On NPR
Practical and powerful automatic investing with index card.
Personal finance is one of the most uncomfortable topics to ever discuss. A University professor, Harold Pollack studied that an index card is enough to fit your entire financial investment plan, let alone the information is free from the library.
Bold statement, Pollack stated that “if you’re paying someone for advice, almost by definition, you’re probably getting the wrong advice, because the right advice is so straight forward.”
Simplicity of the advice became viral
Pollack was being interviewed via online video chat by personal finance writer Helaine Olen, the topic was how regular people get steered into bad investments by financial advisers.
After the video, saying that it got viral is an understatement. It posted and picked-up by large publications namely Google News, Lifehacker and the like.
So Pollack got cornered about the 3 x 5 index card that he’s talking about.
“Since I was speaking metaphorically, I was kind of stuck,” Pollack says. “But I just took one of my daughter’s index cards and I scribbled a bunch of principles, and I took a picture of it with my iPhone and posted it on the web.”
The ideas on the index card weren’t new- pay off credit cards, invest in low-fee index funds, etc. The guide is easy automatic investing with index card.
Clearly there was an appetite for this kind of simple, straightforward business advice.
So Pollack and Olen have now written a new book (The Index Card) about it. But having a book defeats the purpose of having just the index card.
Pollack said that, sometimes you need more that the basics.
And this actually gets at what many economists say is the reality with financial advice: Most of it is pretty simple. The rules on Pollack’s index card start with saving 10 to 20 percent of your income, maxing out your 401(k), not buying or selling individual stocks.
Creating a book about it
Plus, the book discuss’ the option of having a financial advisor that can lead you to your goals and that is not motivated by commission. Make sure that your financial adviser is committed to the fiduciary standard– meaning that your goals come first.
That said, both Pollack and Olen say a good, reasonably priced financial adviser can sometimes be helpful — especially when life gets too complicated to fit on an index card.
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