Fathers Day Gift: Financial literacy

“Everyone needs money. That’s why they call it money.” – David Mamet

You have been presented with “resources”, (often code for $), but in your case intellectual resources to see more, understand more, and be more. Therefore…

1. You are not defined by what you have, but rather what you do with what you have. Resources, be it money or education or experiences that you earn mean far more than money you are given.

2. Do not allow money to rule your decision making process. It is only one component of your decision making process.

3. Although money doesn’t buy happiness, it  can provide peace of mind, freedom and flexibility. Those are 3 very valuable and powerful results of money.

5. “True wealth” is much bigger, and can only be defined by you from within. Over time it will morph, and will help define much of who you are.  Choose wisely, for the devils lettuce is a dangerous idol and brutal enforcer.

7. It begins with hard work, and ends with investing. In between are budgeting, saving, patience, restraint, vision and goals.

11. Avoid debt. If money represents freedom and flexibility and peace of mind, then debt is the opposite. Debt is anxiety, constraint and mental slavery. Others around you will seemingly have more through the acquisition of stuff. They do not. They have borrowed from their futures in a pact with the devil, exchanging today’s pleasure for tomorrow’s pain. Just don’t do it.

13. On the other hand, invest wisely with joy, foresight and patience. The most valuable assets an investor has are time and compounding. Both, applied properly to savings, will provide tremendous benefits that only the smart and visionary can understand. Again, it comes down to math. Patience means forgoing today’s one pleasure in return for tomorrow’s exponential gain. You must trust me on this. Only from the future can you see the past with certainty.

17.  Donate something. Give what you can. That might be money. But I would argue money is only the result of your output. If you are as smart and thoughtful as I think you are, then give of your intellect and character and the resulting output will have a far greater multiplier effect and leverage for the recipient. Think Zambia school, teaching, sharing your time and insights. Those have greater and powerful lasting value beyond the simple conveyance of money, both for the recipient of your largesse…and for YOU in the form of reciprocal satisfaction.

19. Finally, I’ll leave you with a quotation from sociologist William Bruce
Cameron, although many people attribute it to Albert Einstein:
“. . . not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts
can be counted.”

(Alexander, See if you recall why I used prime numbers for this love lesson.)

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