Some Afternoon Financial Reading
I thought I would share some of my reading on here. This is
some of my desk-side reading this afternoon from Twitter links. I do not
endorse the services or general knowledge of these writers, but I found their
posts to be interesting and enlightening.
I’m a lifelong student – so much so that I’m preparing to go
back to school formally, at least on a part-time/correspondence basis. This
Forbes article was a great find because all of these courses are offered by
professional educators and they’re totally free. Even those of us who work in
the financial fields or write daily about financial topics need to continually
update and restore our knowledge, things constantly change and there’s always
more to learn. Seriously looking at the accounting, life insurance and core
four courses here to beef up my own know-how.
Women Who Money have a great post on what’s worth keeping in
your archives, and what you can really get rid of. This is still a problem for
me, I am a documentation hoarder and part of it is because I’m a journalist who
wants to transcribe and save as much direct information as possible to ensure
accuracy. The result is that I have the stubs from utility bills back 8 years
ago when Cheryl and I were still living in Kentucky.
Behavioral finance and behavioral economics are hot topics –
one discusses how and why individuals act and feel in relation to their
financial lives, the other looks at the intersection between economics and
human behavior on a more social level. This article from FIRE blogger DiverseFi
is directed at one of the most important elements of behavioral finance and one
that professional financial advisors know well – wealth is not the same as
health, mental or physical, and your health has more to do with your sense of
satisfaction and achievement than your net worth. There are plenty of rich
people who are miserable. Look at the average behind-the-scenes stories of
celebrities (like those from VH-1’s “Behind the Music”). Financial success and
personal success are not necessarily congruent.
This interview is definitely directed towards the
professional financial advisor community, but anyone wishing to discuss
finances for profit or as a service to friends and family would do well to read
this. Physicians are probably accustomed to this problem – despite their stern
warnings, follow-ups and multiple types of reinforcement, some people are
averse to taking advice on how to improve and maintain their health. The main
takeaway is that advisors spend too much time talking and not enough time
listening to their clients.
I think that personal finance communicators – journalists,
consultants, others – can use some of this knowledge. It’s not enough to just
write about generic financial issues or talk about where we are in our own
lives – you have to address your audience, or your desired audience, directly,
listen to their needs and speak to those needs only after spending time to
understand how financial challenges are intersecting with other personal
challenges in their lives.
Generic blog posts might generate some ad revenue, but
they’re probably not going to change lives. I’m starting to write again because
I feel like this is a calling, I’m mission-oriented and I do want to change a
few lives. After reading this interview, I’ll be listening more closely.
This Passive Income MD discusses his BRRRR method for direct
real estate investing. Rather than flipping, like many direct real estate
investors, this blogger advocates a buy-and-hold style of real estate investing:
Buy, Rehabilitate, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. BRRRR.
Mullooly is a firm local to me, I actually don’t know a
whole lot about them, but I can agree with this blog post they filed. There was
another eye-opening piece filed this week, perhaps on Tuesday, that indicated
that most of Warren Buffett’s $81+ billion fortune has been accumulated as a
result of decades of compounding. I’m not sure if that’s exactly true, the guy
is pretty good at picking good investments (as is his business partner, Charlie
Munger), but compounding is how most American retirement savers will make their
money. This speaks to the need to hold simple, diversified and liquid
investment products, preferably as the bulk of an investment portfolio. An
index fund won’t get you rich quick. It probably won’t make you financially independent
or able to retire early. But it will, if all else fails, allow you to fall back
on a retirement at the more typical age range of 62 to 67 years old. I will be
writing about FIRE and stock picking, but only as an additional layer of complexity
on top of a solid foundation of inexpensive, liquid, diversified and simple
investing.
Comments
Post a Comment