official text (Publications Office of the EU) — Article 113 general date 2 August 2026 unchanged for Article 50; new Article 111(4): systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026 comply with Article 50(2) by 2 December 2026.
- To be looked up at the next check: the CPC page on hidden advertising; guidance from the Council for Electronic Media (Bulgaria) on commercial communications by video content creators.
- Translator's note: the quotations from Directive 2005/29/EC (Annex I, points 11, 22), Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Articles 26(1), 28(2)) and Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (Article 50(4)) are now in the wording of the official English text, compared word for word on 21.10.2026 ✔ (Publications Office of the EU). Article 50(4) corrected: the duty is on "deployers" of the AI system, not on "anyone who publishes".