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When Ron Lieber arrived at the Wall Street Journal offices for a job interview in 2002, several editors immediately assessed his size.
“They said, 'We know what your beat is: beat the system,'” Lieber said. He last worked at Fast Company as a senior writer covering management, design and careers. “And now you're here to do it for us.”
After co-founding the Wall Street Journal's personal journal division and writing a separate money management column, he was hired by the New York Times in 2008 to take over its personal finance column, Your Money. Sixteen years later, he has earned a reputation for offering readers advice on headache-inducing issues like paying for college and preparing for life after a layoff.
“I love introducing readers to characters you might not think would be the subject of a money column, but who are actually perfect for teaching you something about how the world works,” Lieber said. he said. Most Saturdays are in the business section.
As a Times columnist, he has seen two recessions and a pandemic. (In 2009, he also wrote about how his own financial planner was indicted for fraud.) In a recent conversation, he talked about the unexpected lessons he learned while writing his column. We shared topics that we thought might soon dominate the world of personal finance. . These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
How did you become interested in finance?
When I was a high school senior in Chicago and applying for financial aid to attend college, I came across Roger Koester, who was the associate director of financial aid at Northwestern University. He had a side job at the office during off-duty hours. In exchange for $45, he would explain the entire financial aid system to local families who wanted to understand. He knew exactly what he was talking about and gave me great advice.
It's a reminder that there's always an adult somewhere who knows how to overcome the system, and if you can find that adult and ask questions, you can also help others overcome the system. He gave it to me. I don't consider myself an adult, but I feel like every week I look for adults who know the answers to the tough consumer questions that plague my readers.
What makes a good column?
When you think about personal finance, there's a sort of Venn diagram of possible topics. A really complex process. And decisions where emotions can lead us wrong if we're not careful. I like to think I've found the right topic when I'm in the center of the picture.
Then there's the issue of voice. The biggest compliment anyone can give me is that my column sounds as if I were in the room with them explaining the topic at hand. I want it to feel conversational, rather than lecture-like, preachy, or didactic. That doesn't mean it's always friendly. I do my best to attack institutions and organizations that can and deserve it.
If you can find the right topic and speak in the right voice, you win the week.
Last month, an article by New York Magazine's financial advice columnist How she was scammed out of $50,000 I caught a virus. Do you think you fell for that scam too?
never say never. I always remind myself that there's no need to rush into anything right now. She calls one person, three people, five people who are smarter than you, or more level-headed than you, to ask you cool questions and pull you back from the brink of making a big mistake. There's always time to do it.
What authors and publications do you read to keep up?
I'm an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal. I'm a big fan of Ramit Sethi, author of the book “I'll Teach You to Get Rich'' and a newsletter writer. I love reading Michelle Singletary, who writes the Washington Post's personal finance column. And I also really like Tori Dunlap's attitude and message, which most people know from her Instagram and her TikTok.
What trends are you paying attention to?
People who have worked their entire careers without a traditional pension are all starting to retire, and many will run out of money. The question of what will happen when that happens is very concerning.
I'm also interested in all the work Conor Dougherty and other colleagues at the Times have been doing around the inability to build more housing in a rational way. It's unclear where and how people in their 20s and even 30s will buy homes.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
If people see things in the world that don't make sense, do they think corruption needs to be exposed, or do they just say, “I can't be the only one who doesn't understand this?” Is it just because you want to? Are you explaining? ” — that is very helpful to me. Some of the work I'm most proud of started with a reader's comment on one of my columns. We are all in this together, and no one is smarter than us.
