by Elisabeth Donati | Feb 10, 2011 | Financial Literacy, Latest News, Uncategorized, WEALTHwork™, What you can do
Arbitrary Financial Rules of Life: The Cause of Most Suffering
Human beings have a tendency to create arbitrary rules, judgments, classifications, meanings and hence, emotions about the ‘stuff’ of our lives. I’ve heard it said more than once that we’re Meaning Making Machines. And it’s those meanings that we contrive that get us into trouble every day, in more ways than one.
Take the arbitrary rule that families ‘should’ spend holidays together. Who said? And what policeman is going to come arrest you if you decide to go to Cancun some December instead?
Take the arbitrary judgment that rich people are greedy. Who said? And if this is so, why do so many philanthropists exist?
Take the arbitrary classification that if you live in a big house you are rich and if you rent a room in someone’s home and write all day, you are poor. Who said? What if the person living in the room simply wants simple and quiet and the people living in the big house owe more on the house than they have equity in it?
Take the arbitrary meaning that if you’re not totally passionate and happy with what you do for a living, you can’t possibly become rich. Who said? It was only a couple of decades ago (at the most) that human beings decided that we need to “love what we do and the money will follow.” (We talked about this just last week.)
The ideas of wealthy and not wealthy and what it means to be those things is so arbitrary. We all know happy poor people and sad rich people and everything in between.
The following story is a perfect illustration of this idea and I just wanted to share it with you. Enjoy…
STORY FOR YOU…
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, ‘How was the trip?’
‘It was great, Dad.’
‘Did you see how poor people live?’ the father asked.
‘Oh yeah,’ said the son.
‘So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?’ asked the father.
The son answered:
‘I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.’
The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, ‘Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.’
End of story…
So you see, as we’ve heard over and over again, life is relative and it’s often only with contrast that you get to see your life compared to someone else’s and see an alternative that you probably didn’t know existed for you.
When people say they ‘can’t’ move or are ‘stuck’, it’s often due to one of three things (or all of those things together):
1) They don’t know there are other options.
2) They are so fearful of change that they won’t choose another option even if they know it exists.
3) They really don’t want the other option badly enough (or goodly enough:-).
Your Wealth Work for today (like homework but better):
1) Look around your world and notice how you classify people, places, things, situations, etc. financially.
2) Ask yourself if those classifications are actually true (most of the time you will find they aren’t).
Financial Stress
3) Notice if those classifications cause you emotional distress in any way, be it comparing you to that other person, place or thing or feeling badly about yourself or negative emotions about another person. Could be practically anything.
4) Know that the information you are discovering in the first three pieces of this process are leading to your financial challenges in ways that you don’t have a clue.
5) If you haven’t done so, please invest in the book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, by T. Harv Eker. It’s the best book about there on financial beliefs and it changes people’s lives for the better when they consume it. Notice I didn’t say read it. I said invest in it and consume it.
I reread this book yearly and continue to learn more and more things about myself in terms of money, wealth, investing and a lot more. The deeper you go with yourself, the deeper you’ll be able to go the next time you take in the material.
Just something to think about!
p.s. If you really want to go deep, sign up for Eker’s Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar. It’s usually free but in this case, you don’t get what you pay for. You get life-change in a big way and I highly recommend the program. I’ve been through almost all of his seminars and loved them. Learned a ton and am where I am partly because of his programs. Check them out…
by Elisabeth Donati | Feb 3, 2011 | Financial Literacy, Latest News, Uncategorized, What you can do
Most of us have been asked, at some point in our lives, “What do you want to do, or who do you want to be, when you grow up?” Innocent enough question, right? Surprising as it might be, this one question can put pressure on a child that will plague him the rest of his life. How can we really know anymore?
The following is a funny little history lesson I wrote this morning for your amusement (Jan enjoyed it!). The times and events are lacking accuracy but, if this doesn’t put a smile on your face, a chuckle in your spirit and a question or two in your mind, I’ll go back to snorkeling on Virgin Gorda where I was yesterday. It was heaven.
