This hard truth changed how I talk about money

There are no shortcuts to financial clarity.

Photo by Ilyass SEDDOUG on Unsplash

Three years ago, Money Talks launched with a simple goal: to talk about money in a way that felt honest, human and useful.

I didn’t know exactly what it would become, but I knew why it needed to exist.

I also didn’t know then what the most important lesson of this journey would be.

I know it now.

I can’t give anyone a shortcut.

That’s hard for me to admit because I want to. I really, really want to.

When you spend years learning something the hard way, you want to save other people the time and the pain. You want to say, ‘Here, take this. Skip the missteps. Avoid the stress. Just do what I did once I finally figured it out.’

Especially with money. Especially when you can see how one decision can change the next 10 years of someone’s life — and the lives that follow.

But information is not the same thing as readiness. Money is behavioral long before it multiplies in your bank account or brokerage.

My mastery over my money didn’t grow because I cracked some secret code. It grew because I stayed curious. Because I paid attention to my own patterns. Because I sat with discomfort long enough to understand it instead of trying to outrun it.

That kind of learning takes time. It takes repetition. It takes mistakes that don’t feel optional in hindsight but were necessary in the moment.

And that’s why I can’t give anyone a shortcut. You have to feel the feelings of fear, uncertainty and doubt. You must endure the messy middle where change actually happens.

I can’t hand anyone relief without also taking away the growth that comes from earning it.

There’s a deeper layer I didn’t expect. Every time I try to skip someone ahead in their journey, I risk altering their life in ways I can’t predict.

Not everyone has my lung capacity. Not everyone is ready for the emotional weight of certain financial truths, gains and losses.

I can give the information, but I can’t give you the disposition. I can’t give the resilience it took to arrive there. Without that, even the clearest Money Talks can land wrong.

An Alan Watts quote has been sitting with me lately because it captures this better than I ever could. I came across it in one of those AI YouTube videos.

“The one who sees beyond illusion does not judge those who remain asleep,” Watts’ computer-generated voice says. “There is no anger. No frustration. No superiority. Only understanding. … They do not force their insights upon others. For they know that truth cannot be given. It must be found.”

That line, “truth cannot be given, it must be found,” is the point. It keeps coming back to me because it explains more than just money.

It shows up in behaviors, habits and whole lifestyles. People can hear the same information and respond in completely different ways. The difference is what they’re ready to sit with.

When it comes to money, clarity doesn’t arrive all at once. At least it never did for me. First it was information. Then behavior. Then habit. Over time, it became identity. Each layer took time and asked something different of me.

I could make progress in one area and stay stuck in another. I could know better and still not do better. I could be committed and still feel unsure.

That’s what made the idea of shortcuts so appealing and so impossible.

Some things only settle after you’ve lived with them. Financial clarity turned out to be one of them.