Between inflation and mass layoffs, the U.S. is having money problems. Yet, most citizens don’t fully understand what that means or how it affects them. The result? We are in the middle of a full-blown American Financial Literacy Crisis, and people feel stuck.
While it will take work, there is a way out of this mess – for everyone. To get the solution, we first have to examine how we got here.
Where American Financial Literacy Education Falls Short
If you are still in disbelief that the United States is in trouble financially, here are some shocking stats from Vox:
- Americans have $1 TRILLION in credit card debt,
- 28% of U.S. residents have no retirement savings, and
- 37% say they could not financially handle a $400 emergency.
Of course, it is easy to blame the education system for this American Financial Literacy Crisis. But the truth is that it is not so simple. See, if we did learn about money in school, it is more than likely it would have been misinformation anyway!
Although the American Financial Literacy Crisis is not “your fault,” it doesn’t mean you need to be a victim of it.
That’s because all the financial “lessons” we have as a society are based on outdated information and never lead to full financial freedom. Old concepts like saving for wealth and trading time for money won’t guarantee you’ll become rich.
Although the American Financial Literacy Crisis is not “your fault,” it doesn’t mean you need to be a victim of it. You can do something about it. It just requires a little commitment to re-educating yourself.
How to Empower Yourself and Others
To be more in control of your financial destiny, you gotta learn some basic things about how money works! You don’t have to pay anything. Just go online and start researching and defining basic concepts and words until it clicks for you.
After that, you can develop some discipline and rules about handling your capital for long-term success. Here are some to get you started:
- Never spend money until you get it.
- Stabilize your primary income flow before pursuing a second one.
- The 47 Rule: If you work 40 hours/week, spend at least 7 hours/week working on yourself.
- Stay broke: money is worthless until you put it to work.
- You don’t want cash – you want cash flow.
From there, you’ll be able to show others how to do the same. And, we can chip away at this American Financial Literacy Crisis one piece at a time.
I believe handling finances is one of the most important life skills people need. As such, I am asking you to help me make our nation stronger with financial literacy education. It will make all the difference for future generations.
