Every successful business has a value proposition; a purpose. Why should a blog be any different?
What makes me different? Among the millions of blogs out there (thousands focused on personal finance), why should you read mine over any of the others? That’s a legitimate question that I’ll gladly answer.
I think too many blogs out there are guilty of “reprinting information” and regurgitating something the author recently read on another blog. While it’s great that there is so much focus on financial and lifestyle improvement, why can’t I just read what you read and cut out the middle man?
My purpose:
I want to improve the relationship that you have with your money and, as a result, improve your life.
I will do this by focusing on 4 areas:
1. Understanding Your Money.
2. Understanding Your Mind.
3. Improving Your Decisions.
4. Improving Your Life.
Understand your money.
There are too many people that are financially illiterate. Unfortunately, our curriculums hardly prepare us for the future. I can tell you what a hypotenuse is, but what’s a mortgage?
When beginning to learn about personal finance (specifically investing), it can be a bit overwhelming. My goal is to simplify the common financial decisions you’ll face. They’re not as complex as you think.
Read This: The Rule of 100 / How To Pay Off Your Mortgage Quicker
Understand your mind.
I’m a numbers guy. I have yet to make some catastrophic financial folly that inspires most personal finance bloggers to begin blogging. If I have 2 credit cards with balances (which I don’t), I would pay off the one with the highest interest rate. If I can pay 4% on a loan while earning 5% in the stock market, I have no problem being indebted.
But money is more psychological than mathematical.
I’m beginning to realize that not all minds work like mine. Everybody is different. My goal is to get you to understand the way your mind works so that you have full control of your financial situation.
Read This: The Legend of The Man In The Green Bathrobe / Are You A Mental Accountant?
Improve your decisions.
A perfect world would feature economists that analyze each situation in order to fully maximize their personal utility; however, our world is far from perfect and there are few economists.
We are all human and, as humans, we make mistakes. We do things that don’t make sense, we say things that we don’t mean, and we rarely act in our best interest.
My goal is to get you thinking like an economist. If you avoid social norms such as “buying because it’s on Sale!” then you’ll be able to make sound decisions and your wallet will be fatter than your belly.
Read This: How Do You Judge Value? / Beware of the Bundle
Improve your life.
What good is information with no action? Why do we spend so much time consuming and very little time producing? Why do we slave away for 40 years and live modestly in hopes that one day we’ll be able to live the way we want?
The majority of us are leading lives of misery but very few are actually doing something about it. The way I see it is simple: If you’re happy, keep doing what you’re doing. If you’re unhappy, change something. For whatever reason, this is a concept that most people don’t understand. Stop being scared of change. Stop being scared of risk. The biggest risk is doing nothing and living a meaningless life.
Read This: Stop Saying You’re Too Old or Too Young / Dump Your Girlfriend & Eat Whichever TV Dinner You Want
What makes me different?
Whenever we get together (at my primary job) for training sessions or educational seminars, we always start with an ice-breaker. Typically, it involves the participants telling everybody “something interesting” about themselves. I get so frustrated with the common response of “Wow! I can’t think of anything! There’s really nothing interesting about me.”
Cool, dude. Have some confidence.
I used to fall into this mindset until I realized that my thoughts were different than yours. The joke I’m thinking may not be the joke you’re thinking. I may know something that you don’t. The moment I realized my thoughts weren’t common sense is when I blossomed.
Short.
I like my blog posts how I like my underwear: Brief. Since the advent of the internet, the average attention span has dropped from 12 minutes to 5 seconds. Because of this, I choose to keep things short. I think, in blog posts and everyday conversations, people say too much. Lots of repetition and run-ons.
Funny.
This is The Funny Money Blog. I have come a long way from my “Michael Jordan of Money” and “Babe-raham Lincoln” days, but I still try to keep things interesting. I try to bring life to what is normally boring. After all, Economics is the dismal Science.
Relevant.
If it ever seems like I’m just “talking to talk,” please let me know. Since YOU are what keeps this blog running, YOU are what I will focus on.
This blog is a business. I want you to know that not all blog posts are written by me. I do this as a way to make money and keep this blog running. I opt for this over more intrusive ads but if you ever feel that they are “spammy,” I will change it.
As always, thanks for reading.
[…] almost as though I’m setting up a barrier to improve my decision-making. Set up barriers to prohibit yourself from doing bad things and remove barriers to make healthy […]