To Be Great with Money, You Must Master the Basics
It starts with the most basic concept in personal finance
Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.
— Jim Rohn
When I was in grad school studying economics, we had a guest speaker who was an alumnus from the University I was attending who was a big-shot economist at one of Canada’s top banks.
The only thing I remember from that day was during the Q&A session, one of my classmates asked him what was the most important economic concept he learned during school that was most helpful in his career as an economist.
He answered: “Supply and demand.”
I recall my 23-year-old self rolling my eyes at that. Supply and demand is what you learn on day one of Econ 101 in undergrad. Surely, the advanced formulas in grad school econometrics or game theory must be more useful. After all, these are much more complicated, and few people have these tools in their toolbelt.
At the time I write this, I am 10 years into my career as an economist, and if I were asked which economic concept has been most useful, I might very well answer supply and demand.
