One of the interesting things about being a personal finance blogger is that you start to see how everything in life relates to personal finance. Not necessarily money. Personal finance.
You’d think that I would get tired of making connections to personal finance, but that hasn’t been the case at all. Since this blog started a year ago (I just celebrated my 1-year blogiversary, btw) I’ve noticed myself keying in on things that are otherwise completely unrelated to personal finance, and thinking about the lessons that can transfer over.
Just such a realization last week led to this post. I was walking down the hallway at work thinking about the library, which led me to think of a dumb tweet from last year, which led to this.
It’s gonna be a bit of an offbeat post today, but stick with me. I think the lesson is a good one.
Twitter is a weird place
Before becoming a blogger, I had literally never been on Twitter. I knew basically what it was. A friend had recommended I get on Twitter because it was a great way to learn about goings-on in DC before I moved here. But I hadn’t done it. The closest I’d gotten to Twitter was seeing embedded links to tweets such as the ones you’ll see below.
When I finally did join Twitter, I found a few surprises. One was the great personal finance corner of Twitter. Many parts of Twitter are filled with trolls of every shape and size. The PF corner is fun and friendly about 99% of the time. It can get tense occasionally (maybe more on that later) but overall…two thumbs up.
Another surprise was that Twitter was a rapid and surprisingly accurate way to get news. Seriously, intel officers and enlisted, you need to have Twitter up. I’m not saying you should trust 100% of what you find – obviously – but it is a great tipper.
But the reason we are here today is something else I learned. Let’s talk about the Ratio.
The Twitter Ratio
A few months ago, a guy wrote on Twitter that libraries should be closed because they weren’t really used much anymore.
Nobody goes to libraries anymore. Close the public ones and put the books in schools. https://t.co/Cimy1V81n5
— Andre Walker (@andrejpwalker) October 22, 2017
See this? The difference between the replies, the retweets, and the likes?
This is called The Ratio. Generally speaking, if you say something people like or agree with, your likes are high. Your retweets may/may not be high, but the higher they are, generally, the more people agree. The replies number is usually much lower than the sum of the likes and retweets, because people don’t feel a *need* to respond to things they agree with.
The Ratio is an unofficial Twitter law which states that if the amount of replies to a tweet greatly outnumbers the amount of retweets and likes, then the tweet is bad.”
When the replies have much, much higher numbers than the likes/retweets you can assume people disagree with the tweet, and they feel an urgent need to communicate that to you.
You might then realize that this thing you said isn’t quite the good idea you thought. You’ll have some people agreeing, but a lot won’t. And that should, in theory, cause you to take a step back to reassess. I’m not saying you have to change your mind. I’m saying if a whole bunch of people think something is wrong, you should probably examine it further to see if they are wrong or if in fact it’s you that is wrong.
In this case, the urgent thing people felt the need to communicate was “Hey idiot, I go to the library. My family goes to the library. My friends go to the library. The library is a cheap way for the government to ensure access to knowledge, including books, computers, magazines, movies, etc. Don’t take away the libraries!”
And in this case, Andre Walker conceded he was wrong.
Dear #Library users, I surrender! pic.twitter.com/1F0cog6xo0
— Andre Walker (@andrejpwalker) October 24, 2017
How The Ratio Applies to Personal Finance
Personal finance has similar situations. For instance, someone might say that you can keep emergency funds in investment accounts. And some will say “I never thought of that!” Or “yeah, I agree!” Others will think it’s a mad idea that doesn’t account for individual differences.
That’s the time to reassess. Examine why you think it’s a good idea, and why others think it’s bad. Maybe they aren’t considering the full story. Maybe you aren’t. Maybe you are both wrong, or even more likely (for *personal* finance) you are both right.
My own example
FIRE!
(financial independence/retired early)
I think FIRE is a great idea, but I spent the majority of my career with friends telling me I was a nutcase (some still do). I’m bombarded daily with people in internet forums who think it’s a sham (it’s most interesting when the people doing this are longtime members of FIRE forums). I know that to most people, what I’m talking about sounds crazy/not practical/not fun, and because of that I need to occasionally reassess.
So I kept studying the concept. I know A LOT about the doctrine of FIRE, and basic tenets, and different paths, and so on. I’ve studied it in depth.
For me, FIRE is right.
