Is Strong Money Australia Just Fake Finance News?

Fake news!

That’s what President Trump might call this blog.

And he could be right.  Especially considering I haven’t actually invented any of these savings ideas or investment strategies.

All this finance and wealth creation stuff has been true for a long, long time.  Since before I was even born!

So could I be a phony, who is just financial fake news in disguise?

Well maybe.  But most often, fake news refers to fabricated stories, or which contain very little truth.

So I think this blog gets away from being labelled ‘fake news’.  And there is no ill-intent here.  I’m just sharing things I’ve learned on my journey to financial independence.  And in doing so, hope that it makes a difference to others, propelling them forward on their own path to early retirement.

But it’s absolutely true that this is ‘fake news’ in the sense that there is nothing new here at all.  So it’s not news at all, just some stuff that my brain feels like regurgitating on a weekly basis!

Is this guy for real?

Some folks are probably thinking, who the hell is this guy?

Rambling on about some dividend strategy, when he invested mainly in property.  He supposedly quit work at 28.  Maybe he’s really a bum and lacks ambition.

Either way, he’s obviously some kind of freak.  I mean, that’s not really possible, is it?  Maybe he’s just full of shit?

These are fair criticisms.  And hopefully over time they will all be cleared up for any doubters.  (Although, there’ll be new doubters, like the Internet Retirement Police.)

So I’ll continue to stick around and share my points of view, for as long as I enjoy this blogging gig.

I’ve already confessed that we had it pretty damn good, with our wages and living situation over the years, allowing us to have a high savings rate.

Not to mention my partner had a good amount of equity in her house, which we were able to borrow against for extra investment.

Although, I explained in a previous article how we could have retired at the same time, without my partners equity, due to our high savings rate and low expenses.

Nothing to see here…

Recently, I was thinking about personal finance (as I do), and decided to write this article.

Apologies if you don’t learn anything today… but it’s my blog after all!

Funnily enough, there is little that changes in the personal finance world.

Such as the importance of saving, regardless of how much you earn.  How compound interest turns small amounts, into some truly massive numbers.  And investing your savings into the highest performing assets, like shares or real estate.

These principles stay the same.

And that’s the strange part.  With so many finance blogs out there nowadays… why do they exist?  Why do people read more than 1 blog, if it’s essentially the same information?

The answer is not in the principles, but how they’re explained.

Essentially, many of us finance bloggers are singing from the same hymn sheet.  But we each may have different interpretations and we approach, or explain things in our own way.

And since we’re all different, we’ll pick up little snippets of info from different writers, even though it’s the same core message.

How we learn

An example of this may be two friends who are listening to a person give a presentation (on any subject).

After the speech, they will each come away with different opinions about what the main message was, and what it means for them.  They’ll each interpret the information differently.

I found this myself a while ago.  Since I’m regularly reading finance and investment books/articles, I do occasionally learn some things 🙂

And I’ve noticed that when something (eventually) clicks into place in my mind, I will recognise that I’ve read it somewhere else before… but didn’t quite get it, until now.

Interestingly, it’s probably not because one writer is better than the other.  It’s because the writers each explained it in their own way, and my mind absorbed it better from one writer, than the other.

Maybe it was the words the writer used, or just the way they explained it.  But the main thing is, the way it was written the second time, made the most sense to me, so it sunk in!

The point is, we each learn differently, from different people.

And this brings me to why I’m writing this blog.

My reluctance to write

Initially, when I started to talk to a few friends about my soon-to-be early retirement, one said I should write a book.

Straight away, I dismissed the idea as silly.  After all, I had nothing new to say.  I had simply copied strategies and ideas from other people, that I’d read elsewhere.

Now I think a bit differently.  While I have no desire to write a book, I do think there is some value in writing a casual blog, discussing things I’ve learned.

And since my friend encouraged me to at least write down some of the stuff I was saying, there are plenty of draft articles in the works.  (thanks Lee)

Because our journeys are all different, that’s where our value lies.  My journey is different to someone else’s.  And I can share my own point of view, with specific things that helped me.

Most importantly, I can explain things in my own way

Strong Money Australia is a working compilation of all the things I’ve pieced together, read, seen and even heard.  Most of all, it’s what I’ve learned from my own journey to financial freedom.

So I feel I do have something to say that may be a little different.  And even if it’s just a different way of thinking or explaining, it might enable some people to see things in a way they hadn’t considered before.

Besides, I was looking for an opportunity to spend some of my newfound free time in a productive way.

Since managing money and finances seems to be something I do a reasonable job at, I figured naturally I’d spend some time trying to help others in the finance space.  I have very little other skills!

And importantly, it’s by far the industry I’m most interested in!

Some people won’t find my blog helpful.  They’ll learn better from other writers’ take on things.  And that’s fine, that’s exactly the way it should be.

As a group, personal finance bloggers will be reaching more people and enlightening a larger audience on how better to manage our money, because we’re each sharing our own unique views, with our own style of writing.

So hopefully you’ll stick around.  Maybe you’ll even find some nuggets of helpful info, amongst the rambling nonsense!