Geniuses Don't Write Financial Blogs... Do They?

Why should you really trust the financial advice I give?

A fair question, one I've pondered many times, in fact, and a question which still lingers in the back of my mind every time I write a new post, make some outrageous claim, or call out some screwy politician, economist, or hedge fund manager on my site. 

It's deserving of enough attention that today's post will hopefully lay all your doubts and questions to rest.

I launched this blog only roughly a year ago, so most of what you see here is still in the nascent stages. The result of this is that most of my audience is made up of current or past co-workers, professors, personal friends, acquaintances, old classmates, and family of mine. Many of you probably grew up with me, fought with me, studied with me, or worked with me. Most of you probably know my personal faults, my failures, my weaknesses, and my foibles.

You probably don’t actually think I’m a financial "wizard" or stock market genius, and rightly so. I don't think I am either, and any time that I imply otherwise, it's riddled with sarcasm. But, I do think I have a few great ideas from time to time.

I bring this up is because some of you have written me and asked the following: "If you think you have all the answers about money and investing, why aren’t you a millionaire already? And if you are, why even bother writing this stuff now?”

Here's what I think people are getting at: If my ideas are so great, especially in investments, why don’t I keep them all to myself, trade them on my account all day, and make a fortune?

This is a fair question, and it's well-grounded. After all, there are tons of scammers out there who claim to have a crystal ball along with all the answers. There are tons of people that try to sell you the next hot stock tip and rip you off.

Well, if you’ve read any number of things on my site, you know that’s not how I operate.

There are roughly.... mmm, I don't know, a dozen answers to the question, "Why am I doing this?" And none of them involve a crystal ball. So here we go.

Financial Independence

One of my goals in life is to be financially independent and self-reliant at a young age.

Anyone with a similar goal in life would probably go to college (I did too!) in order to get hired by a great company, then begin working their "dream job" the rest of their life. They want to get a nice, secure position, a 401k, a company car, some responsibility, some good money, and a good retirement.

Here's the problem... it's not your employer's job to make you rich enough to retire--and you should understand this. An employer might even pay you handsomely... but getting rich is up to you, and whether or not it happens depends on how well you use the money you make to do other things that generate even more money.

Several years ago, I read a book called The Millionaire Next Door. A big takeaway from the book is that rich people don’t just work one job—they find multiple ways to finance their expenses, savings, and retirement plans.

Likewise, any savvy investor or businessman who has a plan to be successful should always consider multiple plans of attack to accomplish his goals. Since my plan is to retire young, I better have a backup plan besides my job...

So this blog plays directly into my plan of retiring young. I plan to build it out over time into a full-fledged research service, which will generate revenue. But I won't do it just for the money... rather, because I enjoy reading, writing and thinking for a living, and this blog enables me to do this. 

And having a second source of income will not only serve as a second income stream to contribute to my wealth-building activities, but protection against loss. What kind of loss protection?

Hedge Against Job Loss

In the most generic terms, “hedging” is a financial strategy used to “protect” one's self from financial loss in case an investment plan doesn’t work out. Along those lines, running this site is a hedge against me losing my primary job. And after all, my overall execution plan for being independently employed or wealthy includes only working for someone else until I’m able to make things take off in several other endeavors I have in the pipeline...

Now you have the truth... I don’t want to work for someone else's company for the rest of my life. There are too many downsides to it, and not enough "perks"... including the most important ones. Which brings me to my next point.

I go to work every day and do things that I don’t always enjoy. I often perform menial tasks which aren’t serving to better myself as a person. I absorb a lot of useless information. The “cushy” position I hold requires that I sacrifice my own time and schedule to be in a certain place at a certain time each day. Work dictates the level of my freedom, and I don’t like that.

Doing what I love is Freedom

As I said, my ultimate goal is to abandon the corporate culture, so I can have freedom to do whatever I want, or whatever I enjoy. And so I can have all the perks that matter. One of those perks is independence.

As I mentioned, I enjoy writing and thinking. Some of the biggest perks of writing for a living are independence and simplicity. All I need is a laptop and an internet connection to do it. It can be done anywhere, anytime. I can take a trip to the mountains with my family for a week, and get all my work done from there as long as I have internet. 

