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If you haven’t gotten tired of these unconventional financial insights by now, you probably won’t after this one either. Today I’m bringing you something with an almost talk-show vibe, but with a perfectly meaningful lesson you can use in your daily life.
In this world of copied content, I want to share authentic thoughts that I believe you need to hear – thoughts that will help you think outside the box about your financial journey.
The Baby Food Experiment
Picture this: you have a jar of baby food – the glass kind. You buy it at the store, put it in the refrigerator, and it cools down until it’s cold. When you want to give it to the baby, you need to warm it up first.
But the heating process differs completely with one tiny step…
Method One: Without Stirring
You heat water and bring it to a boil – the usual way we warm baby food from glass jars. You boil the water in a kettle because you’re financially conscious and don’t see the need for a specialized baby food warmer.
You place the baby food jar in a bowl, remove the lid, and submerge it neck-deep in hot water. In this first method, you don’t stir the baby food at all.
Here’s my question: if you don’t stir the baby food, what happens to the inside? The water will cool down, and the center of the baby food remains cold, don’t you think?
This is a real example – I know because I have a six-month-old son and I warm baby food for him. I’ll admit I’m practical about it – I buy it from the store rather than making it from scratch because, honestly, I’d rather pay for convenience than drive myself crazy making homemade baby food.
Fact: If you don’t stir, the inside stays cold.
Method Two: With Stirring
If you stir the baby food during the heating process, the food particles transfer heat to each other. When they share the heat, the entire jar can warm evenly. Makes sense, right? This can even be a faster process than the first method.
The second solution seems much more rational – the food your baby eats (who’s very important to you) will be delicious and at the optimal temperature, and you won’t burn their tongue because you didn’t mix it properly.
While this might seem obvious (because everyone stirs baby food), here’s the point: if you don’t stir during the process, it won’t be as warm as if you had mixed it, and it might even be scalding hot on the outside while cold inside.
How This Connects to Your Financial Life
Now, let me tell you how this whole story applies to your life. Pay attention and think, because I write every piece to make you reflect and adapt these thoughts to your life. I do this because I genuinely care about your success.
You are the baby food jar.
Think about it: if you were this baby food jar and you wanted to reorganize your life financially – how do these two different approaches affect you financially?
If I place you in hot water – and this hot water represents learning about finances (because we typically absorb knowledge as humans) – consider what your life looks like if you only superficially encounter financial knowledge.
You invest, do something foolish, get burned badly, and politely exit the game.
Without a community or knowledge base you can actually use daily, you’ll be exactly like that first jar of baby food. You’ll understand something about finances, but you won’t be able to make rational and conscious financial decisions.
However, in the second case, where you evenly heat the baby food and stir things up, you step out of your comfort zone and become fully capable of implementing new financial habits and developing workable financial plans.
Why This Matters to You
If you’re reading financial content regularly, waiting to see “what insight will I learn today” or “what will make me think again,” then money comes to mind more often in your daily life – and you want more for yourself.
If you didn’t want more, why would you read financial newsletters? You’re not doing it to pass time – you could watch Netflix, scroll TikTok, or do countless other things for hours.
If you’ve made it this far, your happiness and financial situation matter to you. And there’s nothing wrong with being materialistically minded.
The shop owner who sells you bread is materialistic too – she doesn’t give it away for free. Neither does the baker who makes it, who doesn’t get flour for free, and the seed isn’t free either, nor is the water used to irrigate it, or the land they bought.
Everyone is materialistic to some degree.
The Importance of Comprehensive Financial Education
Here’s what I realized while feeding my son rice, vegetable, and chicken baby food: I was thinking about how to make your life better. This is nothing but professional dedication. I see money in everything and I’m passionate about improving your life with it.
The “baby food” you choose for yourself in life – meaning the financial knowledge you consume – matters enormously. But where do you get this knowledge?
Just like baby food has nutritional content, and it’s absolutely important that you get the best, your financial education should be comprehensive and practical.
I teach what I practice, not the other way around. Theory is beautiful, but if I don’t test these financial insights and investments in practice, I can’t honestly teach you as your instructor.
I don’t want to be like my university finance professor, who clearly came to work because his wife had kicked him out of the house. It’s pointless to tell you something tastes good if it’s actually terrible.
Understanding Your Financial “Taste Preferences”
I have no idea whether you prefer “sweet” options (like stocks), “salty” choices (real estate investments), or perhaps “bitter” flavors appeal to you (cryptocurrency). Do you understand the analogy? I can’t tell you what to do exactly, I am NOT a financial advisor, just a teacher.
This is important to understand because I don’t care financially what your taste is. I can’t change that, and I don’t want to!
If something appeals to you – there’s nothing better than that. If you’re curious about the world and want to discover new flavors, just like when you travel somewhere beautiful and try local foods, that’s wonderful.
My goal isn’t to force “salty things” on you if you don’t like them. If you don’t have money for a house, that’s fine – there are thousands of other options that require less monthly investment.
The Comprehensive Approach
Think of comprehensive financial education as having subcategories where you’ll find many different options – all educational materials about money.
Consider that you might not love “salty flavors,” but you look to see what salty is like. Translated to finances: you might not want to be a real estate investor today, but you can watch those materials and use them later in life if you want.
Or you might discover that you can be a real estate investor in the stock market through REITs or certain crowdfunding apps.
These become lifelong knowledge assets.
You don’t have to go through everything if you don’t currently love that particular “flavor.” These aren’t building-block courses but standalone usable materials.
If you’re only interested in stock investing, financial motivation content, the FIRE movement, or just saving and budgeting right now – these are all separate “flavors” you can explore individually on my site.
You don’t need to go through everything if you don’t love that specific thing today.
The Power of Financial Diversity
From saving to career changes, from entrepreneurial activities to various stock market investment types, comprehensive financial education covers everything.
I let you discover the world we live in and its various investment and financial subspecies. The beauty is in the diversity – different approaches for different people at different stages of their financial journey.
If you take it somewhat seriously, you could save a lot of money in a year, even starting from nothing. I know this because I have students who’ve done exactly that.
Moving Forward
The metaphor is simple but powerful: surface-level financial knowledge is like uneven heating – it might look warm on the outside, but inside you’re still cold and unprepared. Real financial growth requires stirring things up, getting uncomfortable, and fully immersing yourself in the learning process.
Whether you choose stocks, real estate, entrepreneurship, or any other financial path, the key is comprehensive understanding and consistent application. Just like properly heated baby food, your financial knowledge needs to be warmed evenly throughout to nourish your future properly.
The world of personal finance has many flavors to explore. The important thing is to start tasting them thoughtfully, understanding what works for your situation, and building a comprehensive approach that serves your long-term goals.
