Why I Hate ‘New, Unique’ Weight Loss Tips

If you spend more than you earn, you have a negative cash flow. You’re losing wealth and in danger of going into debt. (Or, if you’re already in debt, you’re digging the hole deeper.) If you spend less than you earn, you have a positive cash flow, which will let you climb out of debt and build wealth.

[If you consume more than you expend, you have a positive energy balance. You’re gaining energy and in danger of gaining body fat. (or, if you’re already overweight, you’re digging the hole deeper.) If you consume less that you expend you have a negative energy balance, which will let you climb out of debt and build health]

So, basic personal finance comprises three essential skills:

• Earning — Your ability to bring in money. This skill requires resourcefulness and a willingness to work.
• Spending — Your ability to live frugally and spend wisely. This skill generally requires sacrifice and the ability to prioritize.
• Investing — Your ability to produce a surplus and to make that surplus grow. This skill takes patience and research.

• Consuming – Your need to eat. Managing this requires a degree of mindfulness. Changing major habits takes some serious work.
• Expending – Your daily life and Exercise. Prioritize your workouts to your goals – expend but expend wisely.
• Lifestyle – Your ability to eat a little less and move a little more. This takes patience, research and practice.

Spend less than you earn — invest the difference. That’s all you need to know. The rest is developing the mindset and skills to make these things happen.

[Eat Less, Move more, while enjoying the foods you eat.]

Missing the point
Last Tuesday, I did yet another interview with a reporter who was looking for new, unique approaches to personal finance. Her e-mail said she needed finance tips for new college grads. “I don’t need the obvious stuff, like ‘save money, spend less’,” she wrote. “I’d like to tell readers something they don’t already know.”

[sound familiar? think about this statement the next time you read about the LATEST amazing fat-burning hormone]

When I spoke with her, the truth was even worse. She was looking for advice on things recent graduates should buy. “When you’re out of college, you don’t have much of an income, and you may not have a job. If that’s the case, what should someone spend money on?” she asked. I was dumbfounded. I offered some lame answers — it’s okay to spend on a wardrobe (if your job requires it) or further education — but in the end, I gave up.

[Think: ‘What should you eat to lose weight?’ or ‘special fat burning foods’]

“To be honest,” I said, “I think it’s dangerous to do a story like this. In essence, you’re giving young people permission to spend, even if they don’t have the money. That’s the road to debt.”

[So the question becomes – ‘is it dangerous to give out similar weight loss advice – giving people permission to eat more than they need to, sometimes A LOT more?’]

Note: I don’t mean to pick on this one reporter. She’s just fresh in my mind. Her requests and approach are very, very typical of most other reporters I’ve talked with.

Nothing new under the sun
This is what happens when you’re constantly trying to find new and unique ways to save money. You start by chasing narrow niche topics (“The pitfalls of insurance if you carshare”, “How to save on silk underwear”, “How the BAH helps military members afford a home“) and eventually you’re writing nonsense like “10 things every college graduate should buy”.

I reject the relentless push for new, unique money tips. They’re few and far between. Besides, there are millions of people who can profit from hearing the old advice. For many, the old advice is new advice. And even those who’ve heard it many times before can benefit from hearing it again.

If you want to write a story about personal finance and you’re worried that readers will be bored because you’re covering the same topics everyone else has covered for the past hundred years, the solution isn’t to look for new, unique ideas. The solution is to find new, unique ways to convey the timeless information that works. Find real-life examples (like the GRS reader stories). Explore government statistics. Find a new angle into the story (psychological? religious? political?). But don’t turn your back on the basics just because they seem tired and worn out.

[Absolutely fantastic paragraph that can be echoed in weight loss – We can stop scamming people with ridiculous stories, and start helping by finding new unique ways to explain the basics, and find innovative ways to help people apply the basics – admittedly, this is the crux of Eat Stop Eat – a simple, flexible and effective way to reduce calories]

The basics are the basics for a reason. And until everyone grasps the concept, the fundamental formula of personal finance needs to be trumpeted from the rooftops: To build wealth, you have to spend less than you earn. It’s not new. It’s not unique. It’s simply the truth.

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Bottom Line – Probably the two most important aspects of your life – health and wealth – they are eerily similar. Proper management is almost identical. The fact that people are trying to find new unique things to say – just to entertain you is also almost identical.

The one point I need to make is that obviously constantly eating less will end up reaching a point that is unhealthy. But the point of eating less is that allows you to eat MORE on occasion. Celebrations and the like. But then again, this is similar to wealth management – the point of buidling wealth and growing your money is so that you can eventually spend on the things that are important to you.

So again, the fundamentals are the same.

BP