I have been blogging for over 11 years here at YoungMoneyFinance. It’s been an incredible journey and I’ve had lots of life experiences along that way that I’ve been able to share. I’ve also had tons of conversations with friends, colleagues and readers of the blog about all sorts of personal finance topics. I’ve also had just about 1,000 posts that I’ve written or have had collaborators help write and that feels crazy to me! 11 years – 1,000 posts! Definitely a big milestone to celebrate. 

As I turn more MiddleAgedMoneyFinance and less YoungMoneyFinance, I do a lot of reflecting. Mrs. Money frequently rolls her eyes when I start a conversation, “you know…I’ve been thinking…”. With this reflection, I like to think about what I’ve learned these 11+ years about personal finance. I’ve definitely made some progress, have a better understanding of what the future could look like, and have learned a lot on the way. Here are a few of the key learnings I’ve had after 1,000 personal finance articles.

Everyone is different

I’ve talked to a lot of different people about personal finance and it’s always interesting to me to hear how they think about their money and how they earn it / spend it. It’s humbling whenever I come in with what I think are hard and fast rules only to see how they don’t apply in this particular circumstance. 

Depending on where you grew up, what your family was like with money, when you grew up and what you’ve learned on your own journey, your view of money could look very different. Our older grandparents lived through the recession and probably hoarded a lot more cash throughout their lifetime vs. investing it. I even think about me vs. my younger siblings and how when I graduated college I was super lucky because a) the job market was better b) interest rates were super low and c) home prices hadn’t exploded yet. Or I think about friends who have more family obligations in terms of supporting family members, or those who got burned early on with credit cards and debt and have sworn them off – everyone is different!

So, 1,000 posts later I’ve realized that as they say in Pirates of the Caribbean – “the rules are more guidelines”. Sure there are plenty of basic ideas and principles (here are my cardinal rules) but beyond that it’s really up to you to figure out what works best for you. Perhaps you are super risk averse and want to hold more cash in your portfolio. That’s fine! Perhaps you prefer (like me) and old school method of budgeting via a spreadsheet – that’s fine too! Perhaps you’ve cut up all your credit cards and pay cash (or debit card) for everything! All good! 

Figure out what’s important to you, where you want to go in life, and leverage personal finance principles for you!

Money stress can exist no matter your income

I am making more money than I ever have in my career. I feel super blessed and fortunate to be able to say that, but it was also a lot of hard work, a few critical decisions (i.e. to change jobs) and some luck along the way. What’s funny though is that I would say my level of stress with money is about the same as what I had when I had my first job out of college and was making $50,000/year. Isn’t that crazy? I am making a lot more than $50,000 per year yet I still feel that stress from money. I still get towards the end of the month and worry about the budget and try to find more things to say ‘no’ to so that I can meet some of my saving and investing goals – which I rarely do. Mrs. Money and I still try to either make more money or spend less money – both of which are difficult to do. 

I will say that after 1,000 posts, I have gotten a lot better at managing that stress – and maybe this is just a me thing. I try to check my balances less often in the form of doing a full check once a month and try to pay less attention throughout the month. I also remind myself that I have set aggressive savings goals and that I am saving 30% of my income – it’s just not visible to me because it gets pulled out of my paycheck. I remind myself that I’ve got an emergency fund to serve as a safety net for when things go wrong. So – I would thankfully say I’m less stressed, but still plenty stressed about money!

Lifestyle inflation is real

There’s old adages about how ‘millionaires’ are actually broke, or how people driving fancy cars can’t actually afford them. The point here is that too often our expenses continue to grow – even at a faster pace than our income level. More eating out, nicer bottles of wine, nicer vacations, nicer clothes, more lattes – these all add up and have a sneaky way of growing as fast (or faster) than our income). Nowadays I joke and say ‘how grateful I am for that small annual raise as I need it to pay all my bills’ – vs. what I would love to say is ‘hurray a small annual raise where can I put it to work saving more?’. 

It’s not necessarily a bad thing I don’t think for your spending to grow with your income. I’ve (and you) have worked hard at work to get that promotion, get that raise, and we do only have one life to live (YOLO) and so shouldn’t we enjoy it? 

What I have been learning after 1,000 posts is that a) spending should be a good thing and b) we should spend money on things that bring us joy. To the 2nd point – I realized a while back how wasteful a lot of my spending was and how quickly that feeling of excitement faded. So instead I am trying harder to spend my money on things I value and things that bring me joy! I also have learned that c) as hard or even impossible as it may seem – it is important to keep your expenses in check! 

KISS

I’ve talked a lot about this on the blog before, but I am a huge believer in putting most of my investment dollars in a low cost index fund. Each brokerage account will have their own flavor but I believe it’s very difficult to beat the market and I’ve given up trying. Instead – I play the whole market via an index fund which buys lots of stocks indiscriminately and I play the average. Year over year this strategy works for me and I’m convinced it can work for you. Whenever I get fancy and buy individual stocks – for every winner I pick I also pick a loser that balances out my win. (Facepalm emoji). 

So, after 1,000 posts, I’d recommend the most boring and dull investment strategy of index funds!

Time is our best friend

Although I believe it’s misattributed to him, Albert Einstein may have said that ‘compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t pays it.” Compound interest is incredible – basically taking the investment or interest return and reinvesting it. 10% interest on a $100 savings account is $10 interest then you reinvest and have $110 and then it’s $11 the next time you get 10% and so on. The problem with compound interest is that it’s SO SLOW…like years slow. In a world where we want things NOW, this can be tough to be excited about and stay motivated to follow, but it’s truly so powerful and I believe it’s the way to financial freedom. 

I’ve been in the working world for a little over a decade now, and can say that I am seeing the positive affects of compound interest. It’s cool to see my retirement account and some of our savings accounts get bigger faster, which is basically what compound interest is. Growth is good but growth reinvested over a long period of time is better.

1000 posts in, I am here to say that compound interest truly is amazing, if you let it work and that unfortunately, it will take many years to work, but I would encourage you as a young professional to trust the process and give it time.

The latte doesn’t matter 

The last point that I have learned after having written 1000 blog post is that really at the end of the day the latte doesn’t matter. Although this joke is probably over done a bit for a little backstory it feels like when I started blogging they were all these blog post about how if you didn’t get takeout expensive coffee every day you could get right a whole lot quicker. Then it feels like a few years ago the mindset of the personal finance space shifted and you were encouraged to go out and get that latte. I’ve written a few articles myself on the matter and it’s funny using this one random thing, a latte, is a barometer for how I’m feeling financially. For a while there during Covid, I was getting and paying for lots of lattes, but now it feels like the pendulum has swung back the other way, and I don’t get as many lattes.

Really what matters is having a balanced budget and a balanced budget is a budget in which you set your own financial goals and make your own plan to achieve those goals. It’s the big picture that matters not the details if you wanna go out and get a latte that’s completely fine. In my opinion you’ll just have to learn to say no to other things to help you achieve your goal, so sure go out and have that latte or whatever you feel like. Just remember to make sure that it fits into the budget!

Summary 

After having written 1000 blog post, I’ve definitely learned a lot about life and money. I’m grateful for the progress that I’ve made and am grateful for having a good job that allows me to continue to make progress towards my ultimate goal of financial freedom. I’ve learned a couple of things and hope that you have enjoyed Learning about them. I’m curious how well they fit in to your own life and would encourage you to continue to define your own goals and make a plan to achieve them!