by Elisabeth Donati | Jan 17, 2009 | Coaches Corner, Financial Literacy, Latest News, Uncategorized
If your children’s lives are anything like yours, they are filled to the brim with ‘to do’ lists. And if their minds are anything like mine, those lists get lost in the shuffle, don’t make any sense in terms of what goes when and where and create a sense of overwhelm even thought they are supposed to sooth them mind instead.
You see, most students (and adults for that matter) are never taught how to plan or take notes or even makes lists. And yet, what we end up doing, it making lists linearly, on paper or the computer, from top to bottom. Fact is though, most of us are visual or kinesthetic learners so we respond better and plan better with pictures. And when you think about it, most projects aren’t linear at all. There are all sorts of pieces and parts that are needed to create something that works and works well.
Well, I have a suggestion…teach them about mind maps. Better yet, if they use a computer well (don’t they all now?), download this free program called FREEMAPS and teach them how to use it to literally map out their projects, goals, processes and lives.
I just learned about this program on an Internet Marketing Cruise (yes, a cruise!) and already it is making my life simpler. I can literally see what needs to be done and when. I have made several maps; one for each project I am working on and one global one and they work together.
If you can teach your child how to plan like this early on, just imagine how much more productive he or she will be in college and in their careers.
To download this software and to get some great ‘how to use it’ info, click here (more…)
by Elisabeth Donati | Oct 19, 2008 | Coaches Corner, Financial Literacy, Latest News, Media Attention, Uncategorized, What you can do
Financial Freedom is a myth. At least in our current paradigm of life. We all know that ‘life takes money’ but the majority of the world’s populations don’t necessarily understand the money game very well. In our current financial ‘situation’, it is sometimes difficult to step out of the picture to see it through a new paradigm. Let me help.
Let’s first look at what we ‘think’ happened that has led us to this place of panic, which is truly what it is, but doesn’t need to be.
1) The stock market took a dive in the early 2000s with the correction that happened as a result of overvalued tech stocks.
2) This stock market correction happened because of the advent of the internet and the general public’s ability to play ‘stock trader’Â without the requisite education to do so.
3) This stock market boom which was led by the introduction of so many internet companies happened because human beings have a ‘herd mentality’ and we have a tendency toward being greedy but it is somewhat hard wired in that we are all looking for ways to survive. Though many of us want to try and make life mean more than it is, we’re still an animal that is born, makes babies and dies. All the purpose in the world and all the justification for our existence, religious or non, won’t change that simple fact.
4) Moving forward from the stock market correction, the money had to go somewhere. So, into real estate it went with leaps and bounds and the thrill of the hunt ensued (for the perfect investment house that is). Oh, wow, now that American dream so illusive to so many seemed easier to attain and a great way to make a bundle of money (remember the old agage…if it’s sounds too good to be true?).
5) All these people gambling their money on real estate now needed mortgages. In comes the mortgage companies. I didn’t look to see how many mortgage companies popped into being during this sub-prime time but you can bet it was more than any other time in our history! Opportunity definitely knocked and people answered.
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6) These mortgage companies somehow got the idea, and were allowed by laws put into place somewhere, to offer mortgages to people who wouldn’t normally qualify for those loans. And to offer types of loans that they knew would eventually cause a huge problem for the soon to be homeowner. Oh, the poor home owner! How could you blame him/her for being lured into the false security that home ownership is supposed to provide. Right! Remember the next adage, buyer beware?
7) Said poor put upon home buyer is now in an ‘affordable’ mortgage that will soon turn around and bite them in the butt! Enter whining homeowners, stage right.
8) All of the above go screaming to Daddy to fix it. Only problem is that the only thing Daddy has at his disposal is band-aids and ice cream cones to sooth the pain. Only problem with that is that the band-aids will eventually fall off and the ice cream is a figment of Daddy’s (and our) imaginations.
9) Now, everyone who has bought into the ‘other’ presupposition that we’re supposed to work for 50 years and ‘accumulate’ money in our sweet little 401ks, our 403bs, our IRAs, and the rest of our stock portfolios and has money in anything related to the financial industry (did you know it was an industry?) sees that some of those financial companies made poor business decisions and are going out of business. People, this is what’s SUPPOSED to happen in a capitalist society!!! Can we feel sorry for them? Yes, but you know…they are the ones who made the poor business decisions.
