Take charge of your Financial Education!

I’m expanding on a topic that I spoke about in my About Me page. It’s so important

That PBS fundraiser that introduced me to personal finance topics was probably about 30 years ago. I’m far from perfect, but I have made significant progress over the years. I got out of debt, built up an emergency fund, and started to invest for retirement. I was able to save a down payment for my house and today I’m married over 20 years with two kids in college, (that we’re paying for in large part from our 529 funds that we started when they were babies). I’m on the home stretch for my retirement, and I’m feeling pretty good about it largely because of my 401k balance. In the last few years, I have been investing in both ETF’s, Mutual funds, and some individual stocks in my own E*TRADE account. AND, excitingly, we’re very close to paying off our house.

Regarding financial education; The ‘Wealthy Barber‘ started me on my journey, but I have been educating myself on personal finance topics for the last three decades. As I discuss the topic with others, both early in their career and some who are on the verge of retirement, I’m struck by just how little the average person knows about these important issues and their own money. So, I’m a life long learner. I read books on the topic, listen to audiobooks during my commute, read blogs like this, and watch YouTube videos on the topic. There’s a lot of good information out there, and A LOT of bad. That’s why it’s so important that, even if you rely on an advisor, you need to understand these topics. You’ll be able to filter out the good content from the bad and your BS detector (for your advisors and tax experts) will be on and properly tuned.

A few things happened recently that made me think that maybe I had something to offer and this blog is the result of that. I was out for a business dinner with a group of people from around the corporation I currently work for. These people were professionals in mid to late career. I’m talking about executives and experienced engineers, project managers, and operations people. One person raised the issue of retirement and as the discussion progressed it became apparent that, not only were most of my colleagues uninformed, the didn’t even CARE that much. I heard comments like, “I haven’t really thought about it”, and, “You sound just like my husband, he takes care of all that”.

Just a few days ago, I was talking about career and money with a younger work colleague who didn’t even now how much he was putting into his 401k, and didn’t remember what he was invested in. I tried not to soap box too much, but I found myself actually teaching him about debt management, and compound interest on the white board in his office. This blog post started to take shape in my head.

I’m sure you’ve heard people say that personal finance should be taught in high school. I agree. However, it’s not. I firmly believe that we are all in control of our destiny, and how we fund that is up to us. You should be educating yourself on a broad range of topics. Books like “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel, and “Your Money of your Life“, but Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez cover what money is, why it matters and what is enough.

Next, you can get into books about how to get out of debt and build your emergency fund. I really like Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover” where he talks about the 7 baby steps to financial freedom. The “Wealthy Barber“, by David Chilton, is similar but at this point a bit dated. Still, an easy read.

These are just some starting points. I’ll post more on book recommendations, and maybe some that I think you ought to stay away from. Get started!