Announcing: The ‘Let’s Grow Together’ Series

Turning financial advice into financial companionship

Lately, I’ve been aggregating the feedback I’ve received of my financial articles on Medium in an effort to really understand what readers want.

Since starting Money Clip, my priority has been to provide actionable financial information that people can understand and feel confident trying for themselves.

However, a lot of the critical feedback I’ve received has been that the financial information I and everyone else on the platform have been providing has been either too difficult to understand, or impossible to put into action.

I totally understand why this is the case. In short, what’s missing is true comprehension and trust.

It’s not that people are stupid; it’s that financial language isn’t the same as regular English. It’s all so foreign because a lot of the words and terminology aren’t used outside of a financial setting.

But even the most basic advice isn’t actionable even when it’s easy to understand, and there’s a good reason for that too. The author is happy to give the advice, but do they practice what they’re preaching?

I’ve read a lot of articles that spout “top 10 most profitable shares for the season”, but I have no idea whether the author of the article even owns any of the shares they’ve talked about.

This is also the reason I’m wary of most financial planners. Anyone that gives proper financial advice (the kind of advice that leads to money changing hands) is probably getting a kickback for giving that advice.

This means they’re probably more likely to advise you to buy a financial product that gives them the largest kickback, rather than the financial product that’s actually best for you.

Investment schemes can be long and complicated and can come with huge contracts that nobody wants to read, much less understand.

It’s on these papers, buried in complicated numbers that people get screwed out of thousands of dollars.

The only real financial advisor you can trust is a fiduciary. It’s a silly word, but it describes a financial advisor that must disclose their kickbacks and any other conflicts of interest. They’re more trustworthy because they’re more transparent.

The other type of advisor you can trust is someone who isn’t giving advice at all; they’re taking the plunge alongside you.

Growing Together

I’m calling this new series ‘Let’s Grow Together’ because I plan on saving my own money alongside you while being completely transparent about what I’m doing and why.

I am not in a legal position to give financial advice, so nothing that I’m saying can be classified as financial advice, nor can kickbacks apply.

All I am is someone who is saving his money while writing about it openly and honestly. If you feel inspired by what I’m doing and want to join in, you’re more than welcome. It’s not advice, it’s companionship.

The articles won’t be complicated because I’ll show you every step, and there’s no trust barrier because I’ll screenshot the process and provide updates along the way.

I’m going to update the series every Friday, and every week I’ll put $100 into whatever it is I’m writing about at the time.

It’s a nice, clean amount of money that a lot of people can afford to put aside. If you’d like to save alongside me, you can replicate my $100, or you can save whatever you can afford.

I’m going to try lots of different saving and investment methods and will talk about why I’m making the choices I’m making.

As time goes on, my choices may become unusual, or the risk may grow higher. When that’s the case, I’ll also put money into something safer so that you can save alongside without doing anything that’s above your risk tolerance.

Once enough time has passed, I’ll update you on how all of the different choices have progressed. Safer choices will be slightly better off; riskier ones may have provided more interesting results.

Over time, our wealth will grow together, and eventually, we will have a stockpile saved up that will be there for us during a future crisis.

Savings could have helped a lot of people right now

I know we’re in the middle of a crisis right now, and some people are really hurting. But we need to focus on the financial reality that’s staring us right in the face.

We should have saved more for this crisis, and we have no idea when the next one will hit us. The best thing we can do for our future is start saving right now.

This event taught the airlines nothing, but hopefully, it has taught the rest of us that saving and preparing for a crisis is vitally important.

Many financial experts advise having anywhere from 3 to 12 months worth of salary saved in case of a crisis, and almost none of us took that advice. The next crisis could come in 10 years, but it could also realistically come in mere months.

We may not have taken the advice when we should have, but we can sure as hell take it now.

I plan on starting my savings from scratch and adding $100 every week and watching it grow. If you’d like, you’re more than welcome to come on this journey with me.

So look out every Friday for ‘Let’s Grow Together’ right here on Money Clip.

This coronavirus is not the last crisis that will happen during our lifetimes, but next time we’ll be better prepared. Good financial practice takes time and discipline to build, but no-one ever said you had to build it alone.

See you next Friday.

Disclaimer: The ‘Let’s Grow Together’ series does not constitute financial advice. It is recommended that you speak to a registered fiduciary financial advisor before making investments.