Hey world! Have you ever had that moment where you ask someone for advice—maybe a mentor, a teacher, or a friend—and you know as soon as you hear their wisdom that they don’t “get” you, and they’re not the right person to give you advice?
The older (and possibly wiser) I get, the more I’m finding that financial advice is falling flat. I think a big reason why is, I’ve got enough experience to be better at recognizing bad advice: I’ve been an adult for 25 years now, and in that quarter century I’ve put a lot of time and effort into learning about personal finance. I’ve also worked as a management consultant at a top firm, as head of corporate strategy at a large investment fund, and as a partner at a big 4 accounting/consulting firm. In other words, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make and save money.
And what I’ve realized through these experiences is that while there’s a lot of really great personal financial advice out there, there’s also a lot of bad advice, and there are some topics where there seems to be nowhere credible to turn for advice. Sometimes, it is hard to tell these apart, particularly when bad advice is repeated so often that it’s just widely accepted to be good advice.
I’ve also gotten tired of seeing the same advice trotted out repeatedly. Stuff like: You need a budget! Pay off all debt as fast as possible! Invest in index funds! Build a 6-month emergency fund! FIRE! These can be good practices, but this advice is often doled out regardless of the goals or situation of the people seeking it.
Moreover, if you’ve done that, then what? People who are good at managing their money are probably past that advice. They already have a budget and pay themselves first with automatic purchases of an index fund. Repeating that same advice is both unhelpful and boring. Meanwhile, there’s all sorts of interesting and useful “advanced” personal finance practices that I’ve come across or developed that have helped in my life. Those are the things I want to share.
Some of these techniques and tactics will seem extreme or weird. That’s okay! The things I’m going to talk about are probably not for everyone, nor are all of them together probably good advice for someone. But I hope they spur readers to realize that there are a lot more ways to optimize their finances than they might typically hear about, and just a few of these strategies implemented partially can have a big impact on their finances.
I’m aiming to be extremely practical. Another pet peeve of mine is, there are a lot of personal finance blogs/books/gurus who are great at explaining a concept in an entertaining and informative way, but when it comes to teaching or showing their audience how to apply it in their own lives, they come up a bit short. I want to show the specific tools and processes that people can use in their personal and household financial processes and decisions. I’ll generally aim to write about the positive “what to do,” as that’s more useful than the negative “what not to do, “but occasionally I’ll rip apart a particularly dumb idea like “everyone should build a real estate empire!”.
I certainly can’t claim to have all the answers, and to be clear I am not now and never have been a personal financial advisor, beyond sharing the occasional perspective or strategy with a friend or family member. I am certainly not your financial advisor, so if you try something and it doesn’t work, that’s still on you. But I think I can offer a different perspective based on my experience:
I’ve had to figure out many of the personal financial issues that adults eventually contend with. I’ve done this by asking smart people for their advice, reading a lot, and trial-and-error. A surprising number of these issues are not the purview of traditional professionals like financial advisors, estate lawyers, or investment managers; they fall through the cracks. I’ve watched friends and colleagues struggle with the same things, so I figure I might have something helpful to say.
I’ve helped corporate executives literally take apart and rebuild their businesses to be financially stronger. I realized that I could and should apply these same techniques to my personal and household finances, and that in doing so I could unlock value and de-risk my own finances far more effectively than “standard” approaches.
I take a structured deliberate approach to breaking down problems, which helps me cut through the fluff that doesn’t matter and focus on the activities that do. I like getting into the details, but I don’t want to waste my time on a couple of bucks when there’s bigger opportunities out there.
I’ve got a starting list of about a hundred topics I want to write about. Some will probably be short, some could be essays. I’ll go in no particular order, just whatever interests me during a given week.
Nonetheless, hopefully someone out there — you! — will find them helpful! Enjoy!