“Money is not the most important thing in the world. Love is. Fortunately, I love money.” — Jackie Mason
Are you interested in financial literacy and becoming the next best investor out there? Are you curious about how mutual funds work?
Hell no. You just want more money. You want a better life. You want a stress-free life where you’re not always thinking about money. You don’t want to be in debt. You want to crush that debt.
Let’s take a break from our awesomeness and wildness for a day to try something different. I really wanted to look at the idea of financial advice and why so many supposed-experts have it all wrong when it comes to personal finance and young people.
Why do most financial experts have it wrong?
Everyone assumes that education is key. We want to put labels on cigarettes and on junk food. We went to educate the masses. We want everyone to be educated. Do the masses care? I doubt it. We’re not logical people. We all know that smoking is bad. We all know that spending money we don’t have is bad.
Education is not the key.
There’s more than enough education out there on this planet. We’re educated enough as it is. We know what we’re doing is wrong. Why? Because will-power only lasts for so long. Education doesn’t hold true for long. We can’t always be logical.
I’ve personally read tons of blog posts on eating and proper nutrition. And guess what? I still snap once in a while and grab a slice of pizza or poutine. I’m educated on the topic. The reality is that education isn’t everything.
Just because you explain to someone how compound interest works it doesn’t mean that they’re going to start saving every single penny.
There are a few more points that deserve to be mentioned…
We don’t want to be preached to.
Stop preaching to us! Experts like to preach to us about budgets, spreadsheets, and complex financial topics. Yet our generation never seems to care because we don’t want to track every calorie nor do we want to think about boring topics 24/7.
We demand to go out and have fun.
We will make plenty of mistakes. We will go on Facebook and post photos. We will spend money on junk food and over-priced drinks. The second you try to tell us to cut this out forever, well, we won’t take your financial advice seriously.
It’s now time to look at the other side of the coin here…
What can you do if you’re a young person looking for financial advice?
“I was so poor growing up…if I wasn’t a boy…I’d have nothing to play with.” — Rodney Dangerfield
Honestly, information overload or analysis paralysis is dangerous. I know friends that have been doing this for years with regards to starting a business. It’s easy to get caught up with the theory and different theories. Why? Because there’s always something new to read out there. There’s always something to respond to. Anyone can spend all day reading random articles.
Stop reading so much.
Get some results first! Apply a few tips. Try something different. See what works for you and what doesn’t. Then you can look around for more financial tips.
Stick to the basics.
The fitness and finance worlds possess many parallels. I’m a huge fan of both. In both groups, the basics work wonders.
You don’t need to count calories. You don’t need to learn about trading commodities. You just need to save some money. You need to eat better than yesterday. The goal isn’t perfection. The goal is to get better.
If you stick to the basics, you’ll get ahead. Don’t waste time on debating stock picks with delusional friends. Just find ways to save more money or increase your income.
Simple usually don’t sell, so we feel that we need to look at graphs.
How does the stock market work? You don’t need to stress. Check out my piece on how to start investing. If you don’t care, then that’s cool. You can read about planning a trip or something more interesting.
What if you’re a “financial expert?”
“The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket.” — Kin Hubbard
Get to know your target market.
Just because you’re in your 40s and no longer go out because your wife doesn’t allow you to, it doesn’t give you the right to preach to us. Get to know who your target market is. Who are you trying to work with?
Get to know your market before you start preaching useless information.
Get a life.
Nobody cares about how smart you are. Stop using big words and complex theories. I studied finance in college. This stuff is boring and tricky. Most of my peers were happy just to pass the class and never have to think about finance again. What a horrible way to get started with money management.
The following quote summarizes finance and financial advice the best:
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” — Albert Einstein
He was a pretty smart dude as you may have heard.
Instead of making things more complex, why not try to simplify everything? Why not bring it back a few steps? You might just gain a few fans. Stay tuned for some sweet content coming your way!
What are your thoughts on financial advice?