My favorite teachers share a common gift of using analogies to make a teaching point more clear. My mentor and moot court coach in law school (he preferred we call him Sensei) was an expert at analogies.
Back in law school, after working for months on a brief for a moot court competition, my team messed up and submitted a brief with a bad formatting error on the cover page.
We knew we were going to get penalized, but after months of working on it, we still felt proud of our work. And, it felt good to be done.
We called Sensei in celebration that we were finished. When we told him about the formatting error, he was… not pleased.
“You fumbled the ball on the one yard line!”
I told you he was good with analogies.
Analogies can help us internalize key money concepts.
I’ve found that analogies work well when trying to implement key money wellness habits into our lives. Like the idea of generating fuel for our ultimate life goals through our budgeting choices.
I’m always on the lookout for new analogies to help make money concepts more relatable. It probably has to do with the common misconception that being good with money means knowing the ins-and-outs of the stock market.
That just isn’t true.
I want to help people realize that being good with money has little to do with understanding the stock market and more to do with generating money to invest in the first place.
Relating money concepts to other familiar areas of life can help with that.
This is one of the things I like best about teaching personal finance. Money touches all aspects of our lives, whether we like it or not. So, talking about money is really just talking about life. Sometimes that means using analogies.
Which leads us to Peloton.
See you on the leaderboard.
My wife and I bought a Peloton bike during the pandemic, probably like a lot of you. I’m still a big fan, especially because of the flexibility an at-home workout provides when juggling life with kids.
If you’re also a Peloton fan, who are your favorite instructors? For me, it’s Alex Toussaint and Matt Wilpers. And recently, Selena Samuela, because she loves Fourth Wing.
It occurred to me the other day that my friends and I talk about Peloton a fair amount. I pretty much know who all their favorite instructors are and what type of music they ride to. I’ve been accused of having a hot bike that juices my score, which I continue to deny.
There’s nothing better than doing a Peloton ride at home and seeing that your friend is doing the same ride. It gives you a jolt of energy to know your friend, in that exact moment, is doing the same thing as you.
You know where I’m going with this Peloton analogy.
It’s long been normal to talk about and motivate each other to exercise. But, it’s still considered taboo to talk about money.
Why can’t we talk about money the same way we talk about exercising?
I’m guessing that you know exactly what your closest friends and family members do for exercise. Weights? Yoga? Jogging? You also know which people do nothing at all.
I’m also guessing you have no clue what motivates each of these people to work 2,000 plus hours per year to make money.
Or, what their strategies are for using that money they make to fuel their life goals.
Exercising has long been made better with a personal trainer or a friend to keep you on track. Those days when you don’t feel like working out, having someone to push you is a great advantage.
Why shouldn’t we seek out that same great advantage when it comes to our money, something that touches every aspect of our lives?
This idea extends well beyond exercise habits. I’m sure you know your friends’ current favorite travel destinations, books, and food?
For me, it’s Colorado, Fourth Wing, and Italian beef, obviously.
Do you know your friends’ current money goals?
For me, it’s paying down mortgage debt on our rental properties.
What are you waiting for?
When we moved to our new neighborhood, the first people we met at the playground were a lovely couple that own a local fitness center. They’re also real estate investors and have young kids, like us.
We’ve become friends and have had some amazing talks about life and money. In one such talk, I mentioned that I was thinking about starting Think and Talk Money.
My friend heard me out and didn’t say a word until I finished. He then looked me square in the eyes, like only a coach could do, and said, “What are you waiting for?”
He was absolutely right. A few months later, I launched Think and Talk Money and sent him a message thanking him. I was grateful for our talk about life. He was happy to have motivated me.
Our friends can help with money just like they can help with exercise.
Lately, I’ve thought about how much my friends and I can help each other if we talked about money concepts just like we talk about Peloton.
One thing to mention, I don’t want to give you the idea that we’re constantly talking about exercise. It comes up from time to time, every once in a while. That’s enough of a reminder to pay attention to our fitness. Talking money is the same thing.
You don’t have to bring up money with your friends every week or even every month. How about just every once in a while when it’s on your mind? I think you’ll find your friends are the best people to help you stop worrying about money.
I think you’ll also find that you can be the one helping and motivating your friends. You don’t have to be an expert. Sharing any ideas can help jumpstart the thought process for your friends. That’s a really good feeling.
Always remember, the amount of money we have doesn’t matter anymore than our scores on the bike. There’s no reason to talk about numbers unless the people in your life are comfortable with that.
One caveat, I encourage you to talk specifics with certain people who are impacted by your money choices, like a spouse or partner.
The point of talking money is not to compare yourself to others.
Fitness instructors know that it’s not helpful to tell people to compare themselves to each other. We’re all built physically different and emotionally different. Instead, they encourage us to seek personal improvement, consistently over time.
That’s how we should be talking money with our friends.
We all basically agree with this concept, right? That it’s not helpful to compare ourselves to others. That’s a lesson that’s been drilled into our brains since we were kids.
Let’s remember that lesson when we start approaching our friends to talk money. It’s not how much money any of us have, it’s what we’re doing with that money to fuel our goals that matters.
Do you talk to your friends about paying for college?
Many of my friends have young kids like me and saving for college is a common goal we share.
In news that’s not news to anyone, college is expensive.
Wouldn’t it be beneficial for us to talk about how we’re planning to pay for it?
By talking about paying for kids’ college educations with your friends, you may learn about education-specific investment accounts, like 529 plans, which is a common strategy we’ll soon discuss.
You may also learn less common, but potentially more appealing, strategies for your situation. An example is buying an investment property when your kids are young with the intention of selling it years later to pay for college. This is what Brandon Turner did, and he’s a very smart guy.
The idea is you may learn something that makes it more likely to achieve your goals, whether that’s paying for college or anything else, like saving up for a wedding or paying off student loans.
Is there a stronger motivation than helping your friends and loved ones?
You don’t have to talk numbers. Talk about the strategy and help each other stay consistent. You both will benefit.
Is there any stronger motivation in life than helping our friends and loved ones? On the same note, what better people to learn from than your friends, people you know and trust.
That’s what talking money is all about.
Leave a comment below if you’ve talked money with any of your friends lately.
How did it go?
Did you learn anything that you’d recommend when approaching the topic of money?