0:01 Learning is literally my favorite thing
0:03 in the world, especially these days with
0:04 the speed of the world progressing at a
0:07 dizzyingly fast rate. The future belongs
0:09 to those who do not stop learning. So,
0:10 in this video, I want to share with you
0:11 guys some of the most important skills
0:14 to learn in 2026, in my opinion, which
0:15 of course I'm also going to be
0:16 personally [music] learning. A portion
0:18 of this video is sponsored by HubSpot.
0:20 Oh, by the way, I think a lot of you
0:21 guys are new here, so I just wanted to
0:22 give a quick little introduction of
0:24 myself. Hello, my name is Tina. I am a
0:27 YouTuber and entrepreneur, and in my
0:29 past life, I was a data scientist at
0:30 Meta. And yeah, like I said previously,
0:32 I really like learning things. Welcome
0:39 [music] The first important skill to
0:42 learn in 2026, in my opinion, is
0:44 personal finances and investing. Going
0:46 to 2026, I think there's a lot of talks
0:47 about economic changes, things about
0:49 like potentially layoffs, of course, the
0:52 impact of AI, and just general market
0:54 instability, which for me are signals to
0:56 focus on learning more about personal
0:58 finances and investing to be able to
1:00 capture opportunities that are going to
1:03 be available and also to hedge myself in
1:05 case things don't go so well. There are
1:06 four things under this personal finances/investing
1:08 finances/investing
1:10 category that I think is important to
1:12 learn. Disclaimer, I'm not a financial
1:14 adviser, not even like a finance expert,
1:17 really just like an internet person also
1:19 trying to learn things. So, please take
1:20 what I say with a grain of salt. Just
1:22 wanted to share in case it's useful.
1:23 Okay. The first thing that I think
1:25 everybody should learn is basic
1:27 financial literacy. Like, it is crazy to
1:29 me that the majority of people do not
1:31 have basic financial literacy cuz it's
1:33 just not taught in school. Like, nobody
1:35 taught me about financial literacy in
1:36 school either. I had to go learn it
1:38 myself. stuff like budgeting, how to
1:39 even set financial goals, credit,
1:41 [music] insurance, taxes, investing.
1:42 Yeah, if you're also kind of fuzzy on
1:44 these topics, really recommend that you
1:46 learn these things. I did make a video
1:47 which I'll link over here, which
1:50 summarizes Khan Academyy's 20our plus
1:52 financial literacy course, which I think
1:54 gives you the basis. In that course,
1:55 they also cover the very important
1:57 concept called an emergency fund, which
1:59 is the second thing that I think
2:00 everybody should learn and be aware of.
2:02 An emergency fund is cash that you set
2:04 aside just in case something happens and
2:06 you need to use that money. could be
2:07 something [music] bad that happens.
2:08 Knock on wood doesn't, but you could
2:09 like lose your job and you need that
2:10 money, right? Or it could be something
2:12 good that happens like maybe you
2:14 spontaneously get married and you you
2:15 know you need to spend more money as
2:17 well. But regardless, it is good to have
2:19 that money set aside in case you need
2:20 it. So, I think one of the first things
2:22 that you should focus on is building up
2:25 that emergency fund. Common advice is 3
2:27 to 6 months worth of money that can
2:28 cover your current lifestyle. Now, those
2:30 two that I just covered are kind of like
2:32 the bare minimum. Moving into the third
2:34 thing now that is investing. This is
2:36 more about maintaining stability and
2:38 building wealth. I also made an entire
2:40 video where I summarized UDMI's top
2:42 investing course, which I will link over
2:43 here if you want to check that out. Now,
2:45 specifically for 2026, I'm focused on
2:47 diversifying my investments. I recently
2:49 read the stat from JP Morgan that says
2:51 that AI stocks now account for roughly
2:54 44% of the S&P 500 market
2:56 capitalization. So, don't worry about it
2:57 if you're not familiar with this, but
2:59 for those of you who know a little bit
3:00 more about investing, the S&P 500
3:02 represents the 500 biggest companies in
3:05 the US. And a very common advice for
3:06 investing is that you should invest in
3:08 the S&P 500 because then you'll be very
3:10 diversified, right? But in more recent
3:12 years, big tech and AI stocks have
3:14 really dominated S&P 500. So, you're not
3:16 really as diversified anymore when
3:18 you're just investing in that. So, for
3:20 me personally, that's kind of what I've
3:22 been following and I'm looking into
3:24 diversifying more globally and across
3:25 different sectors as well. And finally,
3:27 I think it's pretty smart to learn about
3:29 how to diversify your income streams and
3:31 also create additional income streams.
