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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a child, my dad was a cop and my mom was a PE teacher. They barely went to college. (One went to community college and one finished at age 30).

I was always good at math but did not pursue business undergrad. Went to a top ranked school but majored in political science.  Thought I would be a lawyer. Worked in a law firm and hated it. Then got an entry level job in business (.com in the late 90s). I liked it.

Pursued my MBA full time, then have had a career at 3 Fortune 500s. I now know how to invest, mainly because I learned personal finance is not that hard and does not really involve much math beyond percents and the time value of money.

I have a teen daughter now who is very much not into math, but I will help her with personal finance more when she is a young adult.

What more do you want to know?

[/quote]

How can someone totally illiterate financial learn personal finance? [/quote]

PP here with the MBA. I feel like people overly complicate personal finance.  If you want to learn about it, have confidence in yourself that it's not that hard.

1) Go to the personal finance section of the library.  SO many good books.  My personal favorites are A Random Walk Down Wall Street (summary - stock markets have had bubbles since the Dutch tulip craze, and buying and hold the broadest swatch of the market is the best return for the least amount of risk.) and Personal Finance  for Dummies, but also books by Jean Chatsky, Dave Ramsey, Michelle Singletary, Suze Orman, Ric Edelman, etc.

2) there are so many great and free online sources of QUALITY personal finance advice.  I'm not talking Game Stop stock tips or day trading.  I'm talking Bogleheads, NerdWallet, Wise Bread, Get Rich Slowly, etc.   Reddit Personal Finance also has SOME reputable stuff.

3) there is a Netflix series I will Teach You To Be Rich, by Ramit Sethi, and he has a book by the same.  Some great stuff in there.  There are other TV shows like Suze Orman and Til Debt Do Us Part, and there are some great podcasts like Smart Money, etc.

4) Take a community college course on personal finance.  Totally worth it to learn the basics.

5) Don't pay for investments you don't fully understand. (Example - annuities - they typically have complicated contracts and don't return much relative to their fees, but vulnerable people buy them for "guaranteed" income, not realizing that the costs eat into their returns.)

6) Find reputable financial planners at napfa.org

It's like anything you have to learn - give yourself some modest goals (I will read 1 personal finance book each quarter) and see how you do this year.

For what it's worth, I'm terrible at sports, so I'm doing my exercise and personal fitness version of this slowly and with reputable sources, and just letting myself be bad at it at first but am gradually getting better.

Hope this helps you.[/quote]

May I ask how you are applying this approach to educating yourself about personal fitness? [/quote]

So my approach to fitness in the same way:

Let my ego go. I’m better at math than fitness, but everybody starts somewhere. Just like there will always be someone richer than you or someone who was born with more money, they will always be someone fitter, stronger or better looking than you. Do the best with what you have.

Ask questions. Again, let the ego go.
Read and absorb a lot about the topic. There are lots of resources but only some are reputable. Question the source of everything. A nutritionist or dietitian is probably better than an instagram post.

Give yourself small, measurable, consistent goals. For me it was joining a weightlifting class, which I have done consistently over 100 times last year, up from 0 the year before. This is the same principle as pay yourself first, dollar cost averaging, and auto debiting to invest in personal finance. [/quote]

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