financial literacy

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE. Win the war against poverty.

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This week on The Wealthy You!; win the war against poverty.

Building wealth for you, your family, and your community is doing your part to win the war against poverty. There is a war against poverty despite it not being mentioned in the news on a regular basis or even hearing other people talk about it throughout society. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated a war on poverty in 1964, this program has been the center of various different criticisms and its ability to actually fight poverty from a whole-of-government approach, but the reasoning behind it makes sense. This was an interventionist strategy led by the state, but this approach doesn’t allow people or give citizens the opportunity to stand on their own two feet and develop and prosper on their own work, energy and economic production. Johnson’s program has been criticized and often been tagged as the program that has led to the massive welfare state that the U.S. Government has built over the pass few decades. Despite its criticism and shortcomings, the government was correct about one thing; generally speaking, the fewer people there are in poverty, the lower the crime rate, drug use, prison populations, homeless camps and other ills associated with poverty in society. This is a fact that all people can come together on. The easiest way of winning the war on poverty is to not be in poverty yourself. That makes it a personal endeavor instead of a state-led effort. How has poverty served society? Have you ever seen anyone purchase happiness with poverty?

The best and most effective way to not be in poverty yourself is to have a thorough understanding of financial literacy and to produce for others. Understanding financial literacy is my DEFENSIVE approach and producing is my OFFENSIVE approach.

In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States released the U.S. National Strategy for Financial Literacy. They define financial literacy and education, “Financial literacy describes the skills, knowledge and tools that equip people to make individual financial decisions and actions to attain their goals; this may also be known as financial capability, especially when paired with access to financial products and services. Financial education is the process by which people gain information, skills, confidence and motivation to act, through various means, including classroom education, one-on-one counseling and coaching, technology-based interventions, and self-study. A key desired outcome for financial education is sustained financial well-being, in which people can fully meet current and ongoing financial obligations, can feel secure in their financial future, and are able to make choices that allow enjoyment of life.” In the document, they call for state, tribal, and local governments, the private sector, local service providers and community organizations to work and participate together to teach and spread financial literacy to the people they serve and work for in their corner of society. The Wealthy You! DEFENSE & OFFENSE operate within the private sector. The government wants you to be smart with money and to be wealthy.

Doing your part to win the war on poverty helps not only you, your family, and your community, but it directly and indirectly helps other people from around the world. You become a member of the world’s production instead of being a sole-consumer. Whatever you produce through self-interests, other people in societies around the world will be interested in your production because it is helpful and productive for their life. Those people will merely trade in their own money for your production (OFFENSE), that money goes into your pocket or bank account, you can then use some of that money to trade in for food, energy, home and other things you need, and then through proper financial literacy (DEFENSE) you will be able to build The Wealthy You!.

Imagine going on the OFFENSE to produce a product the whole world will consume and utilize (McDonalds, Apple, Google, Twitter, Ford, Coca-Cola, and any other company that can be found around the world). These companies produce a product for people around the world that are willing to trade in their money for these companies products or services (money is a means of exchange or sharing). Think about humans and what humans need to survive, thrive and live and everything that orbits humans (pets, luxuries, entertainment, wants, etc…). In America (and other democracies with a human-capital means of production) you do not need the state’s permission to produce for the world. You just need to file with the secretary of state in whichever state you plan on operating from and then it becomes your responsibility to figure out how to produce your product or service (factory or farm), distribution of your product and the continued sales of your product. Of course there are a lot of nuances to doing this, but that is a part of the fun in producing for the world and building The Wealthy You!.

Next week on The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; poverty is a lack of resources and wealth is an abundance of resources.

Become The Wealthy You!

Click to access US-National-Strategy-Financial-Literacy-2020.pdf

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE. Introduction to OFFENSE.

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This week on The Wealthy You!; Introduction to OFFENSE.

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE is about keeping a portion of your earnings regardless of what your work, job or income is (financial literacy). The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE is about getting more and earning more, this happens by producing more for society. The Offense is taking the initiative, taking ownership of a worthwhile goal, getting more points than your competition and establishing your own income. It is about going from achievement to achievement and accomplishment to accomplishment instead of going from paycheck to paycheck. This is making decisions and leading by example every day. Stress test all ideas that come to your mind. This can include building a billion-dollar business from plants or other simple items like coffee. You will have to figure out how to remove all impediments to success, but that only comes after you make the decision of what success looks like. And that is the key, define what success looks like and then pursue it relentlessly every day with the limited time that you have. That is the OFFENSE. Remove all impediments to success when they become obvious (the human mind will figure out how to do that) and make the decisions that bring you closer to your vision of success. Don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do, this is your life and vision, start right now.