3:33 reason is pretty similar to before. I
3:35 think there's more economic instability
3:37 these days. So, having multiple income
3:38 streams would hedge you against
3:40 something potentially happening. Also,
3:42 these days freelancing or like starting
3:44 a side gig or starting your own business
3:46 is a lot more doable than it used to be.
3:48 So, if you are interested, now is a good
3:50 time to do that. I will expand a little
3:52 bit more on this topic later in the
3:53 video, like how to actually go about
3:55 doing this, but for now, I just want to
3:57 put this on your radar. I genuinely
3:58 believe that having financial literacy,
4:00 getting your personal finances and your
4:01 investments in chat gives you the
4:04 confidence and the freedom to explore
4:05 other topics and things that you're
4:10 interested in such as for example AI. [music]
4:15 All right, how can I be an AI creator
4:17 without mentioning learning AI, right?
4:19 But in all seriousness, I see more and
4:21 more opportunities in AI. It is pretty
4:23 amazing. At the beginning of 2025, I
4:26 made a few predictions including the
4:28 development of better base models,
4:29 better multimodality [music]
4:31 like images, video, audio, increasing
4:33 interest in business integrations, like
4:35 how to actually integrate AI into
4:38 people's businesses and also AI agents.
4:39 All of these things have developed
4:42 [music] far beyond what I had expected.
4:44 And in turn, they've created even more
4:46 opportunities in this field. So, in this
4:47 video, I'm not going to spend so much
4:49 time talking about the trends going into
4:52 2026 because that is probably the topic
4:54 for an entire other video. Also, I did
4:56 already make a video about essential AI
4:57 skills for 2026, so you can check it out
4:59 over here if you're interested. But
5:00 basically, there's two major takeaways
5:02 that I want you to have. Number one,
5:03 anybody that wants to build a software
5:05 [music] products can do so now. Like,
5:08 there is no excuse anymore. You can do
5:09 it without knowing how to code really
5:12 fast and at lower and lower cost. And
5:13 number two, more and more companies are
5:15 focused on integrating AI into their
5:17 daily workflows. There was a study done
5:19 by McKenzie that showed that AI is only
5:22 at around 1% maturity right now because
5:23 there's a lot of work that goes into
5:26 integrating AI solutions into existing
5:27 businesses. By the way, I can personally
5:29 attest to this because part of our
5:31 company does B2B consulting and AI
5:33 solutions and a lot of what we do is
5:34 helping companies figure out how to
5:36 integrate AI into their existing
5:38 workflows. So yeah, I'm going to be
5:40 focusing a lot in particular on these
5:41 two specific areas. Whether you want to
5:43 do AI freelancing, start an agency, or
5:45 buy code your own software product, you
5:48 can do this so easily now with so little
5:49 startup cost. I'll link in the
5:51 description some of the videos I've made
5:53 um surrounding these different topics if
5:54 you're interested in getting started and
5:56 any other resources that I come across
5:58 as well. A big theme of this video is
6:00 about how anybody that wants to build
6:02 can and should build. Now, so if you
6:04 have an idea of a product that you want
6:05 to build, but you're just not really
6:07 sure how to start, then I really
6:08 recommend you check out this free guide
6:10 called Seven AI tools every founder
6:13 needs in 2026 from HubSpot that lays it
6:15 out step by step. This resource covers
6:16 how to use AI to launch a product in
6:19 just 30 days, hiring and onboarding your
6:20 first employees, creating lead
6:22 generation system, validating an MVP,
6:24 and guidance on preparing to raise seed
6:26 or series A funding. It makes the whole
6:28 process feel way more doable instead of
6:29 overwhelming. In addition to being
6:30 really detailed and practical, I love
6:32 how they also focus on real founder
6:34 scenarios. My favorite one is the MVP
6:36 validation example, which is a mobile
6:37 app that matches users with inspiring
6:39 figures to embody each day. There's a
6:41 six-step process and starter prompts
6:42 that you can just copy and paste to get
6:44 started. Literally plugandplay. So, if
6:45 you've been thinking about building but
6:47 have just been putting it off, this is
6:49 your sign to grab the free seven AI
6:51 tools every founder needs in 2026 guide.
