Early in my career, I started following a personal finance column written by a guy named Jonathon Clements. He was down-to-earth and seemed to be writing for the common man.
It was ironic that I found him in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. WSJ features columns written by finance hot-shots predicting the future and lifestyle gurus describing cars and homes I could never afford. Clements was different.
Clements now runs a not-for-profit website/blog where he shares financial advice: humbledollar.com. A year ago, he posted “21 signs you’re a HumbleDollar reader”. I read those signs and thought “Wow. He gets me. He really gets me.” Below, I highlight 3 of those 21 signs, and why they mean something to me. If you want to see the “21 signs” article, the link is at bottom.
When I was younger, I was recruited to help my good friend Jake. He wanted to visit his parents, but he was nursing a broken ankle and couldn’t drive his stick-shift car. I offered to be his driver.
It was a normal weekend with normal family-type stuff--chatting, food, and games. But on one evening, Jake said “Matt, we’re going to have a family meeting.” I sat in the next room and read my book, but was amazed at the content of their family meeting. They were reviewing financial statements as part of their family meeting. Afterwards, Jake pointed to a line on a statement and said, “I made that much money last quarter. Isn’t that cool?”
Wow. Yes Jake, that was cool. That experience was not dramatic, but it made a lasting impression. I wanted to see documents like that with my name on them. I knew I had a lot to learn, but I was determined to learn what I could and get invested.
How could I learn about the market, about investing, and about money? Somewhere I picked up this great advice: “Subscribe to two different financial magazines. Read everything in them for two years. And, importantly, don’t act on anything that you read.”
Over that two years, I started learning what the terms meant and how the world of money fits together. More importantly, I saw how quickly the financial fashions changed. Every front page had to promise special new information that would get you to buy the magazine, but the headlines and advice from past months became stale quickly. The best financial advice wasn’t new or flashy enough to be a front page story.
I can’t say I never chased trends (I owned a hot Janus fund once) or tried to play the market (I did buy a hot tech stock on advice from a friend once), but that was a thankfully brief phase.
The trendy nature of the magazines sent me elsewhere for more timeless advice. Standout books included The Random Walk Guide to Investing by Burton Malkiel and Everything You Know About Money is Wrong by Karen Ramsey--both short, easy books that are still relevant. I also caught on to the consistent advice from Jonathon Clements in his Wall Street Journal articles.
If you are interested, you can get some great financial perspective over time by following Clement’s email newsletter or by browsing his site. Things I learned over many years from many sources are collected in one place on Clements’ site. He’s good at helping you know things, and great at reminding you what you don’t know.
I’m sure some rich dudes are pretty happy in their richness. The rich dude may also look at his richer relatives and not feel rich at all. The rich dude may love his fancy things but have toxic relationships. And if he is rich and happy but toxic to others, I don’t look up to him.
The most important things I learned about money were not about finance. My upbringing gave me an intuitive sense that money does not buy happiness, at least not like people think it does. Dozens of books in psychology and sociology gave me a deeper theoretical basis for that belief. Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl come to mind.
My faith helps me remember that everything is a gift, and even the smallest good things are luxuries if you accept them as a gift from God. I am kept pretty happy appreciating the gifts that others might find mundane or simple.
It’s mindfulness. It’s humility. There’s a zen proverb: “Zen is not to think about God while peeling the potatoes. It is just to peel the potatoes.” Happiness is not about getting something that's far away or fancy. It's about relishing what's here.
And that’s a few thoughts about money. Thanks for reading.
For the full list of 21 signs you’re a humbledollar reader, here's the link.
https://humbledollar.com/2018/05/where-money-grows-up/
Matt
It was ironic that I found him in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. WSJ features columns written by finance hot-shots predicting the future and lifestyle gurus describing cars and homes I could never afford. Clements was different.
Clements now runs a not-for-profit website/blog where he shares financial advice: humbledollar.com. A year ago, he posted “21 signs you’re a HumbleDollar reader”. I read those signs and thought “Wow. He gets me. He really gets me.” Below, I highlight 3 of those 21 signs, and why they mean something to me. If you want to see the “21 signs” article, the link is at bottom.
When friends boast that they save 10% of their income every year, you think, "Is that all?"
When I was younger, I was recruited to help my good friend Jake. He wanted to visit his parents, but he was nursing a broken ankle and couldn’t drive his stick-shift car. I offered to be his driver.
It was a normal weekend with normal family-type stuff--chatting, food, and games. But on one evening, Jake said “Matt, we’re going to have a family meeting.” I sat in the next room and read my book, but was amazed at the content of their family meeting. They were reviewing financial statements as part of their family meeting. Afterwards, Jake pointed to a line on a statement and said, “I made that much money last quarter. Isn’t that cool?”
Wow. Yes Jake, that was cool. That experience was not dramatic, but it made a lasting impression. I wanted to see documents like that with my name on them. I knew I had a lot to learn, but I was determined to learn what I could and get invested.
Like everybody else, you have no idea where the market is headed. But unlike everybody else, you know you don't know.
How could I learn about the market, about investing, and about money? Somewhere I picked up this great advice: “Subscribe to two different financial magazines. Read everything in them for two years. And, importantly, don’t act on anything that you read.”
Over that two years, I started learning what the terms meant and how the world of money fits together. More importantly, I saw how quickly the financial fashions changed. Every front page had to promise special new information that would get you to buy the magazine, but the headlines and advice from past months became stale quickly. The best financial advice wasn’t new or flashy enough to be a front page story.
I can’t say I never chased trends (I owned a hot Janus fund once) or tried to play the market (I did buy a hot tech stock on advice from a friend once), but that was a thankfully brief phase.
The trendy nature of the magazines sent me elsewhere for more timeless advice. Standout books included The Random Walk Guide to Investing by Burton Malkiel and Everything You Know About Money is Wrong by Karen Ramsey--both short, easy books that are still relevant. I also caught on to the consistent advice from Jonathon Clements in his Wall Street Journal articles.
If you are interested, you can get some great financial perspective over time by following Clement’s email newsletter or by browsing his site. Things I learned over many years from many sources are collected in one place on Clements’ site. He’s good at helping you know things, and great at reminding you what you don’t know.
When you read about the lavish lifestyle of some rich dude, you wonder whether all that money really makes him happy.
I’m sure some rich dudes are pretty happy in their richness. The rich dude may also look at his richer relatives and not feel rich at all. The rich dude may love his fancy things but have toxic relationships. And if he is rich and happy but toxic to others, I don’t look up to him.
The most important things I learned about money were not about finance. My upbringing gave me an intuitive sense that money does not buy happiness, at least not like people think it does. Dozens of books in psychology and sociology gave me a deeper theoretical basis for that belief. Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl come to mind.
My faith helps me remember that everything is a gift, and even the smallest good things are luxuries if you accept them as a gift from God. I am kept pretty happy appreciating the gifts that others might find mundane or simple.
It’s mindfulness. It’s humility. There’s a zen proverb: “Zen is not to think about God while peeling the potatoes. It is just to peel the potatoes.” Happiness is not about getting something that's far away or fancy. It's about relishing what's here.
And that’s a few thoughts about money. Thanks for reading.
For the full list of 21 signs you’re a humbledollar reader, here's the link.
https://humbledollar.com/2018/05/where-money-grows-up/
Matt
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