Pre-Moneyist Erectus Era
A long, long time ago, most of the activities we spent our time on were connected to survival. We needed food, shelter, protection, herbs for medicine, and I suppose we needed a little human connection and some down time even way back then.
We spent our time hunting, gathering, picking berries, cooking, defending our mates, making sure the little ones weren’t eaten by the ever present saber-tooth tiger and oh, if we had enough energy as the sun went down, perhaps we’d paint a picture of our lives with a colored rock on a rock of another color.
We’d also sit around (on the dirt, in a cave, and eventually a fire) and tell stories to the youngsters…passing down the hows and whats of survival in the tundra or desert or wherever…maybe even sharing a joke or two.
Every thing we did had a purpose because, if we didn’t do those things, we were dead. And what good was that in the whole survival of the fittest scheme of things?
Life wasn’t hard because that’s all we knew. There were no computers to calculate the sunset or give us the tide chart for the next 12 months or figure out our estimated cost of goods for the next 10 years. We simply had stuff to do!
And as I said, that stuff often made the difference between whether we survived or not. To heck with whether we survived in the biggest cave or had the prettiest pot. We were just happy to have a cave and a pot to…call our own.
Do I have to go to work today?
We didn’t have time to ask the absurd questions, “Am I really enjoying what I’m doing?” or “Is this line of work bringing me satisfaction and joy?” Forget joy…we were just trying to stay alive.
Financial Erectus Era
During the next hundreds of thousands of years, before there was this thing called Money, we traded, or bartered, for what we needed. If I had a skill that you didn’t have, and you grew oranges, then I could do that thing for you and you could ‘pay me’ in oranges. Life was good. (I like oranges.)
But what if there were something I needed done that no one around was able to do? Or what if I needed something done but I didn’t have any more oranges to trade for having it done? What then?
Well…someone with half a brain might have seen the ‘opportunity’, quickly learned how to do that thing or make that thing, and the gap was covered. This opportunistic person probably didn’t question whether he liked the activity or it gave him purpose. Again, he was probably doing it to survive, feed his family of 13 kids, keep the roof from blowing off the house and keep the cow fed so it would produce enough milk to feed all those kids.
He was grateful to have found a place for himself in the Supply and Demand Cog and again, life was good. It might have been hard, but in the scheme of things, it was good nevertheless.
About this time, people started noticing that other people wanted items or services that weren’t necessarily necessary for life. They just wanted them. They were extras…luxuries in a lot of ways.
Homo-Entrepreneureth Erectus
This is when a new breed of human beings really started to take note. They started noticing that, “If I build it, they will buy it!”
And they did.
This is where things probably started to get sticky. This is where we started placing ‘value’ on stuff, be it a thing or someone’s time and energy. This is where we had to find a substance to trade for this extra stuff that we wanted, and this substance ended up being called Money.
And this is where I suspect we started valuing one person’s skills more than another and, hence, putting them in classifications with respect to what they ‘did’ in the world.
It’s probably when we started meeting people and asking the benign, but underhandedly curious, question…
“So…what to YOU do?”
Secretly, we’re trying to figure out where we should place them on the continuum between NOT successful or rich (or having no possible potential to be rich) on one side and MADE IT status or extremely rich (or having tons of potential to be rich in the future) on the other side.
It’s as if that person IS what they DO. But we’re not what we DO. We’re WHO we are BEING.
Somewhere during this time, enough human societies started to have this thing called Leisure Time and I think that’s where the trouble really started.
People started to question what they were DOING, instead of who they were BEING. They had enough time to contemplate their chosen survival activity.
They started to notice that there were actually human beings who were DOING better things…things that brought those people happiness and joy and a sense of purpose beyond survival.
They started to say, “I want what THEY have!” (Ah, maybe the neighbor’s last name was Jones!)
Questioneth Preemptacus Era
Fast forward to, oh, let’s say the last 100 years or so. From everything we read or hear, it appears that a large percentage of human beings live their lives miserably, BEING what they’re DOING for a living (i.e., surviving) yet despising every moment.
