Why I Started a Blog on Personal Finance

I have recently retired from a government job. About 5 years ago, as retirement was nearing, I started thinking about my personal finance and how I should go about planning my retirement. I spent hours reading the material available on the subject. My main source of research was the internet. I keenly observed the financial behavior of people around me. I also looked inwards and critically reviewed my relationship with money. I thought about how I had taken important financial decisions during my working life. Whether my decisions had stood the test of time or not. I came to realize that, despite being well educated and having pursued a successful career, my financial decisions had fared just ok.

This exercise spanned over about two years. Some of the conclusions I arrived at are as follows:

Personal finance is one of the most important yet least understood subject.
It is not a frequently discussed subject within families. People don’t like to discuss financial matters in the living rooms or at the dinner table.
Although the subject merits some attention, it is not part of the curriculum at school or college.
Our relationship with money is one of the main reasons behind our financial woes. Many of us have a love-hate relationship with money.
To many middle-class people, a successful and rich businessman is either corrupt or manipulative or both. People within our social circle, who are managing their personal finance relatively better, are derided and made fun of. You may have heard many jokes about the communities that are business savvy and have a well-developed financial view. You may also have heard one-liners like “money is not everything” or “money cannot buy happiness” etc.
Most of the aspects of personal finance are simple to understand but difficult to implement. In other words, the challenge is not intellectual, it is emotional. It is because money is a fairly recent contraption when viewed in the backdrop of long-drawn human evolution. While our evolution suggests primitive tools, like fear and greed, to deal with the economic challenges, these are rather counterproductive given the staggering advancement that has taken place in this field in the last 500 years or so. It is this dichotomy that is at work when we are making financial decisions.
Instead of thinking about what to do, it is more important to know what not to do and then try to prevent it. Financially speaking, don’ts are more important than dos.
Financial decisions, especially the wrong ones have long-term, often life-long consequences.
Instead of having a bias toward making big moves, it is better to make small ones consistently.
A penny saved is a penny earned. Earning a penny is difficult and saving one should be relatively easy but the result is same.
Saving money for the sake of saving is meaningless. The purpose of saving should be investing which is the only way to wealth creation and financial freedom.
Although not having to work is fascinating, yet financial freedom, as a worthy goal, doesn’t occur to many people. “Not having to work” is different from “not working”.
Retirement planning must start at the beginning of working life. The second best time to start is, whenever you realize it is important.
Personal finance is actually family finance. Therefore, onboarding all stakeholders is a must.
Personal finance pervades other areas of our life. For example, in times of financial difficulty, our health may suffer or it may affect our relationship with others.

I gradually started incorporating these conclusions into my personal finance. In some areas, the results were very positive immediately while in others, it will take some time to find out.

Lately, I realized that, after my retirement, I have a lot of spare time which I must put to some meaningful and productive use. So, I decided to pen down my thoughts, especially about personal finance. What better way to do it than to start a blog.

Internet again came for my help. I watched a few Youtube videos, read some articles on how to make a WordPress blogging website, and got going.

I intend to write regularly on important topics under personal finance. Let me add a disclaimer here:

I am not a professional financial advisor. I have no formal education in finance.
I am self-taught in this field. Mostly, I will be talking about generalities and will adopt a commonsensical approach.
I will not pretend to know what I don’t know.

I will be writing with these three aims in mind:

To crystalize my thought process. When I write on something, I can think better and in a more organized manner. Writing a blog is like journaling. You can immediately transfer your thoughts on paper and can also see later, what you were thinking about a particular topic at a particular time in the past.
To document my thoughts for posterity. Although I keep discussing these matters with my family including kids but it is better to write it at a place where everyone can consult it with ease. The best place to do it is a website.
As I mentioned earlier, I have observed many people struggling financially despite earning well during their working lives. They are compelled to work at an old age when they should be relaxing and enjoying the blessings of life. The reasons for this are their poor financial habits and mismanagement. However, they like to blame it on corruption of the political elite and government officials or some bad luck. If my writings can be of some help to them, it will make me happy.

I consider this exercise a pleasant journey of mutual learning. Let’s share our thoughts freely and honestly to benefit one another so that the financial aspect of our lives is secure and well taken care of.

I wish you all the very best of financial health.

Useful Resources:

www.investopedia.com

cashmoneylife.com

bankrate.com

My other posts, you might find useful, are:

How to Make a Personal Financial Plan – Basic Considerations

Personal Finance – A Suggested Checklist

Investment vs Speculation

A Brief History of Money

Anatomy of Financial Risk

Debt, Equity, and Real Estate: An Overview