I cranked up the meager heater in the garage gym, did some empty bar squats and started adding plates. As I unracked the bar for the first work set, Mark Rippetoe’s words from the Starting Strength seminar in Witchita Falls rang out: “get your knees forward and stop exaggerating pushing them out trying to be Mr. Starting Strength!” Naturally, this got me thinking about money.
Barbell strength training and personal finance planning have lots in common. Quick google searches generally produce contradictory philosophies on both topics and lead people to charlatans, scams and well-meaning but overcomplicated and unnecessary advice. Common sense isn’t so common and since neither fitness nor finance is taught formally in school, I’ll attempt to compare my general personal finance advice with the Starting Strength program.
| Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression | Personal Finance Steps |
| Squat-Deadlift-Press-Bench-Power Clean- Chin-HIIT Occasionally | Mindset-Budget-Save $1000-Pay off debt-Emergency Fund-Invest 15%-Pay Cash for Stuff |
| 3 days/week-Add 5lbs/2.5lbs-Recover- Enough-Nutrition for where you are- Change programming when it stops working | Unique monthly budget-Smallest debts first-3-6 months expenses in the 911 fund-Only invest 15% after debt is gone-Use VISA debit cards and cash |
| Training not exercise | Common Sense |
Experts in the Field
Financial advisors and strength coaches come in many forms with varying levels of education and certifications. Many advisors use complex terms to impress a prospective client or worse yet, justify a car loan to ensure they don’t leave without buying a financial product. Advisors that have come to work with high net worth individuals can obfuscate mistakes with sheer dollar amounts or trick others into thinking they too can make astronomical returns.
Many S&C coaches over complicate the training game to attract clients and carve out a niche in the market. High physical performers at the extreme edges are there due to genetics and not necessarily good programming.
The benefit of working with a good advisor or coach is more about giving you the education to make better decisions for yourself. They need to explain in great detail WHY you should do something and HOW it works, but also distill information down to meet you where you are now. If you fail to see progress after a period of time, don’t be afraid to fire them.
Blueprints for Success
Training is following a plan to get to a goal, exercise gets you sweaty in the moment. The problem with both physical training and personal finance (not to mention religion, politics, nutrition and martial art styles) is that there is no accepted universal blueprint that everyone agrees on. The best we can do is pick one plan, stick to it for an appropriate amount of time then reassess. Are you sicker, fatter and weaker than before you started? Do you feel more in control of your money and can see light at the end of the debt tunnel?
I love CrossFit but there are many poor expressions of CrossFit programming. Coming up with hard workouts is easy. Here’s one: 10 rounds for time of 10 km run and 1000 burpees. Hard but dumb and even if you finished it, where do you go from there? Could you do it again next week faster or add reps? Getting stronger is the best bang for the physical buck with nutrition to control body composition. The journey of going from a 95lb squat to a 315lb squat and the resulting tendon, bone, balance and mental gains are more important long term than half-squatting 405lbs once.
Do I pay off debt or invest? “Mutual funds are for suckers, crypto currency is going to blow up!” “Why pay off your house when money is so cheap right now?” “Unlock the power of your home with a HELOC!” When you don’t know where to begin taking control of your money, everyone with an opinion seems to know more than you. The truth is that most financial and fitness certifications are less than a few months of self- study with a multiple choice exam at the end. Follow the advice on this blog and you’ll be ahead of 90% of your peers. Yes, some people turn $10k into $3 million in a year with weed or bitcoin but the only reason you know about them is because they were the exception not the rule.
Critics
If you deadlift over 600lbs you have my permission to train and program as you want. Could you clean up some form issues? Sure. Is there a better programming model to follow? Maybe. But either way you’re not going to come to me for training and what you have been doing has obviously worked. Perhaps there’s some good genetics or exogenous hormone supplementation occurring but you do you bro. A friend tweaked his back deadlifting and asked me to observe his form. It was a classic stance-too-wide/hips-too-low/back-too-vertical/bar-6inches-in-front-of-shins form issue. When I offered advice his response was that Hafthor Bjorgsson does it like that. I replied with 1: No he doesn’t, watch the video again, and 2: you aren’t trying to add 5lbs to your 1000lb deadlift so listen to me.
Similarly, if you have a net worth of five million dollars, who am I to offer advice? If you asked, I would still tell you to not have any debt, have an emergency fund, be investing and living within your means. Lots of celebrities and pro athletes wind up broke at the end. Complex strategies probably still don’t apply to you, but unless that amount of money is due to a freak lottery win, you obviously aren’t a complete idiot. Read “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas Stanley. Most of things you think ‘rich people’ do, they don’t.
Shortcuts
The bottom position of the squat is hip crease just below parallel. You can put much more weight on the bar if you don’t reach full depth. You’ll give yourself (and Instagram) a false sense of accomplishment, but that’s not the point of basic strength training. The point is to use the most muscle mass to lift the most amount of weight over the longest effective range of motion to get stronger. If one continues to squat high and still add weight, the depth will only get higher to accommodate the weight since the trainee is not in fact getting stronger. At that point just do Zumba.
The phrase ‘big hat no cattle’ describes most of the population these days. Lots of people look great, drive great and live great but are flat broke. One missed paycheck and catastrophe strikes. Putting stuff you don’t need on a credit card is far easier than saving up and buying it later. You work hard, you deserve that truck right? You make lots of money, $700 a month is nothing compared to the safety and security of driving a quality vehicle in the winter. You value your family’s safety right? Why put them at risk by driving a 5 year old vehicle? Squatting high is easy, getting into debt is easy. Easy doesn’t work.
marksdailydollar.com 