I've screwed up in the past on issues of money about as bad as a man could possibly screw up (barring bankruptcy), but as I get older, I find myself playing the "teacher" role to younger officers on the police department.....giving advice on the 401-K, investing, etc.. Kind of funny, when I think of the crap that I've done (or should have done), but age and experience are sometimes great motivators to those who haven't travelled the hard journey, so I do the best that I can when questions about money, saving, investing, etc. come up, because if I could have just a little bit to do with making a bunch of people millionaires and NOT reliant on others for support, than I would die a happy man.

I'll get to the "meat" of this thread momentarily, but have any of y'all (particularly the members 40+ years old) played the "what if" game? I started working right around 1980, and with me, as I've become more intelligent and aware of the way the economy works, etc., it's usually something like......."Gee....what if I immediately started putting a big chunk of my earnings into Apple stock........then around the mid 80s put a big chunk of what I earn and what I made in the market into Microsoft........Kept buying blue chips, Home Depot, Lowes, etc."?........ad infinitum, ad nauseaum....I'll tell you right now that I'd be a multi-millionaire. Hindsight is always a great thing, but sometimes just a little deliberate effort and modest "long-term" investing and saving will see you to the path of financial independence.

But the point is....NO ONE EVER TAUGHT ME THIS STUFF!!!.....99.9% of young-uns 16, 17, or 18 ain't-a-gonna go out and read Benjamin Graham's "The Intelligent Investor".....and most people that age don't think long term, so I went into my "worklife" blind and just bumbling along, making mistakes and trying to pick up a little knowledge and experience along the way. The net result of this was about 15 years of pissing away everything I ever earned and not saving a dime. Investing?.....The stock market?......Alien territory so far as I was concerned, and I had no idea how to partake in it even if I was of the mind to partake (which I wasn't).......

To be rich, you DO NOT have to play basketball real well, go "public" with your internet search engine company, or win the lottery.......No....you just have to start young and get the mindset of putting away a pretty good percentage of your earnings....year-in and year-out.....into saving (savings accounts, money markets, the stock market....etc.).....and when I mention the stock market, I ain't talking about putting all your money into an overpriced "tech" stock that everyone's gotta have...(remember the investors who lost their life savings and 401-Ks on "hot" tech stocks after 2001?) I'm talking about the blue chips... and occasionally making a move on a possible prospect (even Microsoft was a big risk early in it's career).

So, for God's sakes, teach your children these lessons.....or favorite nieces and nephews....or even younger co-workers....In my case, I didn't start making the right moves until about age 30, and I'm feeling every day like I'm playing "catchup", but let's hammer the money lessons home on the younger folks. Teach them the "10% rule" on saving and investing (putting away 10% of your earnings into savings and retirement without fail BEFORE you spend the money on anything else.......Get used to NOT having that 10% to spend).....Better yet, make it 15% or 20%. Teach them about direct deposit (we've still got a couple of idiots who just can't fathom the "witchcraft" of direct deposit and not receiving an actual check in your hand), the 401-K, the wonders of "compounding interest", and the bright future of being an independent, smart millionaire by their 40s or 50s (and occasionally 30s). Teach them (or teach yourself) about that little capitalist wonder that the Western World has called the stock market...and the fact that they can actually own a piece (or pieces) of a company or companies and can grow their own wealth, and can actually be a part of making the system work.

Don't let them go in blind like me (or probably some of you).......Probably only 5% of us start young and really work the system and end up wealthy at a young age without signing an NBA deal or winning the mega-millions, and it damn sure ain't gotta be like that. 95% of us oughta be in that position, but for some reason the lessons aren't hammered home...or are ignored, but lets start now and bring that percentage up.

Highly Recommended Reading: The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. If you get into it, it'll take you about 3 hrs to read the thing cover-to-cover....and the lessons in it are so simple and common-sense that you'll be scratching your head that more people aren't doing them. Easy to read for a 16-to-18 year old too.

"Git er done"!........