After you establish what your success looks like and you have started the journey in pursuing your success, you will come to a point where the pursuit of your success and vision will consume all of your time in which you won’t have any time to actually have a job and work for a paycheck. You will then have to make the decision of pursuing your success or receiving a paycheck. At the very beginning, the pursuit of your dreams may not pay as much financially as a job (which is why people hold on to them), but jobs never give you the opportunity to go on the OFFENSE in pursuing your dreams, visions and success and becoming The Wealthy You!. In the long run, going on the OFFENSE will pay far more than most jobs ever could.

The wealth that is being mentioned is about production instead of money. Money isn’t backed up by anything of significant value (full faith and credit of the government) and can be bought in every store in America (really around the world), it is the most abundant resource in the Universe. Credit cards, mortgages and loans of all types are examples of buying money. You buy credit (money) from someone else and then pay them back with interest over time. Production is about producing a product or service that can be beneficial for people in society. The things you produce orbit around human beings because they are used by humans. The time you spend producing those things cannot be bought or purchased at a store. Knowing that you have ownership of an asset that can’t be bought anywhere on Earth, which is your time, how much would you value your time? If the value you place on your time is in the millions or billions range, then you may want to consider selling a product or service that you produce instead of selling your time by the hour. That is going on the OFFENSE.

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE is you taking ownership of your time, energy, thoughts, skills and abilities and using them in pursuits of success and sharing it with the world. The pursuit of self-interests is not selfish, it is selfless. Doing absolutely nothing for society and other people is selfish; do nothing for society, then society will give you nothing. Produce for society through your self-interests then you will find that you have access to all that society produces from others and their pursuits of self-interests. This program touches on the basis of economics.

Next week on The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; Building wealth for you, your family, and your community is doing your part to win the war against poverty.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE

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This week on The Wealthy You; the importance of emergency cash.

Life happens and, for the most part, it is the most exhilarating journey you will experience while on Earth. I have heard some people refer to life as a “holiday on Earth”. Everyone’s life is different and each individual will perceive life in an individual way or manner. But one thing that is expected with your journey of life are emergencies. We all have them and they will make themselves obvious in your life at the most random and inopportune times. They will be stressful and they have the potential to drastically alter your life completely. Being able to handle those emergencies from a financial perspective will eliminate one pain that will be experienced during emergencies. Because feeling the pain of not being able to afford the emergency from a financial perspective and the pain of what the emergency manifests as will make the pain more painful and seem to last longer. Not having the proper financial resources during an emergency will make you pay for that emergency over the long-haul, stretching it into the future and making the pain last for as long as you are paying it down if credit or debt was used to pay for the emergency. That pain can be eliminated if you keep cash in a savings account that is strictly used for covering those emergencies.

Because everyone are individuals, we all go about building our emergency savings in a different capacity. Some may even call it something different than ’emergency savings’. I have heard of ‘oh shit accounts’, ’emergency money’, ‘disaster cash’, and ‘a place where I keep money only for when my world is cracked open like an egg’. But they are utilized in a very similar manner, regardless of what you call it, it is money that is available for you to use if legitimate emergencies occurs in your life.

All financial literacy experts, financial advisors, money managers, personal money motivators, money teachers and anyone else that works with personal finances agree that emergency cash is an essential part of smart money in your life. It is IMPOSSIBLE to become The Wealthy You! without an adequate amount cash set aside for emergencies. Those experts will recommend different strategies like; $1000 minimum in savings (Dave Ramsey), 3-6 months of expenses in savings, 3-6 months of income in savings, or even a years’ worth of income set aside. If you have a spouse and children but you are the only one working because your income can support the whole family, then you may want to lean closer to a full years’ worth of income set aside (emergencies hover around and are based on people. The more people in a household, the more likely an emergency will happen than two people in a household). But on the other hand, you are married with zero children and both you and your spouse work and have side gigs so that the two of you each have two or more sources of income, then having 3-6 months of expenses may be more suitable for your situation (less people and expenses in the household but more fluid cash flows through the household).

Everyone’s situation is different, so it is of the utmost importance to take accountability of your current emergency cash situation and take ownership of your emergency money. Formulate a plan that works best for your household and concentrate and focus your full attention on achieving and fulfilling that mission. The human mind creates more of whatever it focuses on. The more you focus on stresses in your life, the more your life will be stressed out. The more you focus on wealth, the more your mind will find opportunities to build, create and produce wealth. The more you focus on building your emergency cash pile or collection, the more you will build upon it every day until you are finished. Then you move onto the next mission to focus your mind on, such as becoming The Wealthy You!. Make it a habit and do it every day.

Next week on The Wealthy You!; inflation protection.

Become The Wealthy You!