6:53 You can get it at the link over here,
6:54 also linked in description. Thank you so
6:56 much HubSpot for providing free
6:57 resources and for sponsoring this
6:59 portion of the video. Now back to the
7:01 video. Now if financial literacy and
7:03 personal finances gives you the freedom
7:05 to explore different options and AI
7:06 empowers you to be able to do
7:08 freelancing or to build the things that
7:10 you want to build at very low cost and
7:12 minimal resources. Then the third part
7:14 of the equation is business.
7:16 >> You obviously didn't go to business
7:18 school. Look, Templeton, [music] the
7:22 numbers just don't add up.
7:24 Learning about business is what changes
7:25 the things that you're interested in
7:27 from a hobby into something that makes
7:29 money for you and is sustainable. Now,
7:30 I'm not saying that everybody should be
7:31 a business owner. I do not think that's
7:33 the case at all. I'm just saying that if
7:35 you do want to be a business owner, now
7:36 is a great time for you to do so. And
7:38 just for context, what I have is a
7:40 lifestyle business, which means that
7:42 it's a business that maximizes freedom
7:43 doing the things I want to do and
7:45 working with the people that I really
7:47 enjoy working with. It is not a
7:48 ventureback startup. I'm not like
7:50 focused on hyper growth and like [music]
7:52 generating massive amounts of revenue or
7:53 profit. So I just want to say if you're
7:55 interested in not lifestyle businesses
7:56 then what I'm saying here is probably
7:58 not applicable for you. So don't listen
8:00 to me. But if you are interested in
8:01 maybe starting your own lifestyle
8:02 business, I want to share with you the
8:04 two biggest learnings that I've had
8:06 since having my business for 5 years.
8:08 The first one is that owning a business
8:11 effectively cuts your taxes down by so
8:13 much. Like I was so shocked to realize
8:14 that when I was working at Meta, I was
8:16 making [music] a lot more money, but my
8:18 take-home was actually less than when I
8:20 started my own business, even though I
8:21 was making way less money. [music]
8:22 Having your own business is kind of like
8:26 the open secret as to how people pay
8:27 much less taxes legally. [music]
8:30 >> Yeah, that's uh that's my legal opinion.
8:31 >> The second thing is that the way that
8:32 you want to approach a business and see
8:34 a business is so different compared to
8:36 having a full-time job. Like the way
8:38 that I see a full-time job is that it's
8:39 a very linear type of progression. as
8:41 you increase your time and expertise in
8:44 something um the amount of money and
8:45 then just like the satisfaction all
8:47 those things are all like pretty linear
8:48 growth. You put in the effort, you put
8:50 in the time and you also get the
8:52 expected reward out of it. On the other
8:54 hand, a business has an exponential
8:56 curve. [music] In the first few years,
8:57 like in the beginning, it literally
8:59 feels like you're just grinding and just
9:01 running on a hamster wheel making no
9:04 progress. [music] Like that was me for
9:06 really the first four years of starting
9:09 this business. I struggled so much. It
9:11 really wasn't until like the later half
9:13 of this year where it felt like, oh my
9:14 god, like I feel like I'm actually
9:16 running a real business now. Like we
9:18 have full-time employees. Like we have a
9:21 real office. What? And we're generating
9:23 enough revenue that it doesn't feel like
9:26 I'm just constantly stressed all the
9:27 time, which was literally what it was
9:28 like for the first 4 years. So, if you
9:30 are someone who's also looking to start
9:32 your own business, I really hope that
9:34 these two pieces of information uh will
9:36 be very helpful for you. I also do have
9:38 a lot of different resources that I
9:39 would recommend you check out which I'll
9:41 link in the description. I learned like
9:43 completely self-learning cuz I come from
9:45 like a STEM engineering background,
9:46 right? Like I don't know anything about
9:48 business. So everything I learned about
9:49 business I learned by reading books,
9:51 taking courses and through experience.
9:54 So happy to share those resources. Now
9:56 going to 2026, I am personally also
9:58 going to be focusing a lot on learning
9:59 more about business. For me at this
10:01 point, it's more about how to
10:03 operationalize better, how to scale
10:04 better, how do I hire better, which I
10:06 will also link a few resources below if
10:08 you also are at this stage of your
10:10 business. And yes, that is what I have
10:12 for you guys today. These are the skills
10:14 that I think are the most worth learning
10:16 in 2026. Please let me know in the
10:18 comments if you're learning any of these
10:19 skills and also additional skills that
10:21 you're learning as well. I'm really
10:23 curious to see. And thank you so much
10:24 for watching until the end of this
10:27 video. Happy learning everybody in 2026
10:29 and I will see you guys in next video or
