By Richard Reis

Hello dear,

It’s 7:30am. I just woke up and am enjoying warm delicious coffee. I’m not sure the caffeine has ‘hit’ me yet but here goes my first in a series of 52 letters.

But, before we get started:

Happy New Year!

I hope you had an awesome 2016. And remember, regardless of the past all we can do is find ways to build a better future. Which is why the goal is to make 2017 our best year so far.

How you say? Well you could start taming a certain subject people don’t like talking about. In fact, they avoid it so much the mere mention of it has become almost taboo. Do you know what it is?

… Ok the title gives it away.

But yes. Money. Since you’re reading this post, have you ever (by any chance) asked yourself questions like:

What do I do with the money I earn?

What are taxes and how do I pay them?

How bad is my debt, really?

How do I invest?

401 que?!

And much, muuuuuch more.

It’s ok to ask those questions. Last time I checked we didn’t learn in high school and our parents avoided the subject as much as we do.

The problem when people don’t know the answers (or live according to the wrong answers) is bad things happen. In fact, student loan debt is at an all-time high, to the point where 44 MILLION borrowers owe $37,172 on AVERAGE.

Even worse, 63% of Americans don’t have enough savings to cover a $500 emergency. Five Hundred Dollars!

Can’t blame ‘em though. Really. Money is a YUUUGE subject. Tons of books have been written about it. The mere act of Googling ‘money’ returns 2.6 BILLION results. Where do you even start?!

“There’s a whole industry in America based on people not understanding how money works, and it’s a great industry for making poor people poor and rich people rich. And it makes me very very angry and I don’t know why it’s not something that’s taught” — Hank Green

My goal is for you to rise above all this, like a phoenix. If I do my job well, you’ll learn how to ‘live’ as an adult before the year is over.

Throughout my life, I’ve devoured many books and blogs about finance. I didn’t realize how much I knew until, in 2016, I helped a friend get rid of all her debt in less than a year. Now our little Bill-Gates-in-the-making has more money than ever and is planning on buying a house.

Why am I doing this? When people hear I’m building a financial startup I get Niagara Fall’d with questions about money (this shouldn’t surprise you by now). However, as much as they find the advice super helpful I noticed I’m just giving the same advice over and over again to different people. So I decided to write it all down.

Why do I study money? This is just between you and me, but I believe economic disparity is society’s greatest problem.

You might reply “what about climate change??” but I’ve been told another entrepreneur is doing a pretty solid job with electric cars and solar panels, so I’ll leave it to him.

Besides, if people can’t afford the (usually more expensive) healthy, eco-friendly, and green options, our progress slows down.

My job is to make sure you have enough money to afford the best, and as a by-product society will be all the better for it. Win-win.

Who am I doing this for? If you’re in your 20’s, recently graduated and working in the US, this is EXACTLY for you.

This doesn’t mean a 45-year-old who’s been working for two decades won’t get any value. It also doesn’t mean a 16-year-old would waste her time reading this (actually, the earlier you learn the better).

Look, the principles I’ll write about are quite universal. Only details will change depending on the individual.

How will I do this? Well, my 2017 resolution was to put all my finance knowledge into 52 well-written, well-organized and easy to understand letters. This way, whenever someone asks me a question, I simply forward a link (and if they read the entire blog they’ll know as much as I do).

So, every Tuesday you get a new letter.

… For free!

Here’s a little secret; this is as much for me as it is for you. To be honest my writing could use a little help. Writing a post a week will challenge me to get better and organize my thoughts, and you get to kick some serious butt with your new knowledge. Win-win.

I’ve also created an Index Page. It looks a bit empty right now, but every week a new link will be added (for a total of 52 very useful links). At the end of this year, that empty index page will have enormous value.

So what’s the first tip? Ok, I can’t leave without giving you a little something. And now, here it is.

ALL your financial knowledge, every blog post, every advice, every tweet, falls into one of 3 categories. Master those categories and you’ve mastered money.

Those 3 categories are:

1. How To Save money

2. How To Invest money

3. How To Make money

I can hear your “DUH!” from my side of the screen. But hear me out.

MOST FINANCIAL RESOURCES DON’T PUT IT THIS SIMPLY.

Once you really start thinking about each category you’ll notice that simple advice is quite effective. The way it should be.

Here I’ll cut the bs and you’ll find the opposite from the usual confusopoly-type advice.

Notice what happens when you think about each thing separately.

What are ways you could save money this week? (could be your electricity bill, your grocery shopping, or your Amazon purchases).

OR

Think of a way you can make money this week (drive Uber for a day or sell something on eBay)

OR

How could you invest your money this week and multiply it instead of spending it? (You could buy Facebook Ads to sell a product or service for example, or you could buy lemons, some sugar, some water and sell lemonade with a 40% margin).

The less risk, the better (so try to avoid Vegas). Once you’ve done any of these you’re guaranteed to have a little more money by the end of the week. If so this blog has already proved helpful! Let me know.

You don’t have to focus on the amount you make from this exercise. That’s not the point.

That’s right! Throughout this year I’ll teach you everything you need to know step-by-step, divided into those 3 simple categories.

Your old problem of not knowing how to learn about money is gone.

Then it’s off to the races!

Well dear, we’ve come to the end of this letter. But the end of one journey marks the beginning of another. Get ready. I’m excited.

I hope you’re pumped for a great 2017.

See you next week (follow the series here to be notified).

Be well.

R