Tendency to want to get in the weeds and do the work. The real job of an exec is managing people, and anything that distracts from that make the company worse.
For example, I knew a founder who skipped a meeting with potential investors because there was a bug he was figuring out. He fixed the problem, and he did it better than any other employees could have, but that's not where he was needed.
Simplefin is new to me! I downloaded buckets but didn't really get past setup because I need sync, it's just infeasible otherwise with how many accounts I have.
What is this crap? EVs are all over the place and so is renewable energy. Emmissions are falling. We haven't opened a new coal plant in a generation.
And ok, we keep driving emissions down, what about biodiversity loss across the planet? How many plants and animals are currently on the brink of extinction?
Ok? It's bad and we're working to fix it. That's very different than "we're all doomed and should stop doing anything".
Where is the international agreement to help modernize these countries with renewable energies? Who's going to pay for it?
Oh neat! I'm checking them out now. I especially like the podcast, I've been getting deep into podcasts recently.
I never understood why some people are so gung-ho about podcasts until I started listening to a couple of good ones. It's like the TVTropes effect, you're listening to a good podcast and then they have a guest on who also has their own podcast so you start listening to them, and then it snowballs...
One podcast I recently found is called Climate Now and it's a great briefer on the nuts and bolts of climate policy and actions.
There's basically two approaches to a budget: the "here's what you should spend" approach and the "here's what you are spending" approach. A lot of people looking at getting their finances under control will try the first approach without ever doing the second one, and it causes problems. You can set a goal like "only spend $100 a month on groceries", but that's totally arbitrary and may not work at all for your situation! It might be that the absolute bare bones minimum you (or your family) can get by on in your area is $150 a month of groceries, so then you break your budget every month so then you get depressed so then you stop budgeting.
My advice is to just track your actual spending for a few months. Don't try to change everything at once. Focus on one category at a time, see if you can bring that down. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. Don't make an aspirational budget. Your very first budget should just be a basic list of what you actually spend. Once you know that, then you can decide a plan of action.
This software is You Need A Budget, which is a paid software. It's $14/mo, which I think is worth it since it helps me save far more than that. I used to use Mint, but since it's been killed there's a lack of good budgeting software that will do automatic recording of transactions.
Other good options I've seen are Monarch Money, Simplifi, Personal Capital, and Rocket Money.
Budgeting software is a massive force multiplier. Here's a screenshot of my spending last month, categorized by my budget software. It's fairly high, because I had a large vet bill (which I was expecting and had saved for) and I got a bonus which went into my IRA. This is just an overview; you can go deeper into each category and see every single transaction.
One thing I see a lot on the reddit personal finance sub is people posting a budget like this:
Our monthly income is ~$6,500 net
House is worth 325k
401k’s have about 400k
I also have a pension in retirement
Bills—- Mortgage/esgrow $1800 Owe $105k
2nd mortgage $1000 Owe 105k
Car payment $617 2nd car paid off est value of 37k
Insurance $370
Phone bill $250
Utilities $250
Groceries $1200
Life insurance $135
Credit debt ~37k over 3 different cards. 10k @0%
Mortgage is at 2.75% 2nd is at 11%
Which...ok, that's waaaaay better than nothing. We have something to go off of here. Phone bill is crazy high, that's a ton of cc debt, etc. But it could be so much better. It doesn't explain why the cc debt is so high. Why do they have a 2nd mortgage? How many people is that grocery bill feeding? Where's the "eating out", "movies", "vacations", "random gas station snacks", the stuff that might have caused the cc debt in the first place? The more granular the better.
Ah shit what are those goalposts doing way over there? I swear they were right here a second ago.
Emissions are going down.
People are stupid. They like Leftist policies, but as soon as a Leftist says them, they hate it.
Thanks! I figure I'll just make random posts with financial advice until we get more discussion
Maybe - and yeah this is fucking WILD but hear me out - maybe Leftism just isn't as popular as you think it is?
That's not being rigged, it's a Democratic Party election. No shit someone from outside the party will have less influence.
The stupid ass Russian propaganda that you people swallowed afterwards turned you into a generation of non voters.
Conspiracy theorists are mentally ill.
Dude, I literally voted in the primary. What the fuck are you talking about?
That's accurate
Tendency to want to get in the weeds and do the work. The real job of an exec is managing people, and anything that distracts from that make the company worse.
For example, I knew a founder who skipped a meeting with potential investors because there was a bug he was figuring out. He fixed the problem, and he did it better than any other employees could have, but that's not where he was needed.
Simplefin is new to me! I downloaded buckets but didn't really get past setup because I need sync, it's just infeasible otherwise with how many accounts I have.
What is this crap? EVs are all over the place and so is renewable energy. Emmissions are falling. We haven't opened a new coal plant in a generation.
Ok? It's bad and we're working to fix it. That's very different than "we're all doomed and should stop doing anything".
https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement
The effort is not enough...yet. As long as we don't start backsliding, we're seeing an increase in effort year over year.
THIS is the grifter bullshit. "Don't bother acting, it's too late". Fossil fuel doomer propaganda.
I've never got a good job from a job board. Always recruiters.
Oh neat! I'm checking them out now. I especially like the podcast, I've been getting deep into podcasts recently.
I never understood why some people are so gung-ho about podcasts until I started listening to a couple of good ones. It's like the TVTropes effect, you're listening to a good podcast and then they have a guest on who also has their own podcast so you start listening to them, and then it snowballs...
One podcast I recently found is called Climate Now and it's a great briefer on the nuts and bolts of climate policy and actions.
There's basically two approaches to a budget: the "here's what you should spend" approach and the "here's what you are spending" approach. A lot of people looking at getting their finances under control will try the first approach without ever doing the second one, and it causes problems. You can set a goal like "only spend $100 a month on groceries", but that's totally arbitrary and may not work at all for your situation! It might be that the absolute bare bones minimum you (or your family) can get by on in your area is $150 a month of groceries, so then you break your budget every month so then you get depressed so then you stop budgeting.
My advice is to just track your actual spending for a few months. Don't try to change everything at once. Focus on one category at a time, see if you can bring that down. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. Don't make an aspirational budget. Your very first budget should just be a basic list of what you actually spend. Once you know that, then you can decide a plan of action.
This software is You Need A Budget, which is a paid software. It's $14/mo, which I think is worth it since it helps me save far more than that. I used to use Mint, but since it's been killed there's a lack of good budgeting software that will do automatic recording of transactions.
Other good options I've seen are Monarch Money, Simplifi, Personal Capital, and Rocket Money.
Budgeting software is a massive force multiplier. Here's a screenshot of my spending last month, categorized by my budget software. It's fairly high, because I had a large vet bill (which I was expecting and had saved for) and I got a bonus which went into my IRA. This is just an overview; you can go deeper into each category and see every single transaction.
One thing I see a lot on the reddit personal finance sub is people posting a budget like this:
Which...ok, that's waaaaay better than nothing. We have something to go off of here. Phone bill is crazy high, that's a ton of cc debt, etc. But it could be so much better. It doesn't explain why the cc debt is so high. Why do they have a 2nd mortgage? How many people is that grocery bill feeding? Where's the "eating out", "movies", "vacations", "random gas station snacks", the stuff that might have caused the cc debt in the first place? The more granular the better.