Humor and Financial Independence

Humor and Financial Independence

Later today Paul and I are going to record an episode which I have affectionately dubbed Funny FI. For a long time I have been intrigued by the role humor and financial independence. I am sure there is a connection. Yet, I am nervous on how to approach the topic with the right amount of silliness and reverence. It’s hard to put my finger directly on a conversation arc that makes sense.

Personal finance has been dubbed a rather dry topic by the populous. So much so that the idea of reading about financial freedom and being entertained is lost on all but the most die hard in our community.

Roth IRAs are only so interesting.

A Better Delivery System

It may just be that the connection between humor and financial independence is all about the delivery system. Reading about personal finance, the technical topics especially, can be somewhat dry. If your goal is to engage the reader and attract as many eyes as possible, why not be funny?

Why not inject some humor and sarcasm to keep the text interesting and the reader engaged? In fact, if you are looking to engage the broader populous outside the everyday money geeks who probably already understand most of your content, you need a hook.

By creating in a non bland, non typical fashion, a content producer may break out of the church, and preach to a much larger audience than the choir. This has resonance.

Big Audacious Goals

What we, as a community, are asking is not easy to swallow. We are a counterculture. We preach a message that contradicts the typical American dream script. Spend less. Buy Less. Embrace stoicism instead of excess.

Why not humor and financial independence?

When questioning a societies social mores, there are no better tools than sarcasm and irreverence. It is already assumed that we are spitting in the eye of a traditional belief system. Why not do it with style?

There are few better ways to soften the fear of a possible dystopic life view than to pepper it with wit and sarcasm. How else do we ingratiate our readers to the new found boons of minimalism, thriftiness, and good old boring index investing?

The Baby With The Bathwater?

The downside, of course, is that comedy will be mistaken as the point itself. That our blogs and podcasts will be looked as entertaining but light on usable information. It is possible that others will visit for pure comedic value, and dismiss the actual advice being proffered.

Or that readers will be turned off. They will see our creativity as pandering, and will click passed our site without giving it the due deference that it deserves. How many seconds do we have to truly engage a new reader/listener before they move on?

And of course we might just piss people off. Humor is subtle and can easily me misconstrued. One man’s joke is another man’s insult.

It is a slippery slope.

Final Thoughts

I am interested in exploring the connection between humor and financial independence. Comedy is a great vehicle when presenting what otherwise may be bland information. Certainly, when you are trying to motivate people to reach big audacious dream a little bit of irreverence and sarcasm is called for.

Yet, there is a price to play. Humor is subjective and risks masking the true importance of the message.

It takes a pretty special person to be able to find the right balance.