The Great Education Hoax: Why Having a Multitude of Degrees Will Not Help You Build Wealth
It’s Here!
The day has finally arrived!
You’ve completed that degree and got that pay raise. Yes, that’s the ticket to a more secure financial future, a higher salary. Only the money problem is still the same.
You followed the modern advice and secured an education; you even have added to that education multiple times with extra credentials and certificates to increase your value in your industry.
“This raise is going to allow me to breathe a little easier,” you dreamily said to yourself. And initially it does, but it isn’t long before you discover that despite the higher salary, nothing in your finances has changed.
I discovered the same thing after completing my master’s degree and landed my first contract. Indeed, I received a better salary than I was making but oddly enough the money still didn’t go that far.
“What gives?” you ask.
After all, you got the better paying promotion. “Why isn’t my increase changing my finances?”
This is actually an excellent question to ask yourself, if, you’re genuinely interested in the answer.
It’s All About What You Weren’t Taught
You weren’t taught a hill of beans about money.
If you had been you wouldn’t be where you are…financially frustrated.
You have a right to be frustrated, your motives are pure, you want to do better for your family. You want a future without financial anxiety; a life that maybe offers your children something better than what you had.
The problem is personal finance is not in the school curriculum.
Your grammar school didn’t teach it to you, nor did you learn anything about it in middle school, or high school.
You didn’t learn money management in your undergraduate program, nor were you availed of any information regarding personal finances in your graduate or any other certificate program.
The only financial thing you may have learned about money in higher education is how to borrow it.
The plain truth is a financial education as it relates to you personally is not taught in degree programs. Degree and certificate programs serve the purpose of teaching you an employable skill. In essence you learn to be an employee.
The good news is that all you need to do to change your money problem is learn a new skill. And since you’ve done that before, thousands of times, you can do it again.
It’s Time to Hit the Books! Your Financial Education is Your Responsibility
In the same way you took it upon yourself to enroll in a trade school program to further your career, you need to take it upon yourself to educate yourself to further your finances.
You begin your education with books, articles, podcasts, seminars, and webinars. But it this time it’s different!
You are the school board! You choose the curriculum.
You decide what you will study and learn based on objectives you will determine. It’s not a decision by a group of dudes with letters after their names telling you to read Chaucer.
That’s what makes it the most exciting! It’s learning according to your interests and goals. You will be learning with a specific personal intention as opposed to reading just to “get through” the class.
As you build your financial mind you will begin to see the changes that need to be made to accomplish your financial vision.
5 Books to Help You Get Started
Once you have identified a few goals you intend to achieve, you can begin selecting your curriculum.
Here is a short list of some of the books that have been insightful to me and perhaps you might want to consider them for your library.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki, was the first book I read that caused a major shift on my perspective of personal finances and money.
Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, helped me realize how many negative thoughts I had about finances that produced bad decisions.
Creating Wealth by Robert G. Allen, revealed to me various income producing strategies I could use to build wealth.
Inc. and Grow Rich by C.W. Allen; Cheri S. Hill; et al., showed me the differences in various business entities that could be used to build and protect assets.
Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen, taught me not to keep the source of my income all in one basket but to have several income sources.
As you work through your self-determined curriculum you will gain greater clarity on where it is you want to go. Your goals will become much more vivid in your mind and your motivation to complete them will soar.
The First Step May Be the Hardest, But It’s Worth It
Imagine a life where you control your finances and your finances don’t control you.
Right now you’re frustrated and aching for a change.
Can you imagine NOT getting anxious when you sit down to pay your bills?
See yourself paying down your debt and not living hand to mouth. Feel the sense of peace and calm the change in your money habits will bring.
Now is the time to make that change.
You start by asking, “What do I want? “ What do I hope to achieve?” and record your answers.
It may be something simple like wanting to provide the best care for your aging parents. So your objective for learning to build wealth is personal which is often very motivating.
Perhaps you have young children and your goal is to easily provide for their education. Here again it is a specific personal objective which will foster your own thirst for learning more and then applying that knowledge.
Regardless of where you are in your financial journey it is not too late to learn new habits. Old habits may die hard, but they do indeed die in the light of persistence.