NOTE: ask yourself what would happen if our government (and it is OURS) started rescuing all businesses that made poor business decisions and failed. What kind of government is that? A communerepublimat!
10) Since the financial decisions of many (government, mortgage lenders, real estate purchasers, stock brokers, financial planners, and on and on) are insidious over a long period of time, and us humans are just looking for ways to keep ourselves financially secure, this was bound to happen. And it has happened before and it will more than likely happen again.
So, the MYTH part? Oh, I almost forgot. We’ve been conditioned to think, from our earliest days from watching our parents and other adults, that we had to grow up, get good grades (as if good grades lead to happy adults), go to high school, go to college, get a good ‘secure’ job (worst assumption maybe of them all), save money for 50 years by investing in all those fancy sounding accounts, find all the tax advantages (instead of jointly questioning why we have to pay them in the first place!), and then, viola`, we get to do that magically thing called ‘retire’ and live out the rest of our lives and pay for it with all those savings that hopefully have grown over time.
THIS is where the problem is. The other events? Painful but fixable if left to their own organic solutions: the strong and wise survive and the week and ignorant (I refrained from saying stupid) die (so to speak).
We have to stop thinking we can save our way to freedom. We can only BE free by creating streams of passive income NOW. And we do that by using our God-given talents and individual creative nature to be productive members of society, creating businesses that offer products and services that other individuals need and want.
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I’m not going to delve into the philosophical battle of whether it’s right or wrong to create businesses of a destructive, resource-wasting nature because that’s all subjective but suffice it to say, businesses that are sustainable in nature will have an advantage going forward and they do fulfill that human condition called ‘finding purpose in life.’
What’s the point? Stop whining. Stop thinking you have to work at something you don’t want to do for 50 years while you’re healthy and strong so you can then do what you want to do for 10-40 years while you’re older and more than likely, sicker and weaker.
Look around you. Put on a new pair of dimes, I mean paradigm, of how you see life and your role in the whole picture. Create something others need and want. Be of service. Be of purpose. And if you make a mistake, stop blaming others for your situation. Gut it up. Own up to it and fix it. Oh, and it’s OK to ask for help but don’t assume it’s your right to be bailed out. Often times there is greater learning from the pain of finding ways that don’t work than from getting it right the first time.
And finally, let’s stop raising employees and soldiers in our schools. Let’s make it so ALL kids get to express themselves, find their genius, be of service and purpose from the get go. Let’s turn our schools into creativity laboratories, not employee farms.
OK, now go find your calling…
by Elisabeth Donati | Oct 9, 2008 | Coaches Corner, Financial Literacy, Latest News, Media Attention, Uncategorized, What you can do
I have been listening to people in my industry, the industry we politely refer to as Financial Literacy, for so long about our inability to get this invaluable information into our schools, where most adults feel it should be, that I’m quite sick of it. So sick of it that I’m going to start calling our lack of financial literacy education in schools ‘child abuse.’ Not child abuse in the usual sense, but abuse non the less.
Yes, I do feel it has to start at home, hence my book, The Ultimate Allowance, but the next step is to teach the basics in school. The question is, WHY ISN’T it being taught in schools? For those of you IN the school industry, you probably already have a good idea. For those of you on the outside, let me make it plain and simple for you.
1) Because schools don’t care about the kids. Now I did not say that individual teachers don’t care. I said SCHOOLS don’t care about our kids. How do we know this? Because it they really cared, they would teach kids things they needed to know to grow up happy, healthy, wealthy and wise. But they don’t. They fill their heads with all sorts of useless information that the child will either quickly forget or never use as an adult. And for the most part, kids I talk to are so bored in school. What is wrong with this picture?
So you’re wondering what they DO care about. Glad you asked! They care about the following (and don’t blame me for the irony here).
(NOTE: this is a generalization of course. Some schools DO teach their kids about money. It’s just so rare that we have to deal with the majority here).
1) They are concerned with test score. Test scores lead to teachers remaining employed. Test scores lead to schools continuing to receive money from governments. Test scores lead to advancement (and not necessarily advancement of the teachers who got the scores). Test scores lead, they think, to a higher percentage of kids that end up going to college.
