financialliteracy – iwantyoutoberich.com

How to talk about money this holiday?

This holiday, you may probably meeting people, families and the opportunity to bring up topics that you may need but not want to take on – Money.

For example, do you have friends that have a lifestyle that you can no longer keep up with but you like to keep them as friends? Perhaps they are all single, and recently you just have a new baby or child in your life that you need to support? Or did you just lose your job in the recent tech retrenchment and can no longer afford or doesn’t want the fancy dinners?

Talking about money is awkward, especially when it is with friends or family.

Here’s some tips about it.

Tip 1

Start off by getting things off your chest by talking to a non-risky person, for example, a taxi driver, a stranger. This helps you get your thoughts organized and also maybe the stranger may offer you some insights. Sometimes it also helps the person simply listened to you. You can also talk to your therapist about the topic of money you have.

Tip 2

Choose the place and time to talk to this person. Maybe it is a family reunion you are going to be at. There is never the perfect time but make sure you let this person know you want to talk so this person make time and space for it.

Tip 3

Start off by listening and be non judging about the other person talking. This is so that the other person gets to talk as much as possible. Money is an emotional subject. Even if you don’t agree with what the other person has to say, keep a neutral facial expression, and continue to be an active listener. Money habits cannot be easily changed. The way a person buys things, treats things and continuously buy things is a relationship acquired from a very young age, deeply ingrained. You cannot change this person simply through an argument.

Tip 4

Think about who can help. If your sibling is constantly getting into financial mayhem, you might want to think of a money coach, online program or budgeting books to start the pace and later make it easier to get into the difficult conversation. Sometimes these books, online programs make it less shameful for the sibling to talk about their money issues. You also address the root cause of money issues.

Tip 5

This is probably not the first time or the last time this person is in financial trouble. You see, the part about money, how to live, buy things, save was never taught in school. Many people grow up with a hole in their hearts and many fall prey to advertising and buying more than they should. Therefore, think of something more long term, more beneficial than just lending this person money. Understand that the risk of having a money conversation. This person may never speak to you again, and may avoid you after this conversation about money. They may brand you as “busybody”, “too rude”. However if you are not intentional about your money, and talk about it, you can get into trouble easily.

Tip 6

Try to understand this person’s view about money and what are his or her values?

Avoiding and not communicating about money can hurt those you loved the most. It is vital to know where your siblings stand in terms of money

Here’s some lines

I recently came across a book about personal finance and been reading about it. You mentioned sometime back you are behind on your credit cards, I like to know more about how you are dealing with it. Any advice on how to use these credit cards I can use?

What does money bring you?

Are you confident managing money? What are some of your proudest moments regarding your own money?

Are you open to talk about money?

To friends who are going out for dinner. “I understand we normally go to these restaurants for dinners. Recently I have a baby, and I like to know if you are open to ideas of having dinner at my place instead of dining out? This will make it easier for me to keep to my budget. What are your thoughts?”

Tell me how you have been dealing with money and how you talk to your family about money this holiday season?

Investing can be like going to the casino

Investing can be word that cause fear in many people. People like my uncle, who lost his life time of saving. The stock market lures you in like casino if you don’t follow good principles in investing. On the other hand, people who think they know investing but failed to do sufficient audit on their own emotions fail too at this game of investing. Lastly, I share about how young adults now do more than the previous generation in understanding money and finally there is a new pool of people who work hard at sourcing information about money, investing and a better outcome in life with money.

Let me share three stories about investing with you today. And let’s talk about the thing that is seldom talked about – people losing their money in the stock market. A lot of it. How? And what do you do?

Investing can be like a casino if you don’t follow good principles of investing. We all are susceptible to our ego, an urge to prove how smart we are and the adrenaline of winning. And we all have one relative we know of who is entirely fearful of investing and this fear came from somewhere. My uncle and his fear of investing is the first story I want to share with you. You see my Uncle is a conservative man, he worked for the government, wanted to play it safe, seldom or never upgraded his skills. He believed the government is going to take care of him and boy was he wrong. He started investing or shall I say gambling like many others, through his retail bank. His retail bank helped him open a brokerage account. It was easy. There was no need for additional financial checks or identity submissions. It was a click, some questions and viola, he has his account. Because my Uncle seldom read, or want to learn about finance, he has little knowledge of the stock market. He went into the stock market like he went into Walmart. Thinking he can buy stocks cheap and hit it rich. Unfortunately for him, like many retail investors, esp. those termed mum and pop investors, he didn’t understand what are penny stocks, what is volume risk, what is bluechip and what’s long term versus short term risk, what’s small cap risk and returns. You see my Uncle felt a great deal of adrenaline when he went into the stock market with his savings and hard-earned money. His early success and profits in trading in and out, made him plough in even more of his savings. Like everything in stock market, the party ended when recession hits, which we know always come. He decide to panic sell, and made a huge loss. He swore off stock market as a way institutions cheated his money and that stocks are all bad.