We could (and often do) say they are wasting the time of their lives DOING something they hate (still not questioning much, if at all, who they are BEING)…all because now we’ve introduced this BIG CHOICE into human consciousness between enjoying what we do to survive or, heaven forbid, having to find some altruistic purpose in what we DO. (More on that at another time.)
Existentialist Comtemplatith Adnausiumeth Era
By now, you’re probably asking, What the heck is she talking about here and where is she going with it? Let me tell you…
I have a son who I adore, just like you adore your sons and daughters. He’s 26, working full time in what he studied in college and, like many of our adult children (and their parents), he is struggling with that particular career path he chose.
He’s bored and hates doing what he’s doing for a living and I’m doing my best to coach him to find a way to provide for his survival while finding some joy or happiness or purpose in his work.
This got me to thinking the thoughts I’ve had over and over before about how we didn’t used to (or so it seemed) have this HUGE need to make sure we had joy and happiness and purpose in our work. Or have we always had it?
Have men and women always secretly despised what they had to do for survival? Have people cursed their bosses (and owners and kings and queens) under their breath, secretly wishing they could go out into the world and live lives filled with purpose, connection and joy?
I think so.
But how do I help my son see that, as a society, we’ve made this whole thing up? He told me last night that he’s torn between watching his father with his Hewlett-Packard golden handcuff job and seeing me, his mother, spend her life doing things she adores, that fill her life with passion and purpose…and having a lot more fun that his father seems to have. But I do know that’s subjective.
What I know is that kids these days are torn. Torn between doing a job just for survival and doing something that brings them a whole lot more.
You may be reading this and thinking to yourself, “Yup, I totally get it. I don’t like what I do but I have to do it to survive.”
NO YOU DON’T! You can do anything you want. And that’s what I’m attempting to show my son.
I believe it’s BELIEFS about what our lives should look like as adults that drive us to this…and those beliefs are often fear-based. I believe we instill those beliefs in our children at a very young age by what we say in front of them, what we tell them and by what we do with our own lives.
I believe that if our children saw US living our dreams, we’d empower them to live theirs.
Only problem is that most of us have no idea how to live our dreams. We have no idea that we’re living in a self-created Fahrenheit 451 of our own (thanks Ray). And until we realize, as adults, that we really don’t have to do the things we hate (unless we choose to do them to survive which is perfectly OK), we can craft our lives the way we want.
If you’re in one of those spaces where you’re not happy, I can hear you saying, “Ya, right. She doesn’t have a clue that MY life is different.”
But for those of us who live in parts of the world where we have choice, we do have opportunities that we don’t see, opportunities we don’t take, opportunities that get placed at our feet every day that we walk around because, well, the idea of actually DOING those things scare us to death.
You see, sometimes it’s easier to be miserable…to not have what we say we want. It can be a lot of work to craft the life you really want.
The only question you need to ask yourself is, “Is it worth the effort, MY effort?”
For me, the answer is always YES. For my son, I’ll continue coaching him as long as he allows me the privilege. It’s an honor to have him look to me for help and I never take that honor lightly.
So please, look at the example you’re setting for the youngsters around you. Pay attention to your children’s moods and angst when it comes to their job/career choices. Be vulnerable and share your own fears, concerns, dreams and desires.
Maybe if we’re all up-front about the elephant in the room, we can befriend him, put a pink polka-dot dress on him and dance our lives away with him.
Enjoy…
Btw, I’m going back to the heavenly snorkeling place anyway!
by Elisabeth Donati | Dec 24, 2010 | Financial Literacy, Financial Literacy Principles, Latest News, Uncategorized
Goal Setting: New Year Madness
How does it make you feel? What goes through your mind?
Do you enjoy setting goals? Do you dread setting goals?
Do you do anything to keep from having to think about, talk about or write down your goals?
Depending on the type of person you are, goals can be helpful or hurtful. They can help direct your energy toward an accomplishment you’d like to experience or they can make you feel all tied up in knots.
