Most personal finance sites (and DQYDJ is a personal finance site about 1/3 of the time!) have a disclaimer somewhere which states that we are not professionals when it comes to money and financial advisement. It's true - I have no formal qualifications that suggest that I have any special power or insight when it comes to increasing your net worth.
Taking an Active Look at Your Financial Picture
It's funny, actually.
The only reason that you should listen to anything I (or Bryan - Cameron actually has an Econ degree) has to say is because of our track record. Blogs and content driven web sites are perfect for this - consider that there is a public record of every time I made a forward looking statement and the result was completely different from my prediction. A track record builds trust in a way a degree or a certificate or diploma hanging on a wall can't in the digital age.
Back to the disclaimer... It's unfortunate that we look at finances as some esoteric subject inaccessible to the common man. Truth is, money is a tool that all of us of sound mind have to deal with - it's a tool we use in order to spend things we like or need, whether that spending happens now or in the future. Here's what I'm getting at - if the definition of 'professional' is 'someone who makes money doing something'... well, then everyone has to be a "Financial Professional". You need to make money not using your own work... but using your money to make more money.
Stop Making Things Complicated
Canadian Pop Superstar! (Wikipedia)
"Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?" -Avril Lavinge Complicated
Avril's right, you know. The general public is altogether too disinterested in optimizing financial decisions, and the paucity of good advice makes it hard to find where to start down the road to (let's call it) financial enlightenment. This is why it's difficult to talk shop to someone cold, and why it's easier for sites to cater to repeat readers. We try our best to not fall into this groove, so consider this piece, in part, an olive branch to anyone out there reading who just needs a little push to start getting their finances on track.
Truth is, personal finance is exactly as complicated as you make it. When you come into the topic and instantly start wondering about the proper way to set a trailing stop loss, you're doing it all wrong. There is a set of fundamentals in finance - call it Personal Finance 101. Once you're through with those fundamentals, then you're ready to start working your ways into the complexity of investing, lifestyle design, frugality, passive income, landlording, or managing your career. Yes, there are many paths you can go on... but in the long run (as the song goes) there's still time to change the road you're on. You know, just don't skip ahead to a road you aren't ready to travel.
So Start Today
We'll soon write up our shot at a personal finance 101 back to basics type article. We've heard people suggest making it a mandatory class in secondary school. We think it's actually too simple for that - and we'll try to prove it by jamming doing it in a single article. You see - we recognize that there is a "level one" of personal finance. And you know what else?
It's a very easy level to master.
