There are so many rules in the personal finance space. Some are helpful, others not so much.

Let's set aside the bad ones for a minute (for example, stop buying avocado toast) and discuss the helpful ones. What comes to mind? I went through this practice and wrote down a bunch in preparation for an episode with Jesse Cramer on The Best Interest.

I realized many would only be helpful for a certain group of people or at a particular time in someone's personal finance journey. One that comes to mind is to "avoid credit cards." This would be a great rule for those struggling with credit card debt. Probably not so great for everyone else.

But through this process, I did land on 5 golden rules that I think would be helpful for everyone regardless of their situation...and Jesse did the same.  Of course, as two podcasters would do, we took to the mics and debated our list.

This conversation first aired on Jesse’s podcast, The Best Interest. Jesse is a good friend and has been on the show many of times. If you haven’t done so yet, go check out his podcast. He does a great job breaking down complex, financial topics and simplifying them through analogies and stories. You’ll get a taste of his style in this episode.

Key Takeaways:

• Why do you need to track your money?
• How gift cards trick you into spending more
• The best investment is in yourself
• Simple is better than complex (almost always)
• Why and how you should prepare for risk.
• Why you MUST automate your finances, as much as possible
• Think long-term, but don’t forget the present

Mentions:

The original episode on The Best Interest: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/an-informative-debate-the-most-important-rules/id1553180943?i=1000651974649

More of Jesse:

Blog: www.bestinterest.blog

More of The Struggle is Real:

Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/

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