Contrast that with my current job, where I’m tied down to suburbia. If I were to get free of the corporate prison I’m in, the only person who’d be my boss would be my wife, and that’s an idea I rather like entertaining.

Be my own boss

That brings me to Reason Number Three: bosses. I actually really like the boss I work for now. She’s a remarkably talented individual, very fair, and has a great sense of humor. She’s great to work with. The problem is, not everyone else above her share the same qualities. And she’s required to enforce whatever mandates the lumbering bureaucracy above her passes down. It’s the nature of the beast.

I prefer to be my own boss. I’m self-motivated, relatively entrepreneurial, have strong work ethic, and I’m great at working with other people. Ideally, I’d like to be my own boss someday. That way, I won’t ever feel like I have to “stick it to the man” or fight against the current of management. That’s not always welcome in a corporate culture.

Never forced to compromise my principles

This is Reason Number Four. One thing about working for someone else is that you aren’t always free to say or do what you want. In many corporate cultures, employees are expected to be “Yes Men”, or to do whatever they are told. They have to toe the company line, go along with things they disagree with, and sometimes are even forced to do things that are immoral, or that compromise their standards and principles.

This happens a lot at financial firms like mine where employees have an inherent conflict of interest. They’re expected to sell a product to clients, and make money for the company whether or not they actually think the product is crap. 

Contrast this with my writing, wherein I only give advice on what I think is a good idea. To do otherwise would ruin me in short order.

Working for myself, running my blog, I’m able to independently express my thoughts and ideas without fear of repercussion. I’m free to say what I want, and give whatever opinion comes to mind. And, I actually like going on record, because I’m confident that the research and writing I do are thorough and accurate.

To make the final point on this, what I write isn’t biased. I don’t write about a company after being paid to do so by them, nor do I usually own the investment I’m recommending. If I did, I would have a legal obligation to disclose that.

I love to write

Now for Reason Number Five: Writing. I love writing, plain and simple. Researching a topic that’s interesting to me, and writing about it, is something I’ve enjoyed since college. I genuinely love and am fascinated with the financial markets. Writing in this vein gives me a creative outlet, and challenges me to find an idea, explore it, explain it, and figure out how to use it. I love being challenged. And writing actually helps me learn things better.

Always learning

That brings me to Reason Number 6: Learning. I consider myself a lifelong learner. The world of finance, economics, and investments can be complicated, but it also breaks down into simple little compartments that fit together to form the basis of society that gives us the life we have. I enjoy learning everything I can about these topics, and I enjoy helping other learn as well. It’s fulfilling to me to receive feedback that the advice I give is not only unconventional and intuitive, but useful and profitable. My goal is to help people become independent, successful, and wealthy. This, in turn, allows my readers to help others do the same, pass on what they know, and live fulfilling, satisfying lives. And who doesn’t want that legacy?

Low-margin business that can be done anywhere

Reason Number Seven: Writing is a low-overhead, high-margin business. All it takes to maintain my business is my head, an internet connection, and a laptop. And frankly, the cost of internet access and computers go down every day. I’m in a high-margin, declining-cost business. That’s a business model I really like.

I hope by writing the above, this question has been effectively put to bed once and for all. In summary, why do I do this?

• Writing increases my skills, diversifies my job prospects, and provides me with more than one income
• I like working for myself, and doing so gives me the lifestyle and autonomy I want in my life
• Once things are scaled up, I’ll be able to abandon the the corporate culture and focus exclusively on something I love
• I have freedom of thought and expression in all aspects of my work
• I love the work, and love to share what I do with others
• The work is fulfilling to me in every way
• It’s a great business with very little risk

So to answer the original question posed in today's title... do geniuses write financial blogs? Yes, if they feel like it. Do I think I'm a genius? No I don't. But I think if you spend some time reading through what I write on my site, you'll realize I do have some pretty good ideas.

So don't be shy... visit my site regularly. Stay awhile. Obsess over it. And tell your friends, so we can all be fellow-citizens of the Village.

Live long and invest,

Jeremiah