For me, it’s the latter. I’ve never understood them. I’ve never enjoyed doing them. I’ve never found them useful and I certainly don’t judge my success as a living, breathing, human being by them. But many people do.
Now don’t get me wrong, I DO actually sit down fairly regularly and think about what I’d like for myself, my business, etc. I write these thing down and even look back over them on a fairly regular basis. After all, if Stanford University says that it takes writing goals down on a regular basis in order for them to come true, well, by all means, let’s write them down! 🙂
The thing is, for me, they don’t drive me. For other people that I know, they are indeed the driver. These goal-oriented people strive each day to reach closer to their goals. It seems to give them a sense of purpose each day. But for people who don’t ‘get’ the whole goal thing, there is another way.
First, you have to understand that if you’re not a goal-oriented, goal-centered person, you’re probably what I call a process-oriented, process-centered person. You love the process of life, you enjoy learning and doing and creating and noticing and smelling and, well, you get the idea. And you know which kind of person you are just by reading these words.
Regardless of which type of person you are relative to goals and goal setting, I’m going to invite you to try a different process this year.
All Important Life Question
Instead of setting goals this year, ask yourself one simple question:
Do you want to DO the following year like you’ve done this year
or would you like to do the coming year differently?
If you DO want the next year to be like the last, then proceed to do things like you did them last year. And if this is your choice, great work knowing that you like what, and how, you’re doing life and all that it entails.
If you DO NOT want to do next year like the last one, well, you have a few steps to take. And the first step is another question:
What DO you want to be doing next year?
For many people, this simple question can bring up a myriad of emotions:
- Fear
- Anxiety
- Stress (which Eckert Tolle says is simply not wanting to be where you are)
- Dread
- Overwhelm
- Or any number of other emotions.
Why the emotions? Because we don’t LIKE goals. We don’t UNDERSTAND goals. In high school and college, when my teachers came in and said we were going to learn how to set short and long-term goals, I just rolled my eyes and said, under my breath, “Oh, goody. Here we go again with the goals.”
I’d do the activity but I’d never really DO the activity. Even back then my gut told me that setting goals weren’t important FOR ME. But they are for others.
Answering the first question:
For me, I have answered the main question above, “No, I want to do life differently next year.”
Answer the second questions:
I want more movement. I want to be outside more. I want to swim in the ocean (a warm ocean). I want to write more and create more. I want to do more of what makes people happy (make gluten-free cookies and muffins, believe it or not:-).
OK, that’s all for now.
How will YOU answer the question? Just something else to think about this holiday season. I wish you all of the happiness you can be aware of between the spaces of everything going on.
by Elisabeth Donati | Oct 30, 2010 | Latest News, Uncategorized
I’ve been corresponding with a talented and passionate women named Kelly for a few weeks now about The Money Game and a few days ago she shared a great story with me concerning her daughter. I loved the story so much I asked if I could share it with all of you. The daughter, Jess, was thrilled.
Jess and her mom, Kelly
So here’s Kelly’s email to me…
“Very cute quick story…
“Jess (our 7 daughter) and I were on the way home from a dr. apppointment and out of the blue she (Jessie) said “Mom, in your opinion (which was a struggle to pronounce correctly for her) do you think Savings is more important than Investing?”
CAN I TELL YOU WHAT PAYOFF MOMENT THAT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!! All my talks with the kids and explaining what little I know and Adam (our nine year old son) was the only one showing interest. I knew Jess was listening but she’s more of the Mother Theresa type:)
Well anyway – I’m sure you know where the conversation went.
I started teaching our kids about how one does not have to worry about money and about having money work for them as soon as they were old enough to listen!
One last quick comment. As Jessie and I discussed – I asked her what she thought of my answer. Her answer was, “Well Mom, I agree investing is more important but it seems like savings is easier because you don’t have to think about it as much.” As you can imagine, that statement was an eye opener and of course led to further discussion.
