Life is a rat race but shouldn't life be like these...?
- More time to raise kids
- More time and money to take care of health
- Able to travel the world with your loved ones
- Share life experiences to the community
The bridge of poor getting poorer and richer getting richer keeps widening because we rarely evaluate our thoughts about money. Some say money is the root of all evils and I do agree with them. Without building pillars of understanding about our life, your path of earning money could be different from the conventional way.
The Lazy PillBeing lazy is not doing something for your money. It is insane to to work so hard for nothing to show for at the end of the day. You come back from home and the next day you get back to your job thinking that you will get far ahead. The correct sentiments that one should have is, "How you spend time", that will decide whether you are rich or poor in thinking.
Due to the lack of financial intelligence, many uneducated people will put themselves into position of high financial risk. These are the people who cling desperately to job security and they are the ones who always say : "Business and investing is risky." Business and investing is not risky is you are misinformed. It is the same as relying on a "safe secure job" is the highest risk anyone can take.
JOB (Just Obey Boss)
A job is really a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Just look around you how many jobs they're cutting in this recession?
Being smart is everything. Unable to control your way of life is not.
Financial Intelligence
When emotions are high, financial intelligence often disappears. People are so concerned with their jobs, the falling value of their property, the crash of the stock market, and the general slowdown of business, they failed to see the massive opportunities right in front of them. Instead of moving forward and beating the bushes, most people went into their caves and hide.
They lacked the technical skills required, just as a doctor must have technical skills developed from years of schooling and then from on-the-job training. Technical skills that include financial literacy, which is knowing the vocabulary, how to restructure debt, how to restructure offering, who your market is, how to raise capital, and other skills.
Mind Your Own Business
When you decide to mind your own business, the next step as the CEO of the business of your life, is to take control of your cash flow. If you do not, making money will not make you richer. In fact, more money makes most people poorer because they often go out and get deeper into bad debt every time they get a pay raise.
What they taught you in school?
It's good that Singapore is constantly restructuring it's education system. Accommodating changes that synchronize with ever changing economy and always moving forward to an innovative future. We are relying on daring youths to drive our economy in this information age. What if they still can't tell between a teacher's good or bad advice? Teachers simply are employees and decide what grades this students receive but they can never guarantee these students will land on good job. That answer lies on the economy, the employer and the company. Seeing Universities, JCs, polytechnics and ITE students dance gracefully in performances and achieving good grades in school. The real question is, will they dance gracefully in this volatile economy? Are they just studying hard to get into jobs they want without realizing the possibilities of mergers & acquisitions of companies in this rocky economy? These guys are in serious trouble if they're not aware because they do not know how cruel the working world is. Not to spoil the fun in school but aren't they concerned about what they would like to do in the future? Decide on a future is one thing but will the volatile economy be kind enough to adjust to your needs?
If a child leaves school with good grades, does it mean the child will be successful in real life? Does success in academic world insure your child's success in the real world? The value of a person's education is not found in his or her report card. The best measurement to evaluate a person's education is how they fared financially after leaving school. School's do not teach the survival skills needed for today's world. Most students leave school financially needy and looking for security.. security that cannot be found outside. The school system performed its duty by providing a steady stream or employees and soldiers, looking for a job, a job in big business and military. Part of this need for security happens because people never found their new identity and do not trust in their ability to survive on their own.
What is taught about Money
The primary reason many people seek job security is because that is what they are taught to seek, at home and at school. Millions of people continue to follow that advice. Many of us have been conditioned from our earliest days to think about job security, rather than financial security or financial freedom. Most of us learn little to nothing about money at home or at school, it is only natural that many of us cling even more tightly to the idea of job security. It is often true that money is not as important as security. They make great risks in other areas of their lives, such as sport parachuting, but not when it comes to money.
Without a basic financial education, long-term financial security is impossible.
I've often marveled at the lack of financial education in our modern school system. At best, our children are taught to balance a checkbook, speculate in the stock market, save money in banks, and invest in a retirement plan for the long term. In other words, they are taught to turn their money over to the rich, who supposedly have their interest at heart. Every time an educator brings a banker or a financial planner into their classroom, supposedly in the name of financial education, they are actually allowing the fox to enter the hen house. I am not saying bankers and financial planners are bad people. All I am saying is that they are agents of the rich and powerful. Their jobs is not to educate but to recruit future customers. That is why they preach the doctorine of saving your money and investing in mutual funds. It helps the banks, not you. Again, Ireiterate this is not bad. It's good business for the bank. It is no different than Army coming on campus when I was in school and selling students on the glory of serving our country.
One of the causes of this financial crisis is that most people do not know good financial advice from bad financial advice. Most people cannot tell a good financial advisor from a con man. Most people cannot tell a good investment from a bad one. Most people go to school so they can get a good job, work hard, pay taxes, buy a house, save money, and turn over any extra money to a financial planner.
Most people leave school not knowing even the basic differences between a stock and a bond, between debt and equity. Few know why preferred stocks are labelled preferred and why mutual funds are mutual, or the difference between a mutual fund, hedge fundm exchange traded fund, and a fund of funds. Many people think debt is bad, yet debt can make you rich. Debt can increase your return on investment, but only if you know what you are doing. Only a few know the difference between capital gains and cash flow and which is less risky. Most people blindly accept the idea of going to school to get a good job and never know why employees pay higher tax rates than the entrepreneur who owns the business. Many people are in trouble today because they believed their home was an asset, when it was really a liability. These are basic and simple financial concepts. Yet for some reason, our schools conviniently omit a subject required for a successful life-the subject of money.
Problems We Are Facing
- Failure=Loaded with liabilities, with no real assets to generate income.
- People struggle financially because they think cheap and buy cheap. Little effort is the best replacement for excuses.
- Good grades are not as important as finding your genius.
- One job for life is an Industrial Age idea.
- The future does not belong to the child who leaves school with the best grades.
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