I’ve been a personal finance blogger for 7 years now and during this time I’ve learned a ton about personal finance; whether by running into stuff on my own, or from helping friends or colleagues navigate tough issues. I’ve come to find that unfortunately, personal finance is kind of boring. Perhaps if I had a time machine I should go back 7 years and tell young YMF to pick a more interest topic to blog about! Although I never tire of checking my budget, picking investment, trying to minimize bills (and telling others to do the same), I realize that I’m in the minority in this matter! As I try to help others achieve personal financial freedom, I wanted to call out a few of the reasons I think personal finance can come off as boring, and how you can rectify the boredom and stay focused!

It’s hard to set goals

The journey to financial freedom is kind of a confusing journey. There’s no one size fits all picture of what this looks like, which kind of makes it hard to figure out what you want it to look like. I always say that if you don’t know where you’re going and where you want to end up, you’ll certainly never reach that destination. Think in your own life how grandparents or parents have modeled it for you. It’s probably a good mix of success and even how they view their success. Do I want to retire early? Should I want to retire early? Do I want to work hard for a luxurious retirement or something simpler? Will I change my mind 10 years from now and be screwed? How long should I expect or plan to live, and how much will I need for non-‘fun’ things in retirement like groceries or healthcare? 

I think that because of how difficult it is to define success, we often pay less attention to it. Of course we’re all well aware that if you’re not laser focused, or even that focused on achieving your goal, you probably won’t make much progress towards it. And then as you’re not making much progress towards your goals, you probably stop paying attention to them all together. 

My remedy: I’m not sure it this will work for everyone, but I have a bit of a mindset of ‘aiming for the moon and if I miss I’ll hit the stars’. I don’t know what retirement will look like for me. Of course I have dreams of spending it lounging at a beach somewhere, and of course traveling a lot, and also being able to leave somewhat of a financial legacy for kids and grandkids. I don’t know how much that’ll cost, how much I’ll need to live off of, or how long I’ll live, but I’m aiming for a nice retirement. I would rather have flexibility in defining my retirement once I get closer to it. 

To achieve that goal, I am sticking with best practice recommendations. Mrs. Money and I are both saving 15% for our retirement (ok technically 15% with the match) and are saving/investing probably an additional 15% of that (12% to my company stock purchase plan and I’d say another 3% to savings or index funds). I keep these percentages consistent with any raises we get, so overtime I know I’m slowly saving/investing more and more. I don’t know how this all will shake up for me in retirement but I feel good about the groundwork I’m laying now! 

Growth takes forever

I remember early on in my young professional career I had a few dividend stocks that I would closely track and follow. I would mark on my calendar when they were paying dividends (ok I still do this today) and login to see my dividend payments. I would only own a few shares and so at best I was getting $2-$3. That’s not very much money at all, and its kind of silly that I spend all that time getting excited about $2. The same holds true for investing in general. Sure the S&P 500 has on average returned 8% year over year over the course of its lifetime, but 8% doesn’t seem like a lot. Your $1,000 invested nets you $80 in a YEAR. Finally, your savings accounts will likely earn you a few pennies to a few dollars a month. All this to say – growth seems to move really slowly! 

In today’s fast paced world where we can get anything we want to buy delivered to our door in two days, watch virtually any movie from our streaming services, and listen to any song ever (along with the music video) on Spotify, moving slow is not the normal speed we move at. Therefore, I think that one of the reasons personal finance is boring is because we expect our money to grow much faster than it realistically will. 

My remedy: Your money will likely grow 1-2% in a savings account, dividends will pay between 2-10%, and the stock market on average will return 8%. It’s important to reset expectations about how fast our money will grow, and be learn to be happy with even small progress. I do a monthly ‘net worth’ check, in which on a spreadsheet (yes I’m old school), I track my balances (savings and investments). I find it keeps me focused on the big picture, and over time I’m able to see how small improvements add up! 

There’s so much noise

Money is one of those things that is both taboo to talk about but also everyone has an opinion about. When it comes times for you to seek out advice, suddenly you can be overwhelmed with options. Your colleagues at work, your friends, your family, YouTube, people on Twitter, personal finance bloggers, people calling themselves financial advisors all are more than willing to give you some advice. “Credit card debt is normal, just don’t let it get too much”, “Interest rates are so low on car loans, definitely get a new car”, “Save 15% for retirement”, “Do Roth because _____” or “Do Traditional 401(k) because _______”, “Definitely do Whole/Term Life insurance”, there can be a lot! 

I will call out that it’s important to realize that it’s important also to understand where people are coming from, and what’s motivating them. Sure your friend has a nice sports car that they drive around, but do you know what their bank/credit card balances look like? Your colleague’s advice on retirement sound solid, but they’re a young professional just like you, so do either of you really know what you’re talking about? This person telling me they’re a financial advisor sound great but they are really focused on me getting a whole life insurance product. It’s confusing but they say it’s a good idea. Even financial bloggers can have an agenda too – whether it’s a sponsored post or affiliate link, or an agenda to convince you that their methodology of personal finance is better. 

My remedy: Maybe it’s a good thing that personal finance is boring, and that a simple approach might be better. Learn the basics of personal finance and establish your own principles for how you’ll manage and grow your money. Trying to live someone else’s approach won’t work, and you need to figure out and stick to a plan that works for you. Accept all advice with a grain of salt, and compare them to your own principles and ideas, and get a second opinion! 

The real secret is too simple 

Everyone wants to get rich and get rich quickly. We love to hear stories of lottery winners, entrepreneurs creating the next big idea, or investors picking the right stock at the right time. We hear those stories a lot because they are popular stories to tell, and people want to click on those types of headlines. In reality, most of us won’t get rich quickly; in fact we’ll get rich slowly, over a long period of time, by making a number of small good decisions. Unfortunately “get rich slowly” isn’t as cool or as sexy of a story, and so young professionals don’t think or celebrate their small success as much as they should. 

Let me say it again; real financial success comes over a long period of time, by making small, good decisions on a daily basis. You’re not going to get rich overnight. Stick to the simple basics of personal finance, and focus on repeating those activities! 

My remedy: Stick with the basics – avoid bad debt, have an emergency fund, live with a balanced budget, set goals for yourself, put your money to work where it’ll work the hardest, protect yourself with insurance and keep investments steady but simple.

Summary

Money doesn’t have to be hard, boring, or a worry for young professionals. Learn the basics, establish your own plan, be careful with the noise and keep it simple and I think that’s a great recipe to staying motivated and focused on your own financial success!