De Beckker, KennethFrijns, BartHubers, FrankDerkx, Sjuul2025-10-272025-10-272025-10-20Economics Letters, ISSN: 0165-1765 (Print), Elsevier BV, 112682-112682. doi: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.1126820165-1765http://hdl.handle.net/10292/20004This paper investigates the long-term impact of financial literacy on wealth accumulation using unique longitudinal data on Dutch households, thereby resolving important endogeneity issues that plague cross-sectional analyses. We find that financial literacy significantly influences income and savings, driving wealth accumulation over time. The effects vary by age: younger individuals with higher financial literacy tend to earn more, whereas older individuals prioritize savings. Additionally, we identify a notable gender disparity, where financial literacy significantly influences wealth accumulation for men, but has no significant impact for women.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article.14 EconomicsEconomics38 EconomicsFinancial literacyFinancial educationWealthIncomeSavingsJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112682