Jess’s last comment made me start comparing the hours one can take to learn about financial literacy compared to the hours that one works/school, etc. Of course, never discouraging school but merely incorporating the financial literacy into their lives!” End of story.
I guess the thing to keep in mind is that our kids ARE listening, even when we think they aren’t. So, never underestimate the power of your financial conversations in front of your children (or other people’s children) and know that you can’t start talking about the good stuff too early!
Thanks for the story, Kelly. I hope you and Jess will have many more money conversations before she leave home with out you.
by Elisabeth Donati | Oct 18, 2010 | Financial Literacy, Latest News, Uncategorized, What you can do
I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday who has gained more weight than he is now comfortable with and he was trying to figure out what went wrong. Where had his life changed to accommodate this extra weight?
He came up with several major changes in his life that had happened in the past 9 months and vowed to lose the weight. Well, since my first love and passion is to help people with their health before helping them with their money (even though it often is all wrapped up in one big snarled mess that needs unraveling), I talked to him about one of the strategies that I have used all of my life to stay fit and lean.
Decide Before You Need To Decide
I call this strategy Pre-Deciding and pre-deciding works great in any area of your life where you need a little (or a lot) more self-discipline in order to get where you say you want to get yourself to in life!
Here are some of the areas where YOU can use pre-deciding in your life. I’m going to give you an example or two from my own life so you get the idea. Then, create a couple of pre-decisions in each area and see how much easier it is to be in control of yourself.
Fitness Pre-decisions
Let’s face it, America as a whole is pretty out of shape. A huge percentage of us sit in front of screens all day long, not moving out bodies, messing up our eyes and changing the way our brain works.
For me, it’s a little easier because my background and first love is movement and fitness but I do have some pre-decisions that help.
First, I almost always move my body in the morning before I do anything else. And by the way, there’s no use in saying you will ALWAYS do something. Give yourself a wee bit of a break for when something comes up and you can’t ALWAYS…
In other words, I make MY body a priority before I take care of any one else’s. At the very least I do 20 minutes of yoga. At the most, I walk 3-4 miles, ride my bike 10-15 miles or swim a mile. Now the only time I’ll veer from this path is when I travel early in the morning or I know I’m going to swim at lunch (I love the sun on my back!) or walk with a friend later. But even then, I still get up and do some yoga.
So you see, I never have to decide to exercise. I just have to decide WHICH type of exercise I want to do that day. And if you think THAT decision is going to get in your way, then set a schedule for yourself so you know exactly what you’re going to do the next day.
TIP: Set out the clothing and things you need the night before. If you’re going to walk, put your walking clothes and shoes and socks right there in plain sight. If you’re going to go swimming, get your swimming gear together. This way you don’t forget your goggles! (Ask me how I discovered this little tip:-).
Eating/Nutrition Pre-Decisions
This is one of my favorite areas to help people with. As an animal, we are very prone to eating emotionally and making sound pre-decisions in regard to food can make or break your ongoing health. Here’s some of my pre-decisions.
When I’m flying, I always order tomato juice. Never pop (don’t drink it hardly ever anyway), never alcohol, never anything with sugar in it and definitely never anything with caffeine in it. Tomato juice is low in calories, high in nutrition, no added sugars and I have found it to be so refreshing.
I only drink calories with a meal if it’s really good (note the qualifier) wine, and rarely do I even do this. My mom always said in regard to milk, “Milk is a food so if you’re thirsty, drink water.” I loved this and have taken it even further. I don’t drink milk either…I think it’s only good for baby cows but that’s a whole ‘nother blog.
I don’t put salad dressing on salads. I can’t stand the slimy, oily, fat all over my yummy, healthy vegetables. I know…there are doctors who can help me with this problem but you know…this one pre-decision has saved me from eating thousands and thousands of unwanted fat calories.
Anyway, you get the idea. Pay attention this week to the food situations where you are prone to make unsupportive choices and make some pre-decisions about how you will choose from now on.
