The intersection between the FL, the learning sciences, and critical social theory offer new approaches to address these issues. Drawing on the sociocritical literacy approach (Gutiérrez, 2008) to articulate FL principles around the "how," "for what," "for whom," and "who" (Philip et al., 2018), we acknowledge that "learning is not a priori a good thing" (Uttamchandani, 2018) and propose to study how to empower low-income populations to take control of their finances instead of promoting fallacious ideas and 'magic' formulas (Pinto & Coulson, 2011).