Reading v. Studying for Your Financial Well Being
I taught my class again last night. The students had just received their mid-term scores. One particular student was disappointed in their grade and said they had studied and everything. Personally, the class did better than I had expected (though I can be bit of a softy when it comes to grading) and the average for the class was around an 80% (MBA program).
That comment got me to thinking about my experience in college and with classmates there. I realized something I didn’t notice back then. Those friends of mine who had the best grades, studied for a test by actually practicing the problems they thought they would see. Those who did okay, but not great, re-read chapters and their notes in hope of picking up more information. And those who didn’t last long in college chose to do neither. Don’t forget, I have my undergrad degree in engineering, so the majority of classes dealt with some sort of mathematical problem. Don’t even ask me how to go about preparing for an English exam!
For me, I’m someone who has always enjoyed reading. In high school it was fantasy and science fiction books, and now it’s business, economics, finance and other non-fiction. Since I take the bus to work daily, I typically get a good hour a day too and from work and waiting at bus stops in order to read. We also have an excellent library in my neighborhood, and the city library system has online reservation so I can have anything I want held or delivered and held for me just down the street.
I’ve seen several blog posts recently about books to read about personal finance. I’ve thought about trying some of them out, but I’ve read much of that in the past and never got much out of it. Then the thoughts above dawned on me. To really make use of the information, I need to PRACTICE what I’m reading about. Now that we are undergoing a renaissance of sorts with our finances, maybe it’s the perfect time to start really reading and then studying some books on the topic.
Here’s a list of some blog posts with some great looking lists of recommended reading:
