This morning, I want to introduce you to baseline personal finance.
A starting point that will help make sense of scattershot personal finance websites.
Money questions and answers come in continuous time: columnists writing about one-off topics that likely don’t apply to you, investment newsletters that read as if private information is being shared when the market already is informed, and silly financial rules of thumb that don’t work.
You may be like my university students, who come to class with a blank slate, or you may have a financial life experience you would like to validate.
What is Your Journey?
You have your wants, needs, and curiosities—everybody does.
A retired couple, a mid-life couple with children, and a recent college graduate have different financial questions and competencies. The light bulb may dim when terms like “financial statements” and “Roth IRA” are dropped. The financial world has its terminology, and to many, even insiders, it is painted with complexity.
Not really, though, if you stay with me. Cash comes in, and money goes out. Although intentions for money differ, we all live in an income, spending, saving, and investing world.
Households are inherently human. They are sometimes emotional, feeling, loving, satisfied, and unhappy. I’ve found many financial advisors like to sell listening along with their products and services. My goal is for all advisors, your banker, accountant, and any other party involved with your money to know you are best served by listening with a personal finance economics foundation. The combination produces “right” decisions.
You want to live your best financial life, one that meets your objectives. Inevitably, the best financial life boils down to decisions that achieve a goal common to you and every other household: creating your highest, sustainable living standard.
Making My Case to You
Consider two different households from the second paragraph of the first chapter of our book,
“An empty-nester couple on the cusp of retirement and a single 25-year-old who has been working for three years.
The near-retirement household wants to know when retirement is a possibility. Should we move to a continuum of care facility? When should we choose to receive Social Security retirement benefits? Should we still invest in the stock market?
The 25-year-old recently moved from earning nothing to $75,000 yearly. “Should I save money for a down payment on a first home? Should I take advantage of my employer’s 401(k) match? Does my credit score matter?” These are different questions.
In either household, the culmination of choices and resources dictates the household's living standard, and for most people, their income and assets constrain the latitude of such decisions. Here is our proposition for the reader: Would it feel good to understand your living standard better today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future?”
Does this resonate with you? I am pitching you toward learning how to make financial decisions that fit you. If you are coupled, please share. If you have adult children, invite them to come aboard. This is a good space. It falls under the “Start Here” tab, with new content beginning next week. Then, you begin when you are ready.
What’s Next?
How financial people frame your money and why economics-based personal finance produces better results to live by.
They are coming weekly for paid subscribers on Tuesdays beginning August 27, 2024, along with the book.
I am looking forward to it! As an aspiring 'financial person' this isn't really covered in the other training I have been a part of.