Financial Literacy (free write)

For this free write I wanted to touch on something I came across this week. Recently, I've been having  a lot discussions and reading a lot of books about financial literacy in hopes to learning what our role as leaders is in making sure that our children are given the best tools for success. One of the books I was reading mentioned that all of us learned our spending habits and financial management from our family or close family friends. Unfortunately, most American families do not have good financial literacy, hence why the majority of wealth is held in the hands of a few. For those of us that were not fortunate enough to be born into these families, the author suggest to forget what was passed down to us and learn about finances on our own. One of the ways to learn the ropes is by simply going out there and trying new things. However, this is very risky because you are gambling with your finances, most people that take this path end up being bankrupt within a year or two. The author suggest instead that reading and educating yourself before just jumping in gives you a higher chance of success. This does not mean that you have to go out and get a MBA before you can get started, but at the minimum you should learn the language used by the professionals and seek the advice of mentors, this can include books as well. Personally, I have found this to be very true. I can honestly say I have learned more in the last 8 months about finances than I have in the last 29 years of my life. It has been an amazing learning experience to see how all of the systems that are in place come together to move our massive financial machine. Learning the strategies on how to best leverage those systems to make them work for you instead of you working for them has been incredibly eye opening to me. I know many people get very cynical the moment you talk to them about financial strategies, but my advice is to keep an open mind and educate yourself as best as possible. It's important that we all do this not just for our own benefit, but for the benefits of our communities, families, and especially our children.