Where is the Degree in Money Management Offered in School?

There is no doubt the two most monumental days of a parent’s life are when their kids go off to kindergarten and when they graduate from college. All parents raise their children wanting them to succeed in life no matter their chosen path or discipline. They aspire for them to have more, make better choices and position themselves for lasting fulfillment and prosperity. But, when they made that life changing decision to go off to college and choose a path what was it based upon? What ideals and set of rules governed their decision? Were these valid for the economic conditions of the times? Were they based upon outdated or misinterpreted financial paradigms?

It’s been said as we enter the “education hard knock years” from our early twenties extending into our late thirties that the two largest life stressors are marriage/family issues and money. As we all know we can choose to deal with or ignore our family issues depending on the severity and depth of the issue but it’s very difficult if not impossible to ignore our money problems and challenges as we age into debt and the falsities within the financial sector. For most, money becomes the #1 provocation as we start to earn a little money with our jobs, buy our 1st home, trade up our old clunker for that new SUV(around 55k now) and purchase those upgraded appliances and furnishings for the remodeled kitchen and bathroom. This was certainly a win-win as we used the 0% credit card offering for 1yr and we can certainly pay off the balance in one year? Sound familiar?

The Money hamster wheel starts spinning faster and faster as we make more money, spend more and upgrade our cars, homes and now boats as we must have some summer fun for the kids. This cycle is all too habitual to most in the money-debt rat race. But why does this continue to happen year after year, generation after generation and decade after decade without any end in sight? Simple Answer—School and its controlled environment of old ideals and assumptions that are just not congruent with today’s changing socioeconomic times.

To begin to change this pattern we must WAKE UP and ask some questions as to why this has happened and what we can do to alter this cycle of entrapment. Most of us grew up watching our parents go to their mundane JOB (Just Over Broke), put dinner on the table, buy that nicer car, bigger home and the typical “keeping up with the Jones’s mentality” but this paradigm is slowly changing with Free Enterprise and it’s characteristics awakening in this New Era.

We must 1st begin with the questions, When were we EVER taught in school such concepts as debt management, residual income, free enterprise wealth creation, forming of LLC or other companies to minimize our taxes, buying assets instead of liabilities or for that matter what do these concepts even mean? These types of “life survival skills for prosperity” were simply not in our schools and for the most part are still not main stream today. The only formal training most of us ever got about money was to graduate from high school, go to college, get a job, earn money (in the highest tax bracket) from that job and buy a house because it will serve as a main source of wealth creation? Wow, how wrong could they be! At the writing of today July 21, 2009 what market could claim their principal residence is an asset or a wealth accumulator?

With the advent of the internet and how fast information travels today and the movement of freedom thinkers now teaching financial concepts we can now empower ourselves with true and tangible information about our homes, assets, liabilities, wealth creation and investment models outside of the main stream media. We have proven with the complete ruination of our financial position with a corrupt Wall Street and banking cartel that we can no longer entrust our money to anyone except legitimizing our skills and temperament to new financial concepts.

There are some key steps and components we can add to our tool chest of knowledge to survive and thrive in this new financial paradigm. First and foremost, we must understand that our corporate JOB (Just Over Broke) is NOT going to provide lasting wealth creation and longevity. It’s not to say we all go out tomorrow and fire our bosses but we must look to home based businesses which are the fastest growing field of choice right now. Why?

People are losing their jobs as fast as they can fill out resumes. Corporate downsizing and the financial meltdown is forcing people to look elsewhere to support their families. Secondly, we need to capitalize on the vast amounts of books, DVD’s, movies, e-books, CD’s and many other forms of media that lay out in detail all the tangible money concepts that have been kept from us for so long and in fact were never taught in the school systems. Third, we must open our eyes to the shift that is taking place with respect to Financial Planners and Brokers. Most are realizing now that they do not need a planner or broker to manage their money, they can empower themselves with coaching and mentorship from companies who have “skin in the game of trading” and money management to educate them. We do not let someone else make decisions about our raising our kids, why do we give our money away to a guy whom has never traded, only taken your money for commissions? It’s not to say all money managers are bad or unethical but the first question we must always ask is what is your personal experience in trading or personally managing a portfolio of tangible investments and not just paper manipulated stock, securities and bonds?

Lastly, and probably most impactful is the education and investigation we must do to expand our networks and business colleagues. The old saying, if we want to increase our net worth, we must change our networks is absolutely true, today more than ever. Ask yourself this question, if you truly want to change your financial circumstance and make more money, is your current network of people going to help or hinder that? The internet is providing the platform and resources in social media and many other forms to transform the way you interact in free enterprise and you can launch you into a whole another world if you choose. When that day comes and you decide on what college your child will attend, he or she should already have that Money Manager degree well before stepping foot University grounds.

Scott Lifer—www.wakeupsense.com www.wakeupcense.com