Financial Pre-Decisions
OK, you knew I would get to this eventually, right? THIS is area that so gets in the way of our being able to have more than enough money to live the way we want to live. You see, to me, having just enough money isn’t enough money at all. ‘Just enough’ is what causes stress, causes us to do things we might not otherwise choose to do. Sometimes ‘just enough’ is worse than ‘not enough.’
So here’s the thing…unless you make some pre-decisions with your money, you will most certainly never have enough or more than enough. So here are a couple of my money pre-decisions.
First, you have to understand that I am not a shopper in the typical girl sense. I don’t give a hoot about little black dresses (though I do have one that I found at a thrift store for $5!), multiple pairs of shoes (unless they are flip flops or tennies) or purses. I don’t even have a purse!
Given that, it might be a little easier for me to have the decisions I have but you can make pre-decisions that work for you.
I put my change in a change jar when it gets full in my wallet and when that change jar is full, I wrap it and put it in the bank or use it for vacation spending. NOTE: I do NOT give 10% of it away by letting some machine count it for me. Use this as a great family activity. And please don’t use those stupid machines that only give you a gift card. Completely obliterates the point of saving in the first place.
I rarely buy food when I travel. For instance, I’m sitting in a hotel right now and have a meeting in a few hours and I have eaten a homemade gluten-free muffin I brought from home and a couple pieces of fruit. And last night I had a protein bar and something else I don’t remember. The point is, I don’t spent excessive amounts of money in hotels or airports because I take my own food.
The challenge always comes at the end of the trip but I have even found ways to handle that. If I can get to a grocery store, I can buy a couple of things or even grab a subway sandwich for the trip. There are a ton of ways to save money when traveling (remember the $1 iced coffee tip I gave you a couple of weeks ago?:)
I take my own cup and a tea bag when I meet people in a coffee house for a meeting…ESPECIALLY if the meeting has to do with financial education. I love to practice what I preach and it’s great to know you are setting the best possible example for those around you. This is how we REALLY teach, by the way.
Now here’s my favorite pre-decision of all but it’s actually a question that I’ve pre-decided to ask myself every time I’m tempted to buy piddlyjunk. I simply ask, “Can I do without this today?” If the answer is YES, I walk away. And I have to admit, the majority of times, the answer is Yes. And the funny thing is that we rarely even remember what it was that we wanted to buy a couple of days later. Try it!
CLOTHING TIP: When you buy a new piece of clothing, do this…staple or paperclip the receipt onto the tag (leave the tag on) and hang it in your closet or put in your drawer. See how long it takes you to wear this new item. If you don’t wear it immediately, TAKE IT BACK. I’ve done this many times and am always grateful that I have this tip.
And here’s a financial (and sanity) pre-decision I made when the iPhones came out and yes, I am an Apple girl. I decided that I do NOT want email on my cell phone!
I see all you people lost in your phones and your texting and your websurfing and everything else, often missing a multitude of opportunities in front of you to connect with others, notice and smell beautiful flowers, chances to see things you haven’t seen before, and I know I have made the right decision. AND I know it saves me hundreds of dollars every year.
OK, your turn. Think about those areas where you have a little less self-discipline than you’d like and make a couple of pre-decisions of your own:
Fitness Pre-definion #1
Fitness Pre-definition #2
Fitness Pre-definition #3
Food Pre-definition #1
Food Pre-definition #2
Food Pre-definition #3
Money Pre-definition #1
Money Pre-definition #2
Money Pre-definition #3
Now make one GRAND Pre-definition about your life in general and see how easy it really can be to have the life you want and be the person you want to be.
As always, just something to think about!
by Elisabeth Donati | Oct 14, 2010 | Financial Literacy, Latest News, Uncategorized
So there you are, approval in hand from your local school board to find a financial literacy curriculum, excited that you finally have the green light to teach your students about money and investing. But where do you begin? How do you compare one program with another? What should the ultimate financial education curriculum contain in terms of topics and lessons?
