Do Something

Here's what you need to do - actually, scratch that. Being told what to do or telling others what to do is a surefire way of making sure the likelihood of that thing getting done is close to zero. Try having a teenager.

Especially when talking about what we need to do with money - it's so personal, so individually-driven by mindset and situation that it's impossible to tell a room of 10 what they ought to do, much less, oh, the entire internet. But at least, at the very very least, we can start having thoughtful, meaningful conversations around what we each need to do...it just needs to come from a place of care, gratitude, and clarity. Otherwise the message gets lost, it becomes a marshmallow test we are doomed to fail in a swarm of unintelligible numbers and emails and envelopes we don't want to open.

And it's a lot. It's going to take work and sacrifice. No fun. No background of financial literacy or even a class about debt or cash flow or taxes or insurance or banking...this is a huge topic that will be dealt with in everyone's life. History, biology, the rest of it - super important but not going to create a framework for important decision making in most people's lives. This from Tyrone Ross Jr. is a perfect illustration of the downstream consequences of minimal (being generous) financial education:

We can work to grow the underlying pie by creating more financial inclusion, via Theodora Lau

Tiffany "The Budgetnista" Aliche always a must-watch!

Lack of communication and clarity leads to destroyed relationships and money, plus loads of litigation.

Needing to work through these money conversations...these are good problems for you to have - even having student loans can be a good problem to have if you have utilized the education it financed to change your life and the lives of others; if you are a Doctor, a lawyer, or structuring financial products that could blow up the entire world...ya know, whatever floats your boat. there are billions that would happily trade their problems for yours.

The wealthiest nations are aging rapidly -

Retirement as a myth case #5392 as those aging populations won't have enough to be truly financially independent.

How emotional is money?

How it all works, what is really important from Morgan Housel

Also on the Prof G podcast this week:

Life sometimes has a way of helping you focus on what really matters, how little time we have with those we love. There are things that are unknowable and unquantifiable that raise a million more questions; some about money some on way more eternal, important issues. Life is risk, life is hard, life is beautiful...all at the same time. It's hard to know what'll be tomorrow let alone a year from now. Think back on a year ago - who is no longer around, how many more times can we see those we care about?

So how much is enough to retire comfortably?

That's a question we all need to ask but not before we define some things, in our own ways, in our own words. What is retirement? What is comfortable? These aren't questions that can be binary; they are definitely on a spectrum but there are clearly some basics we all need to have. But even that is self-defined. The only think we know is there will be change, disruption, upheaval. Good and bad.

Well...what do we need to do?

Something