海角大神

One of the biggest criticisms levied at The Simple Dollar 鈥� and pretty much every other personal finance site out there 鈥� is that聽the advice shared on it is really obvious.

Spend less than you earn.聽At its core, that鈥檚 really what it all boils down to, after all.

There鈥檚 a problem with that, though.聽If personal finance advice is so obvious, why are聽76% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck?聽Why does聽the average American household owe more than $7,000 on their credit cards?

The reason is simple: personal finance advice might be simple, but it鈥檚 rather hard to implement.

Why? There are a lot of reasons. Here are some of the key ones.聽

Our culture is based around consumerism, with marketing preying on every fear and emotional desire we have. We want to be accepted and loved and desired. We want to laugh and be happy. We鈥檙e afraid of losing the things that we have. Marketing constantly preys on these fears and desires, pushing us toward products that will handle those fears and help us achieve those desires. The instant we let our guards down, these messages take hold 鈥� and many don鈥檛 even realize that they should have their guard up.

Schools rarely teach sound personal finance basics. Some states and districts require some personal finance education. Most don鈥檛. Quite often, people are walking out of high schools and colleges without the first clue about how to handle the money they鈥檒l be earning. They learn via trial by fire.

Parents rarely teach personal finance either. Often, that鈥檚 because they鈥檙e uncertain about the topic as well and thus avoid relating those topics to their children. Even if they do understand, parenting can be incredibly challenging at times for even the most patient parent.

Human beings are wired to be creatures of habit 鈥� and bad habits are hard to break. If any of those three previous 鈥渢raps鈥� catch you in a bad personal finance routine, it is very challenging to break that routine and build up a better one. Humans are creatures of habit, which helped us survive on the prairie but isn鈥檛 as helpful in the modern world.

Life puts obstacles in your way that you didn鈥檛 expect. People suddenly lose their job or their health. Children arrive unexpectedly, as does true love. The routines we鈥檝e worked hard to establish are tossed to the side and we fall back on instinct, which sometimes leads us astray.

The key reason for personal finance advice isn鈥檛 to simply repeat the core 鈥渟pend less than you earn鈥� mantra over and over. It鈥檚 to help people navigate those traps so that they can implement that simple advice in their lives.

The idea of figuring out the item with the lowest cost per use might be obvious to you, for example, but for someone who didn鈥檛 receive that education in school, it鈥檚 a valuable tool to add to their repertoire.

The idea that you can ditch your cable package to save money might seem really intuitive, but for people who have always had cable and view it as a regular bill, the fact that you can live without it can flip a light switch in their mind.

Over and over again, an idea might seem obvious to one person, but it鈥檚 not to another.

Beyond that, there鈥檚 the issue of motivation. Some people thrive by having someone there with them that鈥檚 going through the same journey and also pushing them to make better decisions in their lives. That鈥檚 why athletic coaches always have a place, as well as professional coaches and countless other people who push people to succeed at something they could do themselves. They provide motivation and encouragement.

In the end, the core idea might be obvious to some, but not everyone. Actually doing it? That鈥檚 much harder than it sounds 鈥� and every little nudge that gets someone moving a bit more in the right direction is a big help.

The post聽Isn鈥檛 Personal Finance Advice Obvious?聽appeared first on聽The Simple Dollar.