Steve

 

Excellent post along with great advice.

It took me a long while to realize these same things..

I think 30 is the age when we smarten up and get going in the right direction...

Unfortunately we can tell others until we are blue in the face, but if they do not put the advice into action it is for nothing. I have tried telling my children about stocks, money and learning as much as you can about them, but they have turned a deaf ear. They are still younger than 30 so hopefully they will come around.. I would like at least 1 of them to be wealthy (That's who I will move in with in my old age) .

It is never to late to start saving and paying off debt.

I read a book by Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad/Poor Dad's Guide to investing).
It is an excellent book on how to start thinking as a rich person and the changes you can make to gain wealth..

I agree we should continue to teach the young about money. They need to teach the basics of finance in school also..

 

I agree. The age of 30 seems to be where we figure out its time to start investing.Our schools need to put more effort on finance. Its not taught enough just like math isn't taught enough.

 

Rich Dad/Poor Dad, one of the best.

 

Yep. You don't really see it in the schools. We can laugh or "tut-tut" over the state of public high schools all we want, but I think that we'd all back up school funding for competent, no-nonsense economics and finance teachers who actually did some "real-world" good.

 

In Canada back in the late 60's Teaching Money Management was still unheard of.

It wasn't until I hit college did "Finance" become a course one could take.

In Business Administration, (the one I was there for) Finance was an automatic subject.

IMO, Teaching Money Management in High School is even too late.

It should be taught in Grade 6 or 6th Grade (for people south of the 49th) and continue until graduating High School

 

-rant on-
Schools teaching how to invest in your future? Is that a joke?

Government schools are filled with government workers who don't have to compete, have union protection, guaranteed benefits and aren't held responsible for the quality of their work. You can't possibly teach something you don't know, and government rarely (if ever) puts out the best quality per dollar spent.

I won't back up 1 cent of additional funding to public schools, no matter what the cause is. Even the best government schools are crap. Every additional dollar thrown at them has been an abissmal failure and we have the lowest quality schools in the western world per dollar spent. Every year the feds take over more control from local governments and it just gets worse. People who think money is the solution... send a big fat check of your money, but don't take any more of mine. Many people will object and say they received (or are getting) a good education at a public school... but just think of the better education you could get at a quality private school or home schooling. Government education sucks so bad that many who have it don't know enough to know how much it sucks.

-rant off-

 

hey hey now, the public schools are great at teaching kids how to write checks! at least that was all the finacing schooling i got when i was in high school.

 

Ok, ill give some input from the younger audience (21).
The problem with the kids my age (and myself) is that we are fairly dumb. Me for example, im pretty sure i know how to get rich, but i dont do it cause im lazy and i want to buy parts for my car/truck i want to buy some video games, and i want to buy beer. I want to take road trips to concerts, and spend that extra $70 so that i can hang out with jason bonam. My buddy came with me a few weeks ago as i went to buy computer parts at best buy. He just happened to see a samsung flatscreen that was pretty sweet so he bought it on the spot. $1200. Hes not rich, nor is his parents. Obviously most of my friends arnt this bad, but its a great example. Typically most of our money is spent on small things, like dvds or something. I wont bring in the drug variable too much cause thats obviously controversial, but if your an officer then you know probably better than i do that 90% of kids spend a hell of a lot of money on it.

Now how does the problem get solved? We get our asses out of the house and realize that its a pain being broke all the time. Then we think, where did the money go. Then you research where it went, where it shouldve went, and so the learning begins. The reason why most kids wont be able to be educated on it is simple. They just dont care. And just like when we hear things we dont want to hear, it goes right out the other ear. There are very few kids that will acknowledge they arnt as smart as they thought they were with money, and decide to learn about it.

As you said you dont have to make a lot of money to be rich, but rather know what to do with the money you make. Most millionaires today or "wealthy people" are your neighbors and typically the average person. They know how to budget their money and have the self controll to not buy crap they dont need (impulse buying partially). There are people out there that can go out and buy what the want and it wont affect them, but there arnt as many as youd think.