There are a lot of reasons it’s right, not least of which is that I’ve been methodically walking this path for 14 years as opposed to stumbling into it and then shouting “OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW IT MUST HAPPEN AAAALLALALLLAAA!” 😜
- I’m in a career with Congressional mandated service limits. Unless I become a 4-star general (ha!) I will leave the military before a normal retirement age…
- …and I don’t want to do another job
- I’ve always been driven to serve people, and I don’t want the prospect of a low salary to hold me back from serving in the ways most important to me. This is a good reason to become financially independent…so I can do the work I want to do without concern for the paycheck.
- If I make it to at least 20 years of service, I will receive a hefty pension – enough to make me financially independent on its own, even without my own savings
But I do have to relook at my plan every once in awhile. This is a partial list of the things I consider when I’m reassessing:
- Cheap healthcare is included in a military retirement…for now. What if that changes?
- What if I get married and/or have children? Or if a family member needs extensive help?
- My career is going well. If I’m offered a great opportunity around the time I plan to leave, should I stay in or FIRE? How good does the opportunity need to be to cause me to delay other plans? What goals have I not yet achieved in the military that staying in might allow me to check off the list?
I’ve mitigated against these things in my own FIRE plan over the years, but I hadn’t considered all of them starting at day 1. I have to constantly adjust my initial thoughts as I learn more, just as Andre had to adjust his understanding of adult library usage when confronted with overwhelming evidence that conflicted with his worldview.
And that’s today’s lesson.
Sometimes the thing that seems exceedingly obvious to you isn’t so cut-and-dried.
There’s a reason common sense exists. “Generally speaking” when you present your idea to a group of people, they are going to have knowledge you don’t have. Everybody has a different life experience and you should take that into consideration. Again – you don’t have to completely change your argument. But looking at an idea from multiple angles can help you evaluate its true worth, as well as find ways to make it stronger.
This is as true for personal finance issues as it is for everything else. There is no truism in personal finance that is true in 100% of cases. There are things that are better ideas, and things that are worse ideas. And if a whole bunch of people think you are wrong, it is worth taking a bit of time to review what you think.
Here are some examples of personal finance ideas people might express that might cause a bad Twitter ratio (or a lot of comments on Facebook, or bunch of funny looks from your friends, or whatever).
- I’m going to pay off my house early!
- I’m going to use leverage to invest more money in the stock market.
- Always maximize Roth accounts. You’ll save more money in the long term over Traditional 401Ks and IRAs.
- Keep at least 6 months’ worth of expenses in an emergency fund.
- To retire, you need to be able to replace about 80% of your working income.
- FIRE is realistic for everybody.
Some of these are, I think, good ideas. Others not so much. Based on my years of watching people talk about personal finance, though, I can guarantee you there would be a strong reaction to each of them.
None is a good or bad idea out of hand, but they probably should be carefully examined to see what you are missing…what you might not know. Be open to listening to others and their thoughts on what you are doing. You may learn something important.
the ratio thing i think is true. i would say always beware group think in planning your own actions. i’ll use yelp or tripadvisor reviews as a parallel. they might be a nice springboard to find what places to eat are going to be terrible in a new place, but you never know what the huddles masses of philistines writing these things value in their dining experience. i used to be a hotel bartender and served people from all over the world and certain patterns emerged among folks from different regions. i knew pretty well right from knowing where a person came from whether i was going to be tipped well or not. now when i want to go and try a new place i’ll look at the reviews and weed out the cheapskate regions. i don’t know how to apply that to PF twitter but i know the writers who’s material i read who make compelling cases.
I’m so glad you pressured me into joining Twitter! I (mostly) love the conversations there and it’s a much different type of interaction than Facebook or just blog comments. 99% of the time, I love it.
Yes! It kind of feels like Facebook is more of a classroom/meetup environment, blog comments are thank you notes and Christmas cards to the family, and Twitter is hanging out at the pub on a Friday night. If that makes sense.
My favorite part about social media is it forces people to at least see people talking about personal finances. It’s a subject rarely talked about, and even has become more avoided than politics, religion, and fitness. I just wish the Personal Finance Twitter was as popular as celebrity gossip or sports.
Oh man…that would be a great day!
