I’m a finance guy. It’s a big part of what I do at ExperiencePoint and it’s also fairly common knowledge in even my extended social circle. So I guess it should come as no surprise that I’m often asked for advice when it comes to matters of dollars and cents. It just comes with the territory, and I’m always willing to spend a little time educating people on personal finance and taxes. I use the term “educate” specifically because the first thing I generally tell people is not to take anyone’s advice. I tell them that it’s important to educate yourself and that what’s right for your friend, or your brother-in-law or your office-mate may not be right for you. Generally in a conversation, it’s hard to demonstrate exactly how true that is, so as part of one of our weekly share pieces at ExperiencePoint, I decided to illustrate that point with an example that debunks some generally held beliefs about savings and debt.
The setup
Kelly from Toronto is pretty good with his money. He doesn’t carry a balance on his credit card, lives within his means, and his only debt is a $1,000 line of credit (8.5% APR). He’s got a little bit of money at the end of every month and he’s trying to decide what to do with it. He’s getting all kinds of advice but he decides to ask his especially handsome friend Michael to help him decide what to do. Michael doesn’t want to give Kelly advice so he decides to walk him through a couple options and let him decide for himself. Let’s see what they come up with.