HELLO! Last I read, a college degree doesn’t make one employable. And it certainly doesn’t give one the skills one needs to creative financial freedom in one’s life. If you do any research on very wealthy people, especially entrepreneurs (Bill Gates comes to mind), you’ll see that many of them never went to, or finished college.
2) They are concerned with what percentage of their high school graduates go on to high school. Again, I implore you to ask yourself if college is really necessary to become financially free. It’s not. I went to college, got all A’s. Even got on a Dean’s list here and there but the one class I needed was the one they don’t teach…What to do with our money to make it grow so you don’t always have to work for it! Most adults wish they’d taken that same class.
3) Financial literacy isn’t taught regularly in schools because teachers aren’t knowledgeable in the subject. But it goes deeper. Money is a subject laden with taboo; it’s a subject that people make mean something about themselves. Think of it this way…if you were a substitute teacher and someone told you you had to go teach geometry for a week and you didn’t know geometry, you’d go look it up, learn the lesson and go teach it.
But, if someone said you had to go teach kids how to save and invest and not use credit cards and not spend money you didn’t have on Piddlycrapâ„¢ (Piddlyjunkâ„¢ for those of you with delicate stomachs) and how to create passive income by buying assets so you can bring money into your life without always having to work for it, you’d freak out completely! After all, are you DOING this? Can you teach something that you don’t understand? There’s so many levels here I can’t even begin to get into it!
3) They say there’s no money. Bull! There’s plenty of money if they stopped spending it on stuff they didn’t need. Stopped paying a bunch of administrators to determine what the kids needed to know in order to pass the stupid tests so that the administrators get to keep their jobs. There’s so many people running the show that no one really knows who’s running the show.
Am I pissed off? Yes! Why? Because if someone had cared enough to teach me about money and investing and saving early I would be further along this road to becoming financially free than I am.
The benefit? I wouldn’t be spending my days doing something I am so passionate about it seeps from my pores. I wouldn’t have spent the past 7 years creating a program that is unlike any other in terms of showing kids there is another way. I wouldn’t have spent the past couple of years writing The Ultimate Allowance so that parents everywhere have a system to teach their kids how to move out and stay out.
If you’re reading this, I know you care. I know you agree with most of it because I have conversations with people everyday about this. We ALL feel like it should be in the schools but why isn’t it? Why do we not take back the schools? Why do we allow ‘them’ to dictate what our kids learn and don’t learn?
This is my suggestion: Next year (2009) in the spring when your child’s school (or if you’re a teacher, have the guts to refuse to do it and do what’s right for the kids…that’s what the people who founded this fabulous country did) tells you they will be doing the standardized testing, tell them your child will not be participating. Tell them that you’ll be homeschooling them during that time, taking them to work to see what you do, finding them mentors to learn something valuable. Anything but take those stupid tests.
It’s not until we take control back from the schools will we get it INTO the schools where it belongs.
It’s time. Want to help? Pass this blog entry along and get everyone you know with kids to keep them home. Let’s change this once and for all and tell the federal government that their “No child left behind” act has left its last child behind!
by Elisabeth Donati | Sep 4, 2008 | Coaches Corner, Latest News, Uncategorized
The past couple of years I have been more and more curious about moving away from groups of humanity and into not only my own space to contemplate more but also into more space to contemplate more, if that makes any sense.
My brother, a long time resident of Bend, Oregon, moved a couple of years ago into a little town (if you can even call it that) of about 60 in northestern Oregon on 600 plus acres he bought and is developing, for himself. Not developing in the usual sense that we hear about it. There’s a barn and a shop (BIG barn) and the meat room (in the making) and a gun room and a garden and a horse pasture or two and ponds and oh my goodness, let me tell you about last night.
After dinner, where we/they still eat together as a family (breakfast and dinner), we ventured, or even crept, up on top of a fairly tall hill of rocks overlooking his alfalfa field which he cut that day. (I even got to ride in the swather, named aptly because it makes swaths in the field). There, grazing in the protection of the sunset, were many, many deer. We looked through some powerful binoculars to see them all, including the bucks that were wandering happily among the cut rows, chowing down on the delightful snack. The whole thing was heaven to my senses, as long as I didn’t ponder the fate of a couple of those healthy creatures who I know will eventually end up as dinner.