I wished my Uncle and many others would read up, research and understand many aspect of investing. For example, what is risk and return, and the difference between buying a small cap company versus a big cap company. I wished someone would teach him how to check if a company is set up in Bermudas and how different is that from a company registered locally in united states. I also wished someone would just tell him to check on the auditors on the company he invested because in the end, the company he invested flopped and my uncle not only lost all his savings but lived with a life long shame of losing his money. Information are everywhere now, I wonder why such basic help is not made available to people like my uncle.

Another story is about my friend who was in finance. Obviously because of his background, I expected him to have very sound financial knowledge of investing. Wrong. And very wrong. You see, they teach finance, ratios and price per earnings, mathematical modeling and everything complex you can think of. But I noticed in my finance syllabus, they never taught you what human emotions are involved in investing, how to analyze the best investors and keep to a good investing habit. They did not teach finance graduates how to read up on short sellers, who “game” the system and often lead to huge waves of price change to the stock, and panic. They did not teach finance student like my friend, what losing a lot of money meant for mental health. Perhaps these colleges never taught enough of how experts and gurus who invested long term, has very good discipline and did not let greed of higher returns overcome them. Maybe if they have taught my friend, How to research investment habits based on giants who have continuously returned a profit in the stock markets over 30 years, he wouldn’t have attempted to take his life, lost his marriage. (Yes, there are people who make a living investing in stocks and consistently made a profit). So I know there are many men in their 30s and 40s out there, gambling ferociously with their money, feeding their ego when they win and like my friend, some are going to end badly. I started this blog and course to help people similar to my friend.

The last story I would like to share with you is one about my friend, who is much younger than most of the people I mentioned. She is just 19. But like many of her peers nowadays, she is already looking into FIRE movement, learning about personal finance in bits and pieces. In fact, many young adults nowadays are very quick to learn about money, how they can understand the system of study hard, graduate and find meaningful work. Many young adults, are even doing real life projects on money and spending. So you see, personal finance education is catching on because this new generation saw how hard their parents worked, for a mortgage, paid their taxes, car loans and didn’t take vacations. They know if they master their money, they have a chance at mastering their destiny. They start little investment clubs to talk and analyze about stocks, starting with the places they know, like Walmart, Costco, Apple, Amazon, Dairy Queen.

I hope my stories helped you understand that investing can be fun. I also hope you will go out there, take some courses even if you are not taking ones I am offering, take any courses to learn more about money, stock market before you start investing. Investing can feel a lot like gambling if you are not careful, it lures you in with adrenaline when you make money like a casino. And last of all, you do need not be a fearful of the subject investing, if you approach it with the right attitude.

Putting your money in fixed deposit hurts those who doesn’t earn a lot because inflation and the lost of the magical compounding effect.

Start somewhere small today, read up on something about investing. Read the terminology. Money and finance may not be your favorite subject in school, but getting the ABC of money and finance will save you a lot of sleeplessness.

My name is Lee Nagel, I am a youtuber, and I write and share about money, love and life.

This blog is also on youtube

How to get started in your financial journey? (part 1)

How to get started learning about money? My story about my journey with paychecks and money started at my first job at Macdonald’s

So you have been working for a few years and the initial excitement of how wealthy you felt with your initial paycheck wore off finally.

Or are you one of those who observed your peers older than you walked the path of paycheck to paycheck. Or you are Tired of getting rejected at your rental application and the ever raising cost of everything?

Maybe you are one of those who have heard a lot about how important financial education is and wanted to get started?

Now how do we start?

Maybe I can share a story with you about my own journey?

Growing up I was told how important money was, and things I love like candies, depended on money. so as a kid I knew money is liked to why my friends went to Disneyland for holidays and my family didn’t. Fast forward, I took on my first job, at MacDonald’s. I was a teenager and I remember my first pay check made me feel like a millionaire in my class. I was overjoyed at my $200 or so paycheck. Quite laughable looking back. But that $200-300 gave me my first experience with working, salary and savings. I rushed out to buy my favorite backpack so I can look cool in school and so forth. Soon enough my money ran out and I was back requesting for more overtime so I can fuel my shopping and seemingly insatiable wants. The more I worked, the less I get to rest and the more I bought the less excitement I received every time I get my hand on a new item. Then came time to pay for taxes and compulsory retirement deductions. When I finally looked at my paycheck, I saw how much was taken.

Like many my journey was typical of many who studied hard, worked and bought things they like and racked up a ton of expenditures.

Even though I was fairly young when I started work at MacDonald’s, I knew I wanted to move out of my parents one dat, the sooner the better. I was smart enough to try to find out how much a house would cost me. I was deeply disappointed to learn that a house us many times my $200 salary. And so this was how I started to fall into the financial system capitalism trappings and learnt about money, work and wants.

I was told if I studied hard I would be able to make more money, a lot more than my work at MacDonald’s and my work will be easier. No more oily work environment or emptying trash.

