Education is so valuable. The level of education we attain will most often dictate our income, and this level of income will determine where we live. And where we live will dictate which person we marry, and this determines how many children we have. Much of the results we get in life are determined by the money we have available. So why don’t we spend more time on financial education?
Anyone can spend money, even a child can do this. Give a 5-year-old
a dollar, for example, and it will be spent on candy in an instant. It takes some mature insight to take some of our money today and set it aside for future needs, like emergencies, fun, and retirement.
When we get an education and then go into the workplace, we must keep
learning, or get left behind. I suggest we all continue to learn about money as we go through the three phases of our life:
- The Accumulation Stage (where we work to earn money);
- The Conservation Stage (where we slow down and possibly retire); and
- The Distribution Stage (when we die and our money is passed on to others).
Each phase requires a lot of education to be successful. Those that do not learn how to adjust from accumulating money to conserving it, can have unexpected losses that will destroy their retirement income.
Advancements made with inventions, technology, better products and so forth have made our lives simpler and safer. These new innovations should motivate us to know and do more. I cannot imagine a plumber who started 30 years ago is still using expensive metal pipes, when plastic, cheap and lightweight pipes are now available? He is also using different tools, and techniques that speed up the installation process and keeps working many years beyond the “old days.” Sure, he works with plumbing, but how he does this, and with the kind of materials has changed a great deal.
Everything we learn in college changes often and at a more rapid rate. Here is an example: I have a friend that went on a humanitarian sabbatical to Guatemala. After five years he returned home and started working with his previous employer. In just those five years he was out of the country, the amount of changes to the industry in which he worked were immense. Computers had become faster, smaller and less expensive. He was given a car that ran on electricity. His diabetes medicine has improved, with less of a dosage and no longer made him feel nauseated. When he came back he had to adjust quickly to a lot of big changes. When we fail to stay committed to education we get behind and it can be hard to catch up, especially when it comes to financial education. Continue to learn and apply knowledge to your life and you will be so much happier.
For a superior financial education, I urge you to go to www.moneymastery.com today and begin learning how to truly manage your finances the way they were meant to be.