These are all great questions and finding the right financial education program can be daunting if you don’t know what a great financial education should contain in the first place. Let’s see if I can help make it a wee bit easier for you to find the program you need to prepare your students to handle money wisely.
Financial Education
Don’t Make This Mistake – Remember…Context before Content
Most people start thinking ‘content’ before anything else. What does the program teach, what are the lessons, etc. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
The first question you need to get answered about any financial education curriculum is, What is the delivery system used for the curriculum? Let me explain.
There are hundreds of money curriculums available for kids and teens, both offline and online. The problem with most of them is that they are BORING! And boring doesn’t lend itself to learning or engaging students or instilling the critical money lessons and habits kids need to master their money as adults.
In our Train-the-Trainer programs, we refer to this as the CONTEXT. When you create a powerful learning context (i.e., environment) within which your students will learn and apply the lessons, you have a better than average chance of them actually learning AND retaining the information.
First Requirement – The Context Must Be Fun!
What exactly makes financial education fun? Well, music for starters, and a playful atmosphere and colors and activities. Think back to times when you had the most fun. Do you remember the event in a lot more detail than events that weren’t so much fun? Exactly. And here’s the thing about combining FUN and MONEY…it makes the topic seem less stressful to your students.
The majority of kids in America understand that money can be a stressful substance…they watch their parents fight over it, stress over it, experience the lack of it in many ways. What a wonderful contrast to show the kids that money can be looked at as a game with rules and if you learn to use the rules, you can win the game…regardless of which side of the railroad tracks you grew up on, so to speak.
Second Requirement – Assets and Passive Income
Many financial education programs focus more on NOT getting into financial trouble than how to ensure that you always have plenty of money for everything you need and want in life.
Don’t get me wrong, we do need to teach kids about credit cards, credit and debt but not just the bad aspects of it. In our Camp Millionaire programs, we have a debate called Good Debt/Bad Debt where the kids are given a bunch of items that have been purchased using credit/debt. They have to decide which ones are good debt and which ones are bad debt.
Oh, you want to know how you know? Well…it’s easy. Bad debt is debt YOU are paying the debt down (that last pair of jeans you put on your credit card is bad debt) and good debt is debt that other people pay down for you (the rental income on your rental property or business income that pays your business credit line). Too many kids are only taught that debt is bad. This often keeps them from knowing how to take advantage of great investment opportunities later on.
So, in addition to teaching kids how to stay OUT of trouble, teaching kids about investing in assets that produce passive income is the main road to financial freedom is a critical lesson. Steer clear of any financial curriculum that is missing this important component.
Third Requirement – Focus on Getting A Job – NOT!
Most of us were brainwashed in school to think that we had to grow up and get a job to support ourselves and our families but this is not what a great financial curriculum espouses. It must incorporate some type of focus on entrepreneurship and business skills.
Raising adults that think that the only way to have money is to earn it (as opposed to making it) is abuse. It shuts down their creativity, puts them perpetually in a ‘gotta have a job’ mentality and makes them dependent on having a job for the rest of their lives.
Instead, why not teach our kids that having a job (being an employee) is just A way, not THE way, to be financially successful and in my opinion, it’s the least appealing way. Why? Because as long as you have an employer, you can never really call your own shots.
Now we all know adults who have no desire to own their own business. They like going in at 9 am and leaving at 5 pm and having the weekends off. But lots of these people also complain about being chained to their jobs.
What if kids were raised thinking that they could create their own way from the get go? What if we encouraged their creativity in terms of coming up with products, programs and services that serve humanity? Just imagine how different the world would be. Fewer whining adults screaming for jobs and more adults who just went out and created the money they needed to live the lives they wanted to live.
Fourth Requirement – Movement and (e)Motion
Let’s face it, human being learn best when they are moving and emoting. Our most vivid memories are events we remember in our bodies…this is called learning kinesthetically. So much education is delivered auditorily (lecture) yet studies show that less than 11% of us learn best this way. We learn best by doing and seeing, i.e., visually and kinesthetically.
