Don’t Let a Billionaire Tell You What to Do With Your Money
By: Rocco Pendola
Tags: Money, Budget, Personal Finance, Money Management, Saving

Don’t Let a Billionaire Tell You What to Do With Your Money

Source: Author

As usual, Medium readers come through with the best responses. It’s a major reason why I love this platform so much. Top-notch engagement from a sharp audience. I liken the Medium user to a cat — cerebral, thoughtful, and appropriately cynical.

Case in point:

In response to my article on Mark Cuban’s 12-month emergency fund bit, Mike Scarpiello makes a valid point I feel compelled to address. It’s perfectly sane and logical. It’s also the type of friendly disagreement that allows me to let one article build off of the one that came before it.

Here’s the issue I have with Mike’s response, particularly this part:

…it’s borderline insulting when rich people tell middle class people to save the same way they do.

First, I suspect Mark Cuban doesn’t have a 12-month emergency fund. With a net worth in the billions, he probably has a nine-life emergency fund. An emergency fund probably doesn’t fit into Mark Cuban’s personal financial equation. Because it doesn’t have to. He doesn’t have to concern himself with a reduction or loss in income. He’s financially free, by light years.

Second, who cares who the advice comes from if it’s good advice?

Third, you don’t have to follow the advice if you don’t want to. You can adapt it to fit your unique context. As I noted last time I wrote about this:

Not to speak for a billionaire, but I think he realizes 12 months isn’t feasible or even necessary for many people. It’s more about the spirit of the guidance than the hard number.

He being Cuban.

Fourth, this is the sweet spot of personal finance. It’s tough to do the seemingly extreme with your money. If you think Mark Cuban’s 12-month emergency fund advice is difficult, add his recommendation to eliminate all debt to the mix. Toss in the way I allocate my income — into several pots of money, each with a specific purpose — and we’re into territory most people will never enter.

And this is okay.

Because personal finance is personal. It’s not my way or the highway. And I’m not a billionaire. In many ways, I’m the opposite of a billionaire. It’s also part of why I like Cuban. In many ways, he’s the opposite of a billionaire. When I watch him speak about these things, he comes off as a regular guy — confident, but not cocky — who really wants to help people. He’s not a condescending, out to validate himself guru. He’s out to empower people.

When you aim to empower with talk about how to structure our relationships with money, you don’t expect people to follow every little thing you do to the letter of the law. You simply want to throw your ideas, thoughts, and experiences out there in the hope that they might help set people on a righteous path.

If you hear Mark Cuban spewing the 12-month emergency fund advice, you might not run out and take five years to accumulate an emergency fund of that size. But you might pay off your credit card, then use the money that was going towards that debt to take six months to build a still formidable emergency fund. You’re on a roll so you might continue to save, directing this round of savings to a distinct rainy day fund. From here, you might feel confident and cash secure enough to invest in dividend-paying stocks.

This riff represents merely one of literally thousands of personal financial paths you can put yourself on. If you chart a course, you’ve done more than a lot of people do with their money. Speaking for myself, this is exactly one of the reasons why I do what I do.

There’s nothing better than writing, getting feedback, and, even better, having a reader say:

I read your article. It made me think. I didn’t do what you do. However, I did this and it’s working for me. Thanks.

That’s the goal. It’s not about the 12-month emergency fund. It’s not about single piece of advice. It’s not about being right. It’s not about ideology or dogma. It’s about an exchange of ideas, preferences, insecurities, mistakes, successes, and shared experiences. It’s about trying to get everyone in the same ballpark, while respecting the methods different people choose to use to run around the bases.