On a scale of 1 to 100, where do you place your financial literary and personal finance? My friend scores himself 60, which means I must be just below.
Money is based on a set of rules made up by humans not too long ago. In my early twenties, I latched onto titles like “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. Having a poor dad myself, I couldn’t grasp the basic concepts. What I do remember: wealth is not how much you make. Wealth is what is left over after paying everyone else, including the tax man. Pay yourself first. I just read reviews with differing views.
My take? If you want to adjust the way you think about money, give it a god. It takes time for things to change. For our minds to bend and adapt. It won’t give you specific advice on how to invest or do things differently, aside from planting a seed, if not planted already.
Too many of us live from one paycheck to the next. Looking for ways to make our money stretch. When extra income comes in, we splurge and treat ourselves. Or maybe we need to pay for the leaky roof. A pair of shoes for the child in need.
But… if you’re reading this, you probably have disposable income, even if its $50 a month. They say a dollar today is worth less tomorrow because the cost of living goes up while our salary stagnates.
How do we preserve the value of the $1 or better yet, increase it? How do we make the money work for itself? This is the layperson’s definition of investment and capital preservation. If you think I just spoke a foreign language, I’m not surprised.
The penny dropped for me just last year, after reading and thinking about money for 12 years and getting my MBA. Why did it take so long? Because I grew up with poverty mind of scarcity. The epiphany only hit after doing research on the US taxes because I wanted to get over my fear of the big scary IRS. It turns out the US income tax that we see today only started this century, and it was voluntary.
My journey started 12 years ago, and I am just starting to scratch the surface. Where are you? How have you invested towards your future?