Something just came to me, and I’m feeling kinda agitated about it.
It’s like my own conspiracy theory.
I am now officially a conspiracy theorist.
Ok, I’ll get to the point.
The education system teaches us very little, if anything at all, about money. Yet, every single one of us needs to manage money every day of our lives.
My rough estimate (anecdotally, and based on my 17 years working in personal finance) is that around 85% – 90% of us DO NOT have our sh*t together when it comes to money.
We don’t talk about it, so noone (except for financial planners) really realizes that almost nobody has a good relationship with money or understands how to manage it.
I would say it’s only about 10% of us who have the money thing down. It might even be less than that.
My definition of having ‘the money thing down’ is…
- Your money is working for you.
- You don’t worry about it.
- You spend about an hour a month on it (something like what I wrote about here).
- Your wealth is growing through an automated diversified investment portfolio and savings strategy.
- You know how much you need to achieve financial freedom.
- You literally barely think about it (this final point is the clincher).
So… what I’ve been thinking is why? Why would it not be a major feature in our education? Why would we not be educated and empowered to manage our money and achieve financial independence?
And what if the reason is to keep us small?
To keep us in fear.
To keep us dependent and reliant and NOT FREE.
Because free people are not sheep. They have a voice, and choices.
Argh, it makes me so mad.
So I was thinking, if you’re someone who’s struggled with your relationship with money, rather than feeling ashamed or embarrassed about it. Get angry. And channel that anger into learning and empowering yourself financially.
And then you’ll have more freedom, and that’s pretty great.