Twitter is such an interesting medium of communication, I used to only use it for a source of news but love the forum to interact…and maybe one day we can all have a viral moment like FrugalMD and the tooth fairy! Enjoy reading your stuff and the perspective
I had also never been on Twitter and I generally dislike social media. But it’s a bit different if I’m representing my blog vs. myself. That said, I think that guy w/the library comment was just intentionally trolling – so many like that just want a reaction, and to get followers. I see that many people intentionally follow those who they don’t agree with just to start arguments.
But the PF community on Twitter is great, and very intelligent and supportive
Yes, it’s surprised me how much I like our section of Twitter. It really is a community.
Great post, MD! The crucial thing with a lot of these concepts in the PF sphere, for me, is to examine them and make sure they help me achieve my goals.
I love being challenged, though. Especially when I met Paige and learned she keeps her ER fund in a Roth as she feels she is too old to not have her money in the market. It makes me think…
I admit after those discussions by her, ERN, and a few others I get the rationale. I just really feel comforted by the thought of having a chunk of money whose only purpose is safety, not wealth building. But I’m not going to knock anybody who does it differently, as long as they’ve really thought through the potential scenarios and how they would react. It’s one thing to have your EF in an investment account when you have $100,000 in that investment account. It’s totally different if you only have $100 in that account.
I used to make fun of my husband for being on Twitter all the time. I didn’t get it. But then I started my own account for the blog and I’m HOOKED.
Anyway, I wanted to stop by and say that I’ve always enjoyed your balanced voice on Twitter. One thing I’ve noticed is nuances are nonexistent on the platform, and it makes it difficult to have productive conversations or arguments. That’s why I rarely engage in it, because I know no one’s mind is going to change. Although sometimes I’ll DM someone who I think it out of line, etc.
Thank you! That’s my goal – to be balanced and seek out the nuance. I have my own issues with saying something offhand with absolutely zero ill intent and I know I always want the people around me to take a moment to prod out my true meaning. I find that most people aren’t malicious, they may just have spoken too quickly and/or incompletely. Now if you spend the next 8 hours defending something that you shouldn’t really be defending because you refuse to back down or reassess…that’s different.
I have been very encouraged by how positive the PF community on Twitter has been even while receiving an effective sounding board in the form of the group. Thanks for all you do to foster that community!
-Mr. Thrifty
It really is a great little corner of the internet.
This is probably not what you intended in writing this post, but I just joined Twitter yesterday and so your bit about retweets/comments/likes was helpful. All these new things to learn whenever you join a new type of social media!
hahaha, so true. Everybody keeps telling me to join Instagram and Linked in and YouTube and and and….I don’t have the time needed to put into figuring all of them out!
Glad you are finally on Twitter!
Today is actually my one year Twitter birthday. Although, I didn’t even really start using it properly until Feb/March of this year. I stayed away due to the perception you mentioned, about it being full of trolls and negativity.
But the PF community on Twitter is pretty amazing. I’m really glad I got with the program, so to speak. I’ve already made many new friends and connections in the community, just in these few months of giving it an effort.
Oh wow, I didn’t realize you’d been around so long since yes, I only recently saw you on Twitter. How funny! Glad to have you there now!
The information you provided about Twitter ratios is interesting. Twitter has been my primary platform for growing my blog. I belong to a few groups on other platforms as well. The PF community is very friendly. I have only come across a few trolls. About one year ago a troll called me a liberal. I was taken aback because I do not go near politics. I have been told that other social media platforms are much worse than Twitter for trolls.
There are a few platforms I avoid entirely for that reason. It just isn’t worth the hassle, IMO. But PF Twitter is friendly!
I thought spending wisely is smart. And the first thing I learned in FP blogging is get a domain (which I did and my whole blog only cost $10 a year). But then I found out that many investors here use free blogspot or WordPress.com. One of them hit a $120,000/day earning from share few days back, and he’s using blogger.com. He choose not to pay even $10. I guess he’s way wiser.
I didn’t have much use of Twitter before I launched my blog. But ever since I created one for the blog, it’s been a very positive experience. The interactions I have and all the posts bloggers put on there so I have a chance to read it and check out their blog, it’s a great platform especially for the PF community who are very friendly, smart and supportive.
I think the guy who tweeted about closing down public libraries just wanted a reaction and see what people would say about it. He was being a troll and wanted to embrace the attention he was going to get. And it worked out if he really wanted that type of negative attention.