Financial Wellness: More Training vs Better Tools
Mastering a skill is about more than just training. It requires the right tools to execute that skill in the "real world". The best way to learn any skill is to acquire basic foundational knowledge and practice it using the right tools. The skill of Financial Wellness (or "financial literacy") is no different. Countless educational materials and training courses are available to help someone become more financially literate, but it takes more than lots of training to achieve financial wellness. It also takes the right tools to make good decisions with money.
A great carpenter doesn't just read books to learn about the trade. No one would expect a master carpenter to be effective by standing on a concrete slab next to a pile of lumber, reciting facts about board feet, roof angles, and load-bearing capacities. He'd better have a well-stocked toolbox with him, or nothing will get done.
Or think of a professional copywriter who is well-versed in the art of writing. They often have a wide range of skills, knowledge, and expertise to do their job well. Artificial intelligence (AI) writing technology has changed how we think about content creation. It has given copywriters access to a wide range of new tools that can help them do their jobs better and faster. In fact, not focusing on available new tools and technologies such as AI would likely mean being left behind by others in the copywriting profession.
Copywriters should not think of AI writers as a replacement for human copywriters. On the contrary, they assist content writers by getting rid of writer's block and generating content ideas at scale. With AI assistance, copywriters can put their skills to use more efficiently. This assistance helps ensure they're not wasting time on skillsets they don't have and instead focus on what they're best at - creativity and emotions.
For many, budgeting is the first essential concept to master on the path to financial wellness. Peer-based budgeting is a relatively new concept to help people simplify and “stick to” the budgeting process. It can be an app-based system where people can set up a "peer group" of individuals with similar spending habits or concerns and share their budgets with each other.
Other apps (such as SPENDiD) offer an unbiased database of the actual spending habits of a user's peer group. Users can generate a monthly budget based on proven spending and saving behaviors of a defined persona. This data and logic empower the user to more confidently assess their primary expense category structure and make better spending decisions in the future. In addition, knowledge of proven peer spending and saving behaviors helps remove the stress of the unknown. This knowledge allows users to more easily see how much they have left to spend (or save), or how much spending they may need to reduce after paying their known fixed significant expenses.
Such data-driven budgeting applications are an example of better tools leading to better results. Of course, qualified financial literacy training is never a bad idea. But adding in better tools that get the job done faster and more effectively will lead to better results that compound positively over time.
