There are three main differences between this Web site and other Web sites. First, we take another perspective--an eternal perspective. Perspective is critical in understanding personal finance. Second, we take a principles-based approach. All lessons are taught by first discussing principles and then the discussing processes and math behind those financial principles. Third, we take an applications-based approach, in which you will apply the principles learned to your own financial life. Included in this Web site are instructions to help you put together your own personal and family financial plan.
Dave Ramsey, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host recently commented: “Personal finance is more personal than it is finance: it is more behavior than it is math.” (KNBR, May 23, 2007). Learning about this topic requires more than learning the language of finance and math and more than just a change in spending habits--it requires a change in behavior. There are three main differences in the framework of this Web site compared to other Web sites on personal finance that can help in this change in behavior.
First, we take “another” perspective. Perspective is critical to understanding Personal Finance. The historian Will Durant wrote:
We need “to seize the value and perspective of passing things. … We want to know that the little things are little, and the big things big, before it is too late; we want to see things now as they will seem forever—‘in the light of eternity’ ” (The Story of Philosophy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1927), p. 1).
We try to take another perspective on personal finance. This other perspective is based on four key principles: 1. Ownership: everything we have is the Lord’s; 2. Stewardship: we are stewards over all that we have been blessed with; 3. Agency: we have been blessed with the gift of choice; and 4. Accountability: we will be held accountable for the choices we make.
Second, we take a principles-based approach. Elder Richard G. Scott commented:
Joseph Smith’s inspired statement, “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves,” still applies. The Lord uses that pattern with us. . . Your consistent adherence to principle overcomes the alluring yet false life-styles that surround you. Your faithful compliance to correct principles will generate criticism and ridicule from others, yet the results are so eternally worthwhile that they warrant your every
sacrifice (Richard G. Scott, “The Power of Correct Principles,” Ensign, May 1993, 32).
Within each section, we try to articulate the key principles for understanding personal finance. Understanding correct principles makes it easier to follow and apply the things discussed in this Web site.
Finally, we take an applications-based approach. We learn best when we use the things learned in our daily lives. It is not enough to know what to do—we must do it. We learn more by doing than just by reading. The final difference is that we apply the things learned in the creation of your individual or family Personal Financial Plan.
Learning is not complete without application. This Web site uses the PowerPoint’s, Learning Tools, and Readings assembled and developed at Brigham Young University to help you set
goals,
budget, get out of
debt, evaluate different investments, buy a house or a car, invest wisely, and save for retirement and more. This Web site includes instructions on how to apply this information and how to develop your own Personal Financial Plan. And finally, we give examples of completed financial plans and how they help you achieve your
goals.
I believe that through understanding “another” perspective, through learning the principles that support the lessons being taught, and through taking an applications-based approach in developing your own personal financial plan, not only will it help you to understand and articulate the lessons being taught, but it will also allow you to change what needs to be changed to help you to become a more financially self-reliant individual and family.
