The Problem with Saving Apps

Apps, like Mylo, that are designed to take some of your money from each purchases and invest it for you are a great idea. It’s an neat idea to trick people into saving money. However it does little to help us build the discipline required for financial success. It's a step in the right direction but there's still work that we have to do on our part in order to be on the right track.

At the end of the day/year/goal, what you do with that money save will be the determining factor of your financial situation. Will you use that $4000 you saved with the help of the app to buy a new TV? Or will you leave it in the app so that it can keep growing?

The decision is yours. The apps can help you but you are still the person who’s in control of it all. Get better with your finances by gaining the financial discipline necessary for it.

School Grades Doesn't Mean Much

Parents put a lot of emphasis on their child’s grades. They somehow associate the grade with how successful the child will be at life. Whether or not the child passed English or Math or any other subject doesn’t determine how successful he’ll be in life.

Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is a college dropout… and he’s still done pretty good for himself.

“Success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”
-Jamison Wooden

The grade a child gets on a paper is not as important as the effort he put towards it. A child that did a A+ without working is not in a better position than the one who worked hard for his C. Later in life, it's the work ethic that will be the most valued. I worked with Grade A students as well as Grade C ones and I can't really tell the difference between the 2 but I can certainly tell who works harder than the other.

Knowledge and Communication

We all have all the knowledge in the world at our fingertips but it doesn't seem to make us any better people. I would argue that having this “power” has made us more arrogant than ever. We never seem to approach communication with a spirit of understanding but rather a spirit of “I know more than you - here let me show you”.

“All great victories in life begin with a victory over self.” -Orrin Woodward

Arrogance doesn't add value: It sucks out the life of a conversation. What, then, is require for us to become better conversationalists? To me, it is clear that simply having access to all the knowledge in the world isn't enough. We must also spend the time to learn about ourselves and how to interact with others. What's the point of knowing the distance between the Earth and the Moon when we can't share this information in a spirit of understanding?

One of the best communicator to ever live was Socrates. He communicated by asking questions to not only better understand the subject himself but also share his thoughts through this approach. What better way to gain understanding than to have the communication filled with questions on both sides? It does sound better than simply sharing facts doesn't it?

Let's be more like Socrates in our conversations.