Well, are you? What is financial literacy anyway? According to Wikipedia it is defined as one's ability to understand finance and make judgments about the use and management of one's money. Can you do that? I thought I did but all I did was balance my check book and I didn't even do that well. I was usually off by a few pennies and thought as long as the dollars balanced out, everything was ok. Now I realize that I should have paid more attention to my money because it was getting away from me and I was helping my money to do that -- get away from me.
Now I'm struggling and frustrated.
I have also taken the bull by horns and made a commitment to myself to become financially literate. I started this journey in 2002. I wanted to be RICH but didn't know how to do it or where to start. Well, in order to get RICH, I had to find out how to do that. Fortunately, one night I was up late and saw Robert Kiyosaki. He was speaking about how you can choose to be rich and your house is not an asset and some guy was running on a treadmill for Robert to demonstrate his point. I was intrigued and determined to listen to what this man was talking about.
Of course, he was on late night television selling his product, You Can Choose to Be Rich. And since he was the only one talking about that subject and that is exactly what I wanted to know, I bought the program. Well, I thought it was going to be some magical formula that would automatically turn me into this rich person that I so longed to be. I found out something that kinda really pissed me off and made me angry at Robert Kiyosaki. He made me realize that truly understanding financial literacy is understanding oneself. Learning financial literacy is opening the doors to inside ones self that you really don't want to go. Financial literacy involves a great deal of facing some truths about the individual self.
So the better question to ask is what does finance mean to you? I think most of us get intimidated because we may associate "finance" and all things related to rich people. I associated finance with stocks, bonds, etc. I never really thought of "finance" having anything to do with me. I saw myself outside of finance not realizing that I am, in fact, the CEO of my life. The life of Simone B. Hardy is a business and it is my business to learn, grow and do the best that I can for myself and my family. My life is my business just like your life, your finances, your money is your business too. We've all heard of budget and save but we don't do it. Now don't get me wrong. I'm sure there are many individuals who are expert savers - my mother was one, but she didn't have all of the answers. What we need is a total package for our best outcome.
I believe the best book hands down to learn about finance and put yourself in the picture is Robert Kiyosaki's, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It was written from the perspective of teaching a 9-year old boy about finance. If a child can be taught from this perspective, certainly this book will serve many adults in learning the sometimes intimidating world of "finance". This journey may take a lifetime to complete and then since laws and policies are always changing, you still have to stay on top of the information available to stay informed and have the best information to make the best financial decisions for yourself and your family.
