Personal finance is important because it gives you the freedom to live your life as you choose to live. When you borrow and accrue debt, you start having to live your life as someone else dictates. If people understood this simple fact, personal finance would not look so boring any more!

The other issue is that the results of handling or not handling money well is not immediate either. If you could see the impact of what you’ve done immediately instead of 3-5 years down the road, you’d (mostly) behave differently…

A. NASD compliance regulations and securities laws basically strip creativity from marketing material. Even if it’s “educational,” it’s marketing material. Early on I had the experience of writing some copy and it was rejected, leaving me to gasp something like, “Whadya mean I can’t say that?!” Everything must be hypothetical, sometimes even the data! Since Kiyosaki doesn’t fall under securities laws, he can say whatever he likes.

B. Being a retail investor (that’s you) should actually be boring in the same way you want your flight from SFO to Heathrow to be uneventful. If you want excitement, go to a casino.

C. Most people can’t or won’t balance their checkbook, do an annual net worth statement, or consciously select a competitive credit card product, and are just so caught up in the bizarre bazaar of daily life. Investing requires some forethought as to goals and strategies—a game plan. Then you have to work the plan. It’s like a small business. Damn boring unless you really love it.

D. stratamarr on oct 3, got pretty close to the heart of the matter.

E. Each person’s circumstances are individual. Ever notice those full-page, small print drug ads with all the possible side effects and risks? Maybe mutual funds ought to have those.

F. Deep down, most people think they’re entitled to getting rich quick,and that there’s some secret to it. There ain’t no secret kids. Statistically, the odds are long for sudden wealth. But each new generation thinks, “There must be a way, and I think I can discover it.” That’s what I thought in 1965, too.

G. Even if they could, investment companies don’t want to be controversial, at the margin, or near the edge because the price of failure is high. Thus, you, as a consumer, are doomed to mediocre guidance. And by mediocrity, I mean investment performance that fails to match benchmark indexes.

But most of you don’t believe– or don’t want to believe– any of this, so forge on ahead and best of luck to you.

There’s nothing new or exciting about how to save for retirement or make sound investments. To many people, even the stuff here is going to be dull as bones and not worth lingering over. The average visitor here cares more about their finances and wants to know more about how things really work, I suspect. The same with many of the financial advice blogs. So what’s written here can be for those people.

What major websites write about money is usually tailored to the people who need it most and want to read it least. It keeps to the basics, and therefore is uninteresting to those who already know and follow the basics. It’s not impossible to spice up the fundamentals, but it doesn’t seem to happen much.

Also – This article reminds me of my college text books. Very educational, very boring. Why must text books be as boring as this article? I think because fun and entertaining doesn’t give credibility. Becase we’ve all read this type of article 50000 times as Jonathan suggested, perhaps credibility is the purpose of this article so it is intentionally boring.

Or maybe the guy who wrote it had a lobotomy last month

There’s a big difference between a marketing publication and a personal blog experiment that is a sort of diary. The writing I’ve done in business, which is designed to communicate, motivate, etc. requires lots of critical thinking and discipline, unlike a personal diary.

imo, the language, vocab and style of targeted writing belongs rightfully and proudly to the reader (as much as to the writer), like a gift you’re making for them, and I believe it’s hard to do a great job of it unless you have a true liking and respect for that reader. I understand that the style and approach of this article is a standard one that works, but still personally prefer to be offered information and/or empowerment without the fence-sitting negative motivation.

For example, I’d rather read either:
10 Really Dumb Things Investors Do or
10 Briliant Things Investors Should Do

This is my personal opinion. I’m always interested in hearing argument, such as why this style is preferred by others?

Vera

For your masters thesis, is it something that is enjoyable to read? Did you put it out on your coffee table for casual visitors to read?

The point I am trying to make is that certain topics or the way one writes is industry specific. Would your professor accept your thesis if it was hip and funny even though the message was still the same?