And so far as reading material, im reading "The Millionaire Mind" and "The Everything Investing Book."

 

I spent most of my money at Motorhaven & promoting FTE

This post should be worth 500 + rep points

 

Oh really?


You better hope my wife, the special Ed Teacher in a public school, doesn't read that post Ken. She'll fly down there and smack you alongside the head with a dictionary.

Seriously though- that post was insulting and demeaning to everyone in the Education field.

 

I agree, Polarbear, and further, I think that if anyone but the Webmaster had posted it, there would have been trouble.

I received a damn good education from a public school system, that was sorely underfunded (and still is). I can't speak with authority on any others, but Wachusett Regional High School is most certainly not crap. Do I think that every additional cent that might be sent there would be put to good use? Not at all, it's bureaucracy and there will be wasted money. Do I think that more money sent there would make it better? Absolutely. It's tough to pay attention when water is dripping through the roof onto your desk...

 

hmm... personally not a fan of Richard Kiyosaki teachings... a little "Amway" for my liking. And on a completely seperate topic... I can't speak for the American education system - but here in Australia money is the main thing the public education system needs.
Not giving sufficient money to the education system screams of biting of your nose in spite of your face.
This is from someone who went to a hideously expensive private school...


As for the topic of the thread.
Wholeheartedly agree. I was fortunate enough that my parents "encouraged" (read: forced) me into saving and investing when I was 8. Something I am endlessly glad of... And it fortunately has put me in a financial posistion few people of my age are in.
It is dissapointing that such an education is so rare...

 

As a current student of public schools, I think my teachers are doing a fine job. As a highschool student, I am taking classes that allow me to get a college credits aswell. Alot of the stuff they teach us now-a-days isn't really what they need to be teaching us. I mean common not everybody needs to learn calculus and stuff like that, that you will never need in "the real world." Teachers have a tough job. They like are parents, are supposed to help us learn responsibility. Highschool is an oportunity. It is what you make out of it. If you slack, you grade sucks. If you work hard, your grades are good. Its not the school that makes the education, its the student. The knowledge is there, its all about if the student is willing to listen, do the work, and prove that they learned something. Oh, and in my district, the teachers are evaluated by our scores. If we don't do well on the EOC, regardless what kind of student we are. We could never show up, and take the test and if we do bad, the teacher gets evaluated, and they look at their teaching strategies.

 

Hey...I'm with you on the schools.....I'm from Charlotte and get a real close and personal look at the urban school system and the dysfunctional school board and get to see what a nauseating waste of my tax money the whole thing can be....Not to mention the political correctness which runs rampant when dealing with stuff like criminal behavior in the schools, etc.. BUT...I wouldn't shed a tear if some class like "Racism in the U.S. and the Virtues of Karl Marx" was booted out of the school system, and a reasonable economics/finance class was put in it's stead.....What the heck....might do some good AND not cost any extra money (rural counties and states with a fraction of the budget of the Charlotte School System seem to regularly get higher marks in reading, math, etc.). My second post on finance in High School was definitely predicated on a non-partisan, non-politically correct course (and teacher) in real world finances and investing.

But obviously I'd rather family (parents, older sibs, aunts and uncles, etc.) took the helm on this all-important aspect of life (we all earn, buy, sell, save, pay bills, etc.......or at least we all should....I'm sure there's a few out there who never put in an honest day's work or paid any bills), but it seems that too often, we do not.

But the whole reason I started this thread was my growing worry over the increasing indebtedness and decreasing savings of Americans, and the fact that programs like Social Security (not intended to be a retirement vehicle, by the way) and the traditional pension (defined-benefit) seem to be going the way of the dodo bird. In these times, it's more crucial that we take a bigger stake in insuring our own financial well-being and future.

Steve (a non-ranting supporter of FTE)

Catholic School (1973-1977)
Public High School (1979-1983)
UNC-Chapel Hill (the "Mecca" of Southern Liberalism) (1990-1992)