Recently I’ve been rocking out to a new song by the band Paramore. If you haven’t heard of them, well they’d probably say that ignorance is your new best friend. In fact, I’ve been rocking to them so much lately that lead singer Hayley Williams has replaced Taylor Swift in the category of Inappropriately Young Female Singer that Lazy Man is Crushing On. Getting back to the subject, the song that really got my attention is Brick by Boring Brick. If they given a vote I’d say it is the best song in at least 3 years, maybe 5. To my surprise, when I looked into the lyrics a little deeper a hidden financial lesson came to the surface.
Did you catch it? Some of the lyrics are little hard to catch. Here are a few that I popped out when I first heard the song:
“She lives in the fairy tale somewhere too far for us to find”
“Keep your feet on the ground when your head’s in the clouds”
“Her prince finally came to save her and the rest you can figure out but it was a trick and the clock struck 12”
“Well make sure to build your home brick by boring brick or the wolf’s gonna blow it down”
“Ba da ba ba da da ba da…”
What kind of financial lessons can we take away from this? As Hayley Williams says:
“‘Stop living in a fake fairytale… like, WAKE UP!’ When thinking how I could really get that across in the song I decided I’d use a house. Someone’s safe place, even in a fairy tale – you can’t forge a refuge out of magic & fairy dust. You gotta build it just as real and as solid as a stupid old brick.”
So financially speaking, give up the lottery tickets and pour some money into your 401k. Don’t pay for real estate seminars or get rich quick schemes and max out that Roth IRA. Don’t buy MonaVie or sell MonaVie and build up that emergency fund. When the wolf comes to blow your financial house down, you’ll be glad you built it brick by boring, stupid old brick.
Do you know someone who has their financial head too far in the clouds? If you do (sing along with me):
Go get your shovel
And we’ll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
I’ve got the full lyrics for you after the jump…
Well she lives in the fairy tale
Somewhere too far for us to find
Forgotten the taste and smell
Of a world that she’s left behind
It’s all about the exposure the lens I told her
The angles are all wrong now
She’s ripping wings off of butterflies
Keep your feet on the ground
When your head’s in the clouds
Well go get your shovel
And we’ll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Go get your shovel
And we’ll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Ba da ba ba da ba ba da
So one day he found her crying
Coiled up on the dirty ground
Her prince finally came to save her
And the rest you can figure out
But it was a trick
And the clock struck 12
Well make sure to build your home brick by boring brick
or the wolf’s gonna blow it down
Keep your feet on the ground
When your head’s in the clouds
Well go get your shovel
And we’ll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Go get your shovel
And we’ll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Woah, woah.
Well you built up a world of magic
Because your real life is tragic
Yeah you built up a world of magic
If it’s not real
You can’t hold it in your hand
You can’t feel it with your heart
And I won’t believe it
But if it’s true
You can see it with your eyes
Or even in the dark
And that’s where I want to be, yeah
Go get your shovel
And we’ll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Go get your shovel
And we’ll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Ba da ba ba da ba ba da…
As interestingly different this thread has been, it really does hit home that any ‘financial powerhouse’ is really built one step at a time. You can’t reach your end goal until you take all the right steps.
Nice post; first time visitor!
Thanks, I tried to do something a little lighter because it was a Friday. From the flood (or lack thereof) of comments, I won’t be doing that again.)
It’s all good; I like these kind of threads!
Love me the Paramore.
My favorite song is this one though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a62EQaxWHI
Cheers!
That’s no Taylor Swift, average at best
I know Hayley’s music is so much better (and I like Taylor Swift’s quite a bit, so that says something).
She is such a amazing artist. I have all of her albums.
This song reminds me of some track by other composer which I very much liked … I can’t really recall which :-\ does anyone happens to know who I am talking about?