This place is peace. And it’s peaceful. It’s still the way nature intended it, albeit with a slight presence of man thrust into a few square feet of it. My brother is developing the springs, planting food just for the wildlife (pheasant, deer and more) and making it his oasis of sorts. And I have to say he’s doing a great job at it. He has a respect for the land and is happy to give much back as he makes life from it.
Today I will be happily putting away the keyboard for a pair of gloves, some nails and some plywood and playing his assistant all day. Hard work but I prefer it to this tittertyping of the keys as of late.Â
Freedom, financial and more. That is what this place is to me. And the ability to play golf when one wants and buy the food one wants and do as one pleases each day, regardless of what that means.
We put so much emphasis on doing good and giving back and making a difference and I’m pretty sure we do that often because we’re simply grappling to discover some answer for us as to why we’re here on the planet. It gives us the ability to justify our existence I suppose.
What if we’re just here because we’re here?Â
What does freedom mean to you. You must know before you can create it. I know what it means to me and I’m happily creating it and I think that may be the ultimate freedom…happily creating freedom itself.
Enjoy and pound a few nails in your goals today…
by Elisabeth Donati | Sep 2, 2008 | Coaches Corner, Financial Literacy Principles, Latest News, Uncategorized
Financial freedom, like most freedoms, comes with attachments and assumptions. At the very least, it comes with individual ideas and constructs about what the phrase means and entails.
I can only speak for myself, but financial freedom for me begins with this: it means that I have more money coming in each month than I have going out and that the money coming in each month isn’t hard to create. In other words, it’s passive, or at least mostly passive. Why mostly? Because I haven’t found too many people, short of what we affectionately called a ‘trust fund baby’, that don’t have to put in at least a few hours a week to maintain the inflow of money that leads to that freedom.
I want to go further into this idea of freedom though. What if you enough money but you are in a situation that brings you sadness or fear or ill-health or chaos? Are you really free then?
What if you read the paper in the morning and allow it move you to tears at the seeming unjustness of so many events.
What if you have surrounded by people who, not matter what they are blessed with and experience, aren’t happy and complain about everything?
What if you haven’t learned to control your own emotions, your own thoughts, your own reactions and responses to the outside world?
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How free are you really?
Why has this come up for me? Because I am visiting my Mom and yesterday had the pleasure of playing golf with my son, and his father (my X). The pleasure part was my son. My X just reminded me that though some have much, they really don’t have wants creates the ultimate freedom and that’s the freedom to really enjoy and relish life and what it has to offer.
I am reading a great book, Eat, Pray, Love by Elisabeth Gilbert
In this book, she visits three countries: Italy, India and Indonesia. I have just finished the Italy section and I want to read the entire thing again. It’s all about pleasure and really simply enjoyment and it reminds me to pay attention everyday to my awareness of this simple, yet profound aspect of my life.
So what will you complain about today? My challenge to you, when you find this post, is to go an entire day and complain of nothing. Be grateful, enjoy the air, the birds, the people in your life, find joy. Then you will be free.
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by Elisabeth Donati | Jul 23, 2008 | Coaches Corner, Latest News, Uncategorized, What you can do
A few weeks ago I got a call from Inc.com’s Tamara Schweitzer, one of the online magazines staff writers on the subject of “How to Recession-Proof Your Kidsâ€. There were several great contributions to this article, including yours truly. <a href=”http://www.inc.com/articles/2008/04/recession.html”>It’s worth your time to check it out</a>), and this is especially true if you have children or plan to some day. In this day and age of the masses seeming to struggle financially for one reason or another, it’s really time we stepped up the crusade to prepare all of our kids to not just handle money but be incredibly wise and resourceful and creative with in terms of how they make it, manage it and multiply it. As I mention in my book, The Ultimate Allowance, igniting (or maintaining) your child’s natural entrepreneurial (that is such a long word) spirit, is one of the biggest gifts you can give him or her. It’s going to be entrepreneurs that help get this county on its feet again. Your child can be part of this solution.Â
