I've decided to write as I go instead of setting up a weekly schedule. Simply because I'm a little busy starting to put into practice what I'm learning. For starters I am in the middle of a phenomenal book called "Why We Want You To Be Rich" by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. Two financial geniuses, a millionaire and a billionaire, two different personalities have the same mind when it comes to their concerns about America and it's people. Look them up if you don't know who they are, or even better buy the book and follow along with me.
The first thing that stared me in the face happened almost two decades before I was born, and to find out that I was thinking completely in the wrong realm when it came to money makes me a little upset. Did you know your money isn't real? In 1971, Pres. Hoover took America off the gold standard, which gave the dollar it's hard value, and put the U.S. on a credit system, and now our dollar is a currency. Sounds the same but they work in completely two different ways. Our dollar is a note, it's an IOU, backed by the Federal Reserve Bank, which sounds like the government but it isn't. Think about that for a moment.
Every time you pay the clerk for that new sweeter, you're giving them a promise from the government, that has a promise from the Federal Reserve, to honor your IOU to pay that clerk, or rather that business. Every time you and I get paid we get paid with an IOU. That's why with your bank deposits are called credits and withdrawals are called debits. It's fake. It's not real money because it's currency with a value based on a promise not something real, and in fact is now more effected by economic events than gold.
So, why is that such a big deal? I'm sure you have read or at least heard about the Fed. Reserve printing millions upon millions of dollars and causing a wreck on the U.S. economy. That's because it drives the value of the dollar down making it worth less. Donald and Robert's book explains it like this, "Our money stopped being money and became a currency when it ceased to be backed by gold. This is the year that "saving money" became obsolete and bad financial advise. Today, the middle class has very little in savings." Like me, you have probably been told something along the lines of, "Get a good education so you can get a good job and be financially secure," or "get a college degree so you can get the high paying jobs and you'll be better off." Well, as Robert and Donald point out, this was good advise in the Industrial Age, but is bad advise in the Information Age, which began in 1971.
I don't know about you, but I don't have much in savings at all. I used to believe that was because what my parents and others would tell me, "Your young. Everyone starts off struggling." While that may be true, when I look over the last 3 1/2 years my wife and I have been married, I don't like the pace of our growth since we still have very little to show in the bank. Every time we try to save money it goes right our the door to something else. Also, when I look at interest rates the banks want to pay on savings, money markets, CD's, etc. I just stare in disbelief, and think to myself, "If this is what I'm supposed to do to invest like the rich do and diversify, how in the world did they get rich?" Well, the easy answer is, they didn't get rich by these types of investments.
To wrap things up, even that $100 bill in your wallet you get every now and then is fake, but everyone buys into the promise so it works, for now. We did exactly what Germany did right before their economy tanked, their currency became worthless, and Hitler took over with the Nazi's. If you try to save your money, you are saving an IOU that continues to go down in value, or depreciate. It's like buying brand new Mercedes Benz and just letting it set in your drive way to look at while it's value goes down every second it's sitting there. Lastly, a good academic education is priceless, until you try to cash a check on it. What we need is to increase our financial education, which is what Donald and Robert are all about. Donald Trump summed up their message like this, "Robert's and my message is, with the proper financial education and planning you can ride out the turbulence of what is happening in our financial world today and through this education you can become richer (and not poorer 'Robert') by finding ways to solve problems."
Financial quote:
"Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic. But will they keep it? Or will they in their enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction. Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God just." - Thomas Jefferson
This is where we have come to, Jefferson's nightmare come true. We must establish a rally of character and integrity in our homes and become more financially astute so we are not enslaved to those who are.
Hosea 4:6 says, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." God had spoken to his people through His prophets and they continually denied their knowledge and paid the consequence. I am not saying I am a prophet, or that Robert or Donald are, but we are feeling the consequences of the "lack of knowledge" both spiritually and financially in our country today. Don't depend on your adviser or pastor to be completely honest with you, they may be ignorant of the whole truth as well. Seek out the truth and you will see what it brings. I like to put it like this, Jesus said that you can't serve two masters and that you can't serve God and money. Well, when it come to money, if you don't master it, it will master over you. May God grace be with us all and Christ to His glory.
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