A very determined and diligent little me studied hard and graduated with master degree. I worked at top firm that counts Wall Street listed clients as clients. did I become happier and financially free? No.

So how I really dug into learning about money? I stop reading textbooks my university taught me with. I read business books of people who really did something with money, and I didn’t care if they have formal education.

I started my 401k, I started studying about insurance, investments, and opened my first brokerage account. I read law, and company tax laws, talked to business people, tax people and note down my learning. I changed the people who, I hanged out to much older people

I took part of my savings and attended coaching from coaches who would teach about money, internet things. Many of my peers who attended such classes with me are now equally if not more successful. The classes allowed me to meet like minded people.

I learnt that paying tax is great, it means you are making money. And there are many legal ways to reduce tax burden and the focus should be on growing the business and customer satisfaction.

Did my story shine some light on how you can or should start?

If you have enough, investing in a good coaching. Our se on money is the most meaningful gift for yourself or your loved ones. 2/3 of Americans a struggle with money. Many cannot sleep in peace because of credit card debt. If you don’t have any money to spare, don’t despair, many materials are free online. You just need to collate and learn with discipline.

Start by

1) reading books about money and read widely. One book I read and is easy to understand is Rich Dad poor dad. I don’t agree with the book entirely (another story for another for day). You don’t have to follow everything that book says but it a great way to start.

2) start making friends in business circle if you can. Go to a rich neighborhood and buy yourself a cup of coffee there. Listen to what people are talking about . Join a business meet up club

3) forgive yourself. Everyone makes mistakes. Pick yourself up, dust yourself clean and walk again chin up. You can do this!

I love you, and I hope wherever you are reading this, you will start. Just start reading something about money and be comfortable talking about money.

All the best Lee

Iwantyoutoberich.com

What if I have $5000 to invest?

Many of you out there who finally finished paying some credit card debt, ready to invest and you have on hand $5000?

Be careful who you speak to!

So many organizations, and even banks out there want to help you invest and take your money. No wonder so many Americans are afraid of investing.

Investing almost becomes a word associated with fear and losing all your money.

The fear of talking about money, associating yourself with money, educating yourself about money is what is stopping you from achieving your financial well being.

What would you do if you follow someone successful and the market changes, or the person sold (and they often don’t publicize their sale of stocks).

What do you do after that? You don’t learn anything if someone else is doing it for you. Even if the commission is very low, these institutions can collapse.

Keeping cash was good when inflation was low, but now inflation is soaring. Every day you keep cash, you lose 8-15% without doing anything.

You would go on to tell me inflation is only 4% but you will see that greedy corporations will raise their prices at 10-20%, not 4%. For example, if your coffee is $2. They wouldn’t just do $2.08 (which is 4%), they do $2.50. And the list go on and on.

So what’s the long term goal? Educate yourself.

Do not become a victim

cheated by banks
cheated by fund managers
cheated by insurance companies
cheated by family
cheated by partner in business
cheated by …

You know you can control your outcomes, your future.

Your financial future is in your hands, start by listening to podcast as you are stuck in traffic to work. Read books. Listen to podcast.

Start talking to people about money.

How not to become a victim of money?
do not believe that there is more than 10-20% return without work. It takes a lot of work and insider know-how to make more than 20%. Possible but you wouldn’t consistently get that return. Some years you can make 30% and that would even out in times of downturn, and that over time you are probably making 10%-15%.

You will hear people who scream they made millions investing in X or Y. However, how much risk can you afford? Can you afford to lose everything? Can you afford to lose sleep and mental health? Also when people lose tons of money, they don’t talk.

Managed funds are the worse. They have management fees, administrative fees, performance fees and they have feeder of feeder funds, meaning you can never see where they are investing your money.

You own your future and you deserve to be happy, especially when it is happiness that comes from your hard earned money.

Iwantyoutoberich is a media company that wants to reach out to the masses because too many are taken for a ride and lost hard earned money and savings.

Rich means you are in control and you are in the driver’s seat.

Why money?

Why talking about money and understanding money is important? “If someone you talk to about money does not like to talk about it, this means they have a problem with money” Bob Proctor.
Money is neither bad or good. It is a form of energy, it can break you or make you, depending on what your relationship with money is. Start today, understand money a little at a time.

Why is talking about money or understanding money so important? And why is it not taught in school?

I have seen people with finance degree and go broke. And I have seen friends with little formal education who went on to become rich. By rich, I meant they achieve happiness and peace. they spent time with the people they love, they work because they want to, they have a purpose.

If someone you talk to about money does not like to talk about it, this means that they have a problem with money – said Bob Proctor. This can usually mean they have a bad relationship with money.

Whether you are reading this because you are about to get into college and your first credit card or you are a new parent looking to reset your financial life or you are in your thirties with some assets, and want to do a financial audit on yourself, this blog is the place you can get ideas and start off on good grounds.