How to turn finance talk from boring & intimidating to interesting & easy-to-understand
Letter from a reader:
Dear Ma’am Rose,
Hindi po ako mahilig magbasa ng libro, lalo na kung libro tungkol sa Finance. Ironically, I’m a graduate of BS Commerce major in Finance. When I was studying, I never enjoyed the topic of finance, so boring talaga. In fact, this was confirmed by an investment quote that says “If investing is entertaining and you’re having fun, you’re probably not making money because good investing is boring.” So I accepted that finance is really boring.
Then I read your FQ Book, FQ:The nth Intelligence. Wow! Grabe and I said to myself, “How did she do that?” She turned finance into an interesting topic!”
Then I remembered what I answered to my teacher back in school when she asked, “How do you define Finance?” It was a graded recitation in Finance 12 so I tried to give my best answer, “Finance is the art and science of managing money.” I was so glad she didn’t throw me a follow-up question on how it can be an art because I wouldn’t know how to answer that anymore, hahaha!
I really like your discussion about childhood money memory. After going through the
exercise provided in the book, I understood why I still have that habit of saving. In fact, I still have an
alkansiya. I also like that you taught me to make my core values my compass in handling my money.
Thank you very much for all these and a lot more. Even if I already finished reading the book, I still
re-read it. It’s like I’m reviewing.
Congratulations ma’am. It’s true that reading your book is like chatting with you in a coffee shop. I’m now waiting for Books 2 and 3 of the FQ Trilogy. Sana marami pa kayong librong isusulat. I wonder, why is finance talk usually boring? And how are you able to make it easy to understand and interesting?– Junish via FB
My reply:
Thank you very much for your kind words about FQ: The nth Intelligence and for sharing your story about your Finance class and your reaction to the book.
Yes, I agree with you. A lot of talk about finance can be boring not because the subject matter itself is boring, but because they are presented in a boring manner. I do not appreciate the usual finance presentation style of dumping dozens of bullet points on a single slide with font size that is too small, even someone with 20-20 vision will struggle to read. Then the presenter says the exact same things written on the slide that makes you wonder, “Duh! Is this a read out loud exercise? Hahaha!”
Aside from being boring, most finance talks can also be intimidating.Boring and intimidating is a deadly combination, a sure-fire way to turn off people.
This combination is what I am revolting against, as you may have noticed in my articles
and the FQ book. I do not like using lots of highfalutin’ finance jargon without the courtesy of
explaining the terms in easy to understand language. Even the world’s greatest investor Warren Buffett
frowns at the use of finance gobbledygook! In fact, the ability to explain finance concepts to a seven-year-old is the mark of
truly understanding them. I do have a series in my archive entitled Explain to me as if I were a
seven-year-oldthat explains finance concepts such as the inverse relationship of interest rates and
bond prices, why kids should be invested in the stock, why do stocks give the highest return among all asset
classes in the long run, the magic of compounding, and even a geeky-sounding term such as Hyperbolic
Discounting!
Here are the links:
The Magic of Compounding (Explain to me as if I were a 7-year old series #4)
What is Hyperbolic Discounting? (Explain to me as if I were a 7 year old series #5)
Even if I am a finance person, I sometimes wonder, “Is there is an unspoken
conspiracy among finance people to use these hard to understand terms in order to justify huge
fees?” I hope not.
To answer your question on how I am able to make FQ talk easy-to-understand and interesting, I think my stint as a full-time homemaker who continued to read finance books and news about the economy was a blessing in disguise. I wanted to share my interest to my sons and carry out conversations at the dinner table not just with my husband who’s also a true-blue finance person, but also with our young sons. This made me creative enough to come up with easy-to-understand story-telling for them to understand this important skill about handling money, which I would later on call FQ (Financial Intelligence Quotient).
In the end, we should all realize that FQ is about human behavior and money, subjects
that are very interesting when presented in the right way. Moreover, we better get interested and develop a
high FQ because it’s an essential 21st century skill that we all need as our economic
self-defense. 
For more on this topic, you may also read https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/health-and-family/2015/02/11/1422273/should-finance-be-really-boring-andor-scary
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
- How do you raise your children to have a healthy relationship with money? People may be afraid of money, addicted to it, or just have an unhealthy relationship towards it. Join us as we discuss our story on how we started and continue to nurture our relationship with money to be able to be free to pursue our passions and have bold dreams.
For any questions, e-mail us at antonfausto@gmail.com
#MomAndSonPodcast
Stream the episode via these links:
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yMK5EJWIbrNnLta04kvnH?si=W5YRZXAHROS6lcy1FWbvFQ
iTunes
Buzzsprout
https://www.buzzsprout.com/241447/999124-mom-and-son-podcast-episode-11-raising-kids-with-high-fq
YouTube
- As part of the Women’s Month Celebration of First Metro Asset Management Inc. (FAMI), I will be giving a talk to empower women to go beyond saving and move to investing at their event entitled “Smart Women Invest”. This will be on March 21, 2019 (Thursday) at Shangri-La at the Fort.
- I’ll be having an FQ workshop for the Insurance Commission in Gender and Advancement. This is part of the InLife Sheroes project, a collaboration with Insular Life and the IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the World Bank group, this coming March 29, 2019 (Friday).
- Thanks to those who
already bought the FQ Book, especially to those who took the time out to send me their feedback.
Your feedback is food for my soul. To those who have not gotten their copy yet, here’s a
short preview of FQ: The nth Intelligence
You may now purchase the book in major bookstores, or if you
want autographed copies, please go to FQ Mom FB page (click SHOP), or FQMom.com (click BOOKS),
or email us at FQMomm@gmail.com
- Want to know where
your FQ stands? Take the FQ Test Challenge now! Click link. http://rebrand.ly/FQTest
Rose Fres Fausto is a speaker and author of bestselling books Raising Pinoy Boys and The Retelling of The Richest Man in Babylon (English and Filipino versions). Click this link to read samples – Books of FQ Mom. She is a Behavioral Economist, Certified Gallup Strengths Coach and the grand prize winner of the first Sinag Financial Literacy Digital Journalism Awards. Follow her on Facebook&YouTube as FQ Mom, and Twitter&Instagram as theFQMom. Her latest book is FQ: The nth Intelligence.
ATTRIBUTIONS:
Photos from steemit.com, castprofessionallearning.org, and technical-presentation-training.blogspot.commodified and used to help deliver the message of the article.
