Time Capsule #62: When Self-Improvement Content Breaks You, And This Is What Saves You
a poem and a writing challenge
Welcome to my Time Capsule project, where I save and reshare old pieces of writing, art and other creations. The purpose behind this project is so that created pieces don’t live and die by the algorithm, without forcing creators to be on the hamster wheel of creation. Want to join? Drop your item into the time capsule here to be displayed in the newsletter! or join the stream of consciousness & time capsule discord where we recursively reflect on different topics.
Photo by Artem Maltsev on Unsplash
I was looking for actual investing advice because I wanted to start investing, pushed by this knowledge that there is such a race and gender (and intersectionality between the two) investment gap.
When I searched, I first got into results that told me about different investment types. This makes sense. It should definitely be part of the search. Unfortunately, it was only a few searches before it would devolve into riskier tech-bro crypto discussions, which is not where someone should be starting when they don’t even have an emergency fund.
What I actually needed was basic financial sense. Stuff that people read and go “this is garbage, everyone knows this because their parents teach them”. And that’s just it. Not everyone has parents. Not everyone has parents with financial sense. Not everyone has parents with financial sense who teaches their children financial literacy. In fact, some parents intentionally withhold this information so that they can financially abuse their kids. More than ever, we need this basic financial literacy stuff that you’ve just called “garbage”.
It turns out, it’s not just knowing about the different types of accounts and features of banking. Building basic financial literacy sense isn’t just about understanding money and finance and the economy. Just as important and not often discussed is neuroeconomics, which is how humans and their brains and their silly little choices need to factor in to the whole equation. It’s about knowing enough that the simplistic “don’t drink lattes” advice doesn’t work for most people because we’re already drinking coffee at home and struggling with depression because we already don’t do anything. It’s being able to squeeze in a touch of joy despite needing to cut budgets and having someone to TALK to about that. It’s about understanding advertising and how it’s a multi-million dollar industry to get people to buy despite their own goals, and knowing how to counteract that. It’s about knowing things like shopping hungry makes us shop for more and giving myself a little snack before I go grocery shopping. It’s not about willpower. It’s about knowing enough not to fall for MLMs and crypto scams because of how they’re set up to draw in people who are especially financially vulnerable.
Anyways, if you’re looking for a resource like this, The Financial Diet has been a really good start for these types of discussions.
#WritingPrompt: financial advice that has actually been useful for you.
Hi, I’m Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and this is why I love psychology so much. It’s important! Humans aren’t what you would predict them to be if they were perfectly rationale and mathematical. Because we aren’t :’)
hop down the rabbit hole?
[3] a mix of foods (homemade meals)
[4] by
[6] by
[7]
[8]
[9] a gigantic amount of pasta
[10]
[11] gnocchi in the thicket nut based sauce I’ve ever made oops
[12]
to the last edition?
Time Capsule #61: Quarter Poems
Welcome to my Time Capsule project, where I save and reshare old pieces of writing, art and other creations. The purpose behind this project is so that created pieces don’t live and die by the algorithm, without forcing creators to be on the hamster wheel of creation. Want to join?