There is no doubt that financial personalities like Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman have helped millions–maybe tens of millions–of people to achieve levels of financial stability and success that they may never have been able to achieve without their advice and prodding. Their consistent messages about budgeting, spending wisely, avoiding debt, saving, and investing have been incredibly helpful.
While this is true, it is also true that their advice is targeted for the great middle. If you’re going to spread a message to the majority of people, then by nature it is going to be broad, general, and easy to grasp. And if you’re going to spread a message that is broad, general, and easy to grasp, then it is going to appeal to the majority. These are facts of life.
Because of that, you rarely hear Dave or Suze talk about things like tax loss harvesting, the value premium, donor-advised funds, and many other higher level concepts in personal finance. Instead, you hear that everyone should invest 15% of their income–no more, no less–in four types of mutual funds. Most people don’t need to know about those higher level concepts, but everyone needs to save money for retirement. So the broad message is consistent with the broad target audience.
Advancing From Baby Steps To Next Steps
I draw an analogy between Dave Ramsey’s advice and math. Everyone needs to know basic arithmetic: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, percentages, order of operations, etc. These are baby steps. Fewer people need to know algebra, and even fewer need to know trigonometry or calculus. Dave talks about the basic arithmetic of personal finance; at NextStepsPersonalFinance.com, we talk about the trigonometry and calculus of personal finance. We cover the higher level, more intricate concepts that not everyone needs to know, but that are important for the people who need to know them. When you’re ready to move beyond baby steps, NextStepsPersonalFinance.com is for you.
That means that we talk about things like tax strategies, investment diversification, asset location, enhanced charitable giving, and more.
It also means we won’t have 18 million radio listeners, won’t sell millions of books, and won’t have monthly subscription services.
If you’re here, that means you’re looking for something else, something more than the basics. That’s what we aim to provide.
We’re so glad you’re here. Enjoy!