If the programs you’re looking at are primarily lecture based, with a worksheet or two, leave it be. Your students will be bored and won’t remember much about the lesson except that is was boring. One of my favorite sayings is, Physical is Memorable. The more physical your programs and lessons are, the more memorable they will be to your students. And the more your students remember the lessons, the greater the chances that they actually apply the critical financial lessons to their own lives.
Fifth Requirement – Content
OK, now we can talk about content. Great financial education programs should include basic saving and investing topics/lessons and a whole lot more in my opinion. I’m going to use our Money Game Principles (aka, rules to the money game) to share with you what I think every financial program needs to contain. I’ve left the principles blank (and given you the answers) as this is one of the contests we do in our programs. All of these principles are printed on 11 x 17 laminated sheets and put on the walls. The first student who gets all of the answers (they are up, moving around the room with upbeat music going) gets five moola!
1. Financial freedom is your _________. (choice)
2. You are the CEO of your life; financial _________ is your responsibility. (freedom)
3. Your thoughts, __________ and attitudes determine your wealth potential. (beliefs)
4. Being _______ is a temporary financial condition, being _______ is a state of mind. (broke, poor)
5. _________ it, _________ it, ___________ it down. (see, say, write)
6. Life is an adventure; let __________ be your guide. (passion)
7. To be financially successful, learn the _____________ of money. (language)
8. Money is a ___________ to reach your dreams. (tool)
9. Money buys you stuff, not _______________. (happiness)
10. Make money grow by putting it to ___________ for you. (work)
11. Pay yourself _____________. (FIRST!!!)
12. To create financial freedom, ______ the “energy” of money wisely. (invest)
13. People don’t _____ to fail, they fail to ______. (plan, plan)
14. It’s not how much money you make that’s important, it’s how much you _______. (keep)
15. If you can’t afford it in _______ , you can’t afford it at all. (cash)
16. Save early, save __________. (often)
17. Financial success comes from managing __________, not avoiding it. (risk)
18. Interest is only ___________ when you’re _____________ it. (interesting, receiving)
19. Don’t put all your financial ___________ into one basket. (eggs)
20. Invest with your head, not your __________. (heart)
21. Assets ________ you, liabilities ________ you. (feed, eat)
22. It is better to tell your money where to _____ than to ask where it _______. (go, went)
23. Only ____________ money when it’s going to ________ you money. (borrow, make)
24. People aren’t judged by their _________, but by the sum of their _________. (abilities, choices)
25. If you don’t know where you’re ___________, any road will take you there. (going)
26. Creating Financial Freedom is simply a matter of developing the right _______. (habits)
Extra Credit – Accelerated Learning Techniques
If the program you’re looking at contains the first five requirements above, you’re well on your way to finding a great program. They ARE out there.
But…if you want the best possible financial education experience for your students, regardless of whether they are kids, teens or adults, make sure you can teach the program using accelerated learning techniques. We talked about this above (visual, auditory and kinesthetically) and I can’t emphasize enough how important teaching this way is to your program’s success. For more information, check out our webpage on accelerated learning.
In all of our Creative Wealth Financial Education Train-the-Trainer workshops, you not only learn the Camp Millionaire program and how to teach The Money Game, you also learn the high-powered, highly-effective teaching techniques that make our programs work so well.
Summary of How to Pick a Financial Education Curriculum
1. It’s gotta be fun.
2. It’s gotta teach kids about investing in assets.
3. It’s gotta teach kids that getting a job is not THE option, but A option, i.e., entrepreneurship is a must-have component of your financial education program.
4. Make sure the program is full of movement. Activities that produce different types of emotion help ingrain the lessons in the child’s cells.
5. Make sure the program is full of great content.
6. Bonus…by using accelerated learning techniques to teach the program, you will be light years ahead of the pack.
Hope this has been helpful. Though we are quite biased when it comes to our own programs, there are others out there that meet these requirements. Good luck in your hunt and we’re always happy to answer any questions about Camp Millionaire and our newly launched The Money Game.
Now go out there and change some lives!
