First off, let’s establish that as a technology entrepreneur I’m going to be looking at this in terms of the evolution of how technology is changing our lives, and frankly is doing so with ever faster momentum every year.

I’m going to pay particular attention to financial technology and how it is disrupting an industry steeped in tradition and history. There’s no doubt we are lucky enough to be living through a time of seismic change, the likes of which, in years to come, will undoubtedly be studied as a culturally defining era in global history.

We as humans also, in my humble opinion, expect and demand the pace of change to increase every day and I am sure our brains are becoming wired to become impatient and lazy. So it could well end up being an era studied in biological science too.

The Industrial Revolution turned society on its head, and continues to do so in some parts of the world to this day. But the technological revolution, in my opinion, is just as powerful, if not more so. And we’re living through it right now. It is already more concentrated, with incremental advances coming to fruition much more quickly, and over a much wider spread geographical area within a short time frame.

Case in point – mobile phones. Thirty years ago only the very wealthy had a mobile phone. Today nearly two-thirds of the global population have one. It’s not possible to quote an exact figure because the number grows so quickly. Don’t believe me? Check out this site and see the real-time mobile data as it happens: https://www.gsmaintelligence.com. But what does this type of technological advancement actually mean for us, and in particular, what does it mean for the financial industry, and consequently for the way we handle and manage our money?

The impact
I spend my life meeting some of the most exciting and interesting technology developers and innovators in the world. I get to see and hear about advancements well ahead of the curve. But one of the main topics that is sure to cause a ripple of excitement through even an audience of highly informed early adopters is financial technology, and how it will change beyond recognition within the next decade. And it’s the exciting and paradigm-overturning developments in this sector, some of which we can see, some of which we will hardly be aware of, that could have the biggest impact on our day-today lives.

Extract by David Murray-Hundley, famously known as The Grumpy Entrepreneur, taken from the book 'Your Essential Guide to Personal Finance'. Other writers include independent finance educator, tv personality and best selling author Alvin Hall as well as personal finance journalists Andrew Hagger and Sue Hayward. Download your free copy of the book in eBook format here