As for who I am, google my username, and I’ll pop right up. I’ve got a plausible record of writing non-fiction books enough people want to read to make a decent enough living. I don’t claim to be a financial wizard, but I don’t think you need to be one either. (I’m about 50% convinced there are no such wizards. Some people do beat the market, but it’s not apparent that they do so through enhanced skill or knowledge.)
The basics of personal finance are well established and have been for about 40 years since John Bogle invented the index fund. The main skill you need to succeed is enough epistemic rationality to distinguish the truthsayers from the hustlers and enough instrumental rationality to maintain the necessary financial discipline and plans.
Perhaps the existing content in books, blogs, and elsewhere is sufficient, and this sequence is not needed. Certainly it’s not needed by everyone. But I am somewhat shocked at what I’ve heard lately from some LessWrongers about their own financial plans—seriously, I did not think saving for retirement was very controversial—and that got me thinking that the good information that’s out there is not reaching everyone it needs to reach, or that it’s being drowned in a sea of snake oil and hucksterism. We may have been spending too much time thinking about improbable events with high expected payoffs. Perhaps it’s worthwhile to spend some time thinking about probable events with medium expected payoffs.
As for who I am, google my username, and I’ll pop right up. I’ve got a plausible record of writing non-fiction books enough people want to read to make a decent enough living. I don’t claim to be a financial wizard, but I don’t think you need to be one either. (I’m about 50% convinced there are no such wizards. Some people do beat the market, but it’s not apparent that they do so through enhanced skill or knowledge.)
The basics of personal finance are well established and have been for about 40 years since John Bogle invented the index fund. The main skill you need to succeed is enough epistemic rationality to distinguish the truthsayers from the hustlers and enough instrumental rationality to maintain the necessary financial discipline and plans.
Perhaps the existing content in books, blogs, and elsewhere is sufficient, and this sequence is not needed. Certainly it’s not needed by everyone. But I am somewhat shocked at what I’ve heard lately from some LessWrongers about their own financial plans—seriously, I did not think saving for retirement was very controversial—and that got me thinking that the good information that’s out there is not reaching everyone it needs to reach, or that it’s being drowned in a sea of snake oil and hucksterism. We may have been spending too much time thinking about improbable events with high expected payoffs. Perhaps it’s worthwhile to spend some time thinking about probable events with medium expected payoffs.