The Most Valuable Financial Tool You'll Ever Need is This…

Next week, I’m hopping on a plane for a speaking engagement.

The audience? Financial professionals eager to use behavioral finance to build deeper client relationships—and, of course, drive greater financial success for their businesses.

In other words: I am quite excited!

For the last month, as I’ve been creating my keynote and designing my presentation deck, one thought keeps recurring:

I don’t think we fully appreciate just how much the entire financial services industry and the culture of personal finance have changed in the last 30-40 years.

The conversations we have, the tools we use, the financial philosophies we embrace—they’ve all evolved, reshaping how we think, feel, and behave with money. Individually and collectively.

And, I’ve had a front-row seat to these changes.

Sometimes, I marvel at how you and I can now manage almost every aspect of our financial lives with a device that (mostly) fits into the palm of our hands. Something that wasn’t even possible in 2005, let alone in 1995 (when I started my business), or in 1986 when I started my career in the industry.

I guess you could say this is my version of, “I remember when…”—kind of like how elders reminisce about the cost of bread or eggs “back in the day.”

Personal Finance: Over the Decades

Pre-Internet Days: The Expertise Economy

When I started my career in 1986, financial knowledge was primarily controlled by institutions and experts—banks, financial advisors, and books written by industry professionals.

Not only was personal finance largely top-down, meaning people received advice primarily from professionals (accountants, brokers, institutions), it was presumed to really only be needed by those with significant wealth. (I remember the insurance guy coming to our home, but I don’t ever recall my mother mentioning having a meeting with a “banker.”)

Also, access to financial knowledge during the pre-internet days was unevenly distributed—who you were and who you knew determined what financial wisdom you had access to. (Some might argue the same is true today…)

1990s-Early 2000s: The Media Economy

One of my observations I plan to share during my keynote is this…

Starting in the 1990s, the growth of the self-help movement coincided with the growth of personal finance gurus. Both were happening as the employer-employee dynamics were shifting in two (2) key ways:

Retirement planning shifted from the employer to the individual. Employees were suddenly responsible for their own financial futures in ways they hadn’t been before.
Likewise, job security was undergoing a redefinition. The “social contract” of working with one employer for 25 years and getting the proverbial watch was fading…fast!

I believe this overlap created fertile ground for the rise of personal finance as entertainment and education. It became a mass-media driven “enterprise.”

We saw the emergence of financial personalities like Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, David Bach, and Michelle Singletary. Financial TV shows took off—Jim Cramer’s CNBC segments, radio shows, and early financial websites gained traction.

At the same time, self-help movements were booming. PBS was running specials featuring figures like Wayne Dyer, blending financial independence with personal transformation.

The message was clear: You can (and should) do it yourself.

Mid 2000s-Early 2010s: The Self-Directed Economy

I remember the early dot.com days well. Especially the excitement around being able to buy fractional shares of stocks.

During this era, there was an explosion of blogs, forums, and early personal finance influencers (e.g., Mr. Money Mustache, The Simple Dollar, The Financial Samurai).

It’s also when I started my newsletter/blog, which back then I called, “Financial Profundities.”

Money management apps, which helped people become more hands-on with their finances, were becoming more prevalent, too—Mint (which has since been sunset), YNAB, etc.

Self-directed investing became more accessible with platforms like E-Trade, Vanguard, and later, robo-advisors like Betterment and Wealthfront coming onto the scene.

The notion of “doing it yourself” was becoming more appealing as access to financial information became more democratized. Plus, people began to question traditional financial advice and experiment with alternative financial approaches that aligned with how work and financial independence were changing.

Mid 2010s-Present: The Influencer & Entertainment Economy

Over the decades, we’ve gone:

From expertise to accessibility – More people than ever have access to financial knowledge.
From long-form to bite-size – Books, workshops, and courses are still prevalent, but so are 60-second TikToks.
From authority to influencers – These days, people are just as likely (if not more) to take advice from social media personalities as from financial professionals.
From education to entertainment – Lately, it feels as if personal finance is more about who can entertain the public more than who can educate the public. It’s as if engagement supersedes accuracy.

Earlier I said the conversations we have have changed. And, I’m thrilled more people are talking about the psychology and emotions of money. But I do worry when financial advice is oversimplified or exclusively sourced from influencers without credentials.

Many of the tools you and I rely on today were developed in the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008. You’ve likely used (or heard of) these platforms (listed below in no particular order):

Nerd Wallet
Mint
Marcus
Robinhood
Acorns
YNAB

These tools have done a tremendous job of democratizing access to information and to investing.

Even companies like Uber and Airbnb, while not financial firms, were made possible by the same tech and financial shifts that shaped this era.

And when I say our financial philosophies have evolved, I see this reflected in the way success is marketed.

In the entrepreneurial space, there’s a push for the “7-figure” business. In the mainstream, social media often equates wealth with luxury, passive income fantasies, and curated lifestyles. But without showing the challenging parts of the journey.

Personal Finance: What’s Stayed the Same

As you can tell from this brief recap of how the industry and culture of personal finance have changed over the decades, change is inevitable.

What will happen next? Who knows!

The landscape of personal finance will keep evolving—new tools, new voices, new trends will emerge. But no matter what changes, these fundamentals remain unchanged—the need to:

Think critically—assess financial advice before acting on it.
Be discerning—learn from various sources (yes, even social media), but adapt information to your personal context.
Trust your own decision-making process—make choices that align with your values and goals, so that even when the outcomes aren’t perfect, you’re confident in how you got there.
Respect and embrace your emotions around money— because, like it or not, they’re always part of the equation.

Here’s the deal…