Lesson One: Stop Learning How to Become Wealthy from Broke People...or BuzzFeed

For the past few years, I have mentored half a dozen friends and colleagues on their personal finances. In the beginning, I was always amazed that they came to me for such advice, after all, what did a new college graduate just starting their lives know about building a lifetime of wealth? However, I quickly realized that unless your dad forced you to go through the Boy Scouts Financial Merit Badge before leaving home like mine did, rarely does anyone ever really takes the time to teach you how to manage your own wallet.

So I did what any Millennial would do... Went to the internet to learn!

Wow, was I disappointed. Here we are in the golden era of quick & easy to access information, but the "learnings" about how to manage my own finances were confusing at best and misleading at worst. I found sites and articles that were:

a) Too vague to actually help me ("Start Investing Early!!"... Um, thanks Forbes, but how do I do it and where does the money come from?)

b) Published by credit card companies. (Don't they make money off me being broke?)

c) Get Rich DVD Ads (Building wealth is like loosing weight, and when did you last lose weight from watching a DVD...)

d) Articles/Apps teaching you to save 10 cents at a time (Sneak Preview... no one gets rich saving 10 cents at a time...)

No wonder we Millennials are stuck in a cycle of debt and dashed dreams!!

Which is why I began writing this blog and leads us to our first Lesson:

Lesson One: Stop Learning About Personal Finance From Broke People or BuzzFeed.

Most people are B-R-O-K-E. The "Jones" we are all trying to keep up with... are broke. Your economics professor, he was likely broke too. The guy driving the leased BMW in the lane next to you, he's definitely broke. Don't believe me?  Let's look at the facts:

The Average American Household has roughly:
- $15,000 in credit card debt
- $17,000 in an auto loan
- Pays $18,000 per year in mortgage payments
- Has $15,000 outstanding student loan debt

For a grand total of $65,000 in payable debt.

AND MAKES ONLY $50,000 A YEAR.

The Average American is BROKE. Hell, America is broke. Just take a peek at this WSJ article:
WSJ.com "US Household Debt Sinks 18 Billion"

Look, I think your family is great. And I think your mom makes a damn good chocolate chip cookie. But if your parents have any debt other than a mortgage (or if they have 2 mortgages) then you might want to stop listening to them when it comes to personal finance.

Millennials... listen closely. I know we are the social media generation. But please, leave BuzzFeed, Pinterist, & Twitter to introducing you to cute cat videos and 10 ways to make your wedding beautiful with mason jars. There just ain't no way you're going to learn personal finance in 140 characters.

So that's step number one and you are done for this week - stop listening to broke people about what to do with YOUR money.