WHY do you need it?
Do you imagine a better life for yourself? Do you dream of a grander, celebrated life full of passion and fulfillment? Take a minute to think about where your journey started. Back as a tiny tot, through school, the journey you’ve taken, and the things you’ve learned. Can you imagine if we just stopped learning? If we stopped educating ourselves? How do you feel about electricity, cars, heat, wheels, fire, retiring, and being financially secure? Without education, we wouldn’t have life as we know it. Can you imagine sitting in a cave pulling bugs out of your neighbor’s hair? I hope not. That sounds terrible. Luckily enough, we don’t have to. You were built to want bigger and better things through centuries of growth and repetition. We strive for more, and we get there through education and learning.
It may not seem like it, but we educate ourselves every day. We try different tactics. We experiment with little tasks. We read, we listen. We talk, we share. All of which is a pattern of education. Without it, we wouldn’t survive. Every day would be a struggle. And, sometimes, to get out of the struggles we find ourselves in, we need to explicitly study rather than study passively. Diving deep into a particular subject and educating ourselves to better our lives and the lives of loved ones around us. The question is, how do we go about that? Where do you even start?
WHERE do I start?
You start first by asking questions. How do I get from point A to point B? How do I open a bank account? How do I manage bills? How do I pay my rent? How do I get out of debt? How do I automate my savings? How do I pay for my child’s college? How do I retire financially secure? How do I become financially independent? The list is infinite. You’re in a great place just by asking the question.
WHERE should I spend time on this?
This one is entirely up to you. Since we can tie everything we do back to money and how it affects our whole life, any way you communicate now should also be how we share about personal finance. Additionally, we should create mechanisms and processes in our daily life to allow us to review and access this information readily. This could be digitally in an app, a browser, or a spreadsheet you can access from your phone. This could also be written down in a notepad, a journal, or a 3×5 index card that you carry around with you everywhere (side note, I do all of these things. They all help me in different ways. Keep an eye out, more on this in a future article.). Whatever works best for you within the means, you have to do it. If you can’t afford that fancy app or phone, carry a 3×5 index card just like I do. There should be zero judgment on what works best for you, especially from those who want you to win.
WHO do you learn from?
Secondly, to answer all of those questions, it’s all about finding the right resources. Find the WHO you are going to learn from. This can be tricky but also very easy. A little skepticism goes a long way in this step. False information is abundant out there. It can be fairly simple to check what credentials someone may have. Depending on the platform, whether it be a website, blog, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or books, all of these platforms have about pages or should. If you are still looking for their About page or they do not list the credentials that allow them to pontificate upon the subject, keep on moving. No need to waste any more time on them.
It can be so easy to get sucked into these platforms too. TikTok and Instagram are built to keep you psychologically trapped, wanting and needing more. It’s so easy to listen or watch rather than taking a few seconds to garner the appropriate information to verify the source. It’s a tricky situation, especially when we’re just starting and forming our thoughts and opinions on topics such as Personal Finance. I’ll leave this topic on this point, though, it’s a necessity, especially starting your journey of Personal Finance, to take the time to educate yourself on the teachers you are spending your time with. They are helping with your thoughts and opinions. Make sure they’re worth putting your heart and soul into.
WHO are you learning with?
Similar to who you learn from is who you learn with. As a people, we are built for community. It’s built deep into our psyche, our physical brain, to share and work within a community. Initially, to create a safe and secure environment of living. Lately, it’s less about safety and security and more about mental health, making a better life for ourselves, and society’s path as a whole. With that in mind, it matters greatly who you are on this personal finance journey. You are building your team, and on that team, you’ll need to build similar understandings, thoughts, opinions, and habits to help guide you along the way. It is also crucial that you have accountability partners. Life is so much easier to stick to your goals and accomplish dreams when you have someone to share with, talk through issues with, and can hold you accountable.
There is a stigma about personal finance, which is a detriment to our society. We should normalize these discussions and create an open format and comfort within our community. This will raise the general population’s financial knowledge and literacy, benefiting us all. This is one key area where “the rich” have thrived. They have a network of others they openly discuss business and finances with. They’ve integrated their personal lives with their business and financial lives. Their personal, business and financial lives are one and the same. Though we all might not want to go to that extent, it is highly beneficial to everyone to openly discuss our goals and dreams and how personal finance creates the ability to achieve them.
WHEN should you spend time on this?
ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. Ok, that might stretch even for the best of us. But, in general, anything you discuss or do is always tied to money. When you are shopping? Yes. When you’re scrolling social media? Yes. When you’re talking about your next vacation? Yes. When you are pondering college? Yes, When you are changing jobs? Yes. Almost everything every day can be tied to money and openly discussed with friends, family, and partners. When you’re shopping, it could be talking about how you saved a “blank” amount of money and how these jeans are perfect, and the price would then allow you to buy those shoes too, and still stay within your budget. Or, scrolling social media, you see the absolute best widget you’ve ever seen. Lean over and tell or text a friend that I have to have this gadget. I’m putting it in my budget for next month right now. Or, I’m going to put it in my next month’s savings plan. Or, you and a friend have been discussing visiting Shangri-La forever, and you want to put together a game plan. Now’s the time. You both sit down and research the numbers, put it into your budget to set aside “this much” money every month, and we plan to buy tickets in 8 months. It is incredible that you can share your goals and dreams and openly discuss money, dates, and budgets with others. It frees you from the judgment that you may be feeling or the societal pressure to buy this or do it. It might not rid you of all the disastrous overthinking we all do, but it gives us a community to fall back on when we start down that path.
WHAT should I spend time learning?
Oh, the mighty WHAT. I don’t mean to overwhelm you, but this question will take years to answer because you should always continue growing, learning, and asking WHAT. But, to begin with, we’re going to start small. The only way to determine WHAT you should focus on is directly tied to your question. The moment in time you find yourself in. This answer is different for every person-my WHAT is different from yours. Yours is different from your neighbors. No two solutions are alike. Though, there is some overlap. Personal finance, like life, is a journey we’re all on, and we all experience similar events. They happen at different times. With that being said, we are all in the same boat. We are all learning WHAT to learn at any given moment. We are all learning at the same time. Some are focusing on retirement. Some may focus on financial independence. Still, others focus on career growth and income associated with such things. The moral of the story is that we are all in this together. We are all constantly asking WHAT and using similar resources to answer the need.
Conclusion
In conclusion, education and learning are essential for a fulfilling life. Without education, we wouldn’t have many of the things we take for granted today. To better our lives, we must actively study and educate ourselves, particularly in personal finance. We should start by asking questions and finding the right resources and people to learn from. We must be careful about who we learn from and build a community of like-minded individuals who can hold us accountable and provide support. By normalizing discussions about personal finance, we can raise financial knowledge and literacy levels, benefiting society as a whole. The journey of personal finance may seem daunting, but with the right mindset and a supportive community, it is achievable.
