“I’m not a numbers person” can sound like a simple description of yourself. Maybe it came from school, or from a time somebody explained something badly and you felt lost. But that experience does not tell you what you could learn now, especially when the reason for learning is something you actually need.
In the script I’m working from for The Observation Room, I keep coming back to the names we put on ourselves. I’m in sales. I’m a teacher. I’m too old to start that. Those descriptions can leave out a lot of what we know how to do, and they can stop us from looking at something before we understand it.
I spent a lot of years in mortgages, so the way I picture it is a pre-approval letter. The number on the letter helps determine which houses you look at. The ones above it are still there; you just don’t walk in. We can carry something similar around about ourselves, except nobody asks us to look at it again. We keep using an old answer for a possibility we haven’t actually checked.
If you want to sound smarter without doing more…
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There are real limits. Time, money, training, and the responsibilities you already have all matter. I’m not saying you can wish those away. I’m asking whether “I can’t” is describing one of those limits or whether it is a conclusion you reached a long time ago and have never looked at again.
If there is something about money you keep avoiding because it feels unfamiliar, make the question smaller. Take one term you don’t understand and find an explanation you can follow. You do not have to make a financial decision just because you are learning about it. Understanding enough to ask the next question is useful on its own.
Friday’s private-equity episode is an example of the kind of understanding I mean. I explain the different pockets involved in a deal and follow where the money goes. You don’t have to be interested in buying a company to follow that conversation. The purpose is to make the mechanics easier to see, so you can decide what you think about them.
If you prefer reading, start with Friday’s newsletter.
Come into the community and tell me what you would like to understand better. It can be a money question you’ve avoided asking or something you ruled out before you knew much about it. You don’t need to share account numbers or private financial details.
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This is general education, not a recommendation for your individual financial situation.
Michelle