500 subscribers
Or how you can help out Boring Money for what's next
It’s been 3 months since Boring Money’s first post on Adani stocks only going up and I’ve finally reached the 500+ subscribers happy figure.
Finance is all around us. And yet, it’s an enigma. I have friends inside finance who understand little outside their specific sub-field. My understanding of this conundrum is that many parts of finance are intentionally convoluted. These financial products are quite profitable for those who design them, as long they’re the ones selling and not the ones buying.
It’s not just about selling stuff, of course. Finance has developed a language of its own and the simplest of things are said in words that are not otherwise part of the English language. (How else can “leverage”, “margin”, “bonds”, “debentures”, “debt” refer to the same thing with minor differences based on the context?)
Journalists write about stuff happening in the world of finance world using the words of finance—stuff that is meaningless to many, and boring-as-death for most. I’d certainly hope that I’m not the only one who has torn apart pages of the Economic Times before any other newspaper to, you know, use as shelf liners or whatever.
Boring Money is my attempt to change this perception of financial news as boring. I want to bring out the bizarre and the funny—or just the interesting—in finance, for the simple pleasure of knowing if nothing else.
Boring Money’s goal is to translate, and definitely not dumb down. A good way to judge if this is happening is if people within finance find as much value out of Boring Money, as those outside.
The difficult part, though, is reaching out to people in finance. Most of my immediate circle comprises of engineers and others within tech and that’s what my readership largely reflects at the moment. Combine this with me having a limited social media reach (here’s my Twitter, by the way) and generally being averse to self-promotion, reaching these folks is my uphill task.
If you, my dear reader, have friends who you think would be interested—especially if they’re within finance—do share Boring Money with them. I’m sure they would appreciate it enough to subscribe.
What’s next?
To the best of my knowledge, India does’t have a single newsletter that readers find worthwhile to pay for. Okay, Indians are a stingy lot, most businesses have a tough time getting us to pay. But, in my opinion, the lack of a single successful paid newsletter is only a reflection of a lack of success of writer-led1 newsletters in general. How many India-focused newsletters do you know of that are published regularly?
I do hope that Boring Money goes on to have a readership that pays. This isn’t just to make money out of a hobby (that would be quite nice though) but also because nothing is better than the feeling of knowing that there are people out there that value what you have to say enough to pay.
Maybe at 10,000 subscribers?
Meanwhile, if you have thoughts, ideas, or feedback, please do write back. Either by replying to this email or at boringmoney@substack.com
Not those by organisations such as The Ken (where I used to work) or The Signal but by individuals who have managed to build their own readership independently.