Times Of Swaziland: ONE OF BIGGEST FAILURES OF FORMAL EDUCATION

ONE OF BIGGEST FAILURES OF FORMAL EDUCATION
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Editor on 29/12/2022 10:29:00


Sir,
One of the biggest failures of formal education, at least in my day, is the
failure to educate pupils on the concept of financial freedom. There’s
evidence that formal schooling wasn’t designed to produce financially
independent graduates inasmuch as it was to produce a workforce. Thus, financial
illiteracy among graduates is not a shortcoming of the schooling system but the
intended outcome by the powers that be. The plight of the proletariat is not
happenstance. The rat race, as author Robert Kiyosaki describes, is the
situation many of us find ourselves in where you have too much month at the end
of your money.
Debts
We plunge into indebtedness to make ends meet and have to stay in a job we dread
in order to honour our debts, which in itself eats up our already dismal
disposable income through the thievery that is interest and we sink deeper into
debt and on and on it goes. Kiyosaki argues that to get to the money, you must
stop being, well, a rat (his words). It’s almost counter intuitive in that now
you’ve made the money but you’re expected not to use it. Absurd, but hear me
out. The longer your expense bill is, the more of your money you have to commit
to that bill ergo the less you have to invest in something with a potential
financial return. Hang out less to save on gasoline, limit your social media
logins to save on data and don’t have children. The savings on the latter are
unbelievable! Ignorance is the costliest of all. Read wide and read often.
Protect
I’m personally not a fan of insurance. I’d explain myself, but it’s a
whole thing. There isn’t enough ink in the world. The sentiment is to protect
what you already have should things take a turn for the worse. It’s good but
like I said, I have my reservations. You need to have more than one stream of
income buddy. Invest in the stock market, trade currencies and commodities –
this is quite fun, and purchase real estate. Start where you are and get your
first stream of income through a job or a business and work your way up. Take
risks. Don’t concern yourself too much about what ‘others’ say.
Unfortunately, I can’t get into specifics about what job you should get or
what small business you can start because I don’t have all the answers and I
don’t know you. You need to take inventory of your particular skillset to know
that.
Some people are in a more precarious position than not knowing where to start,
they don’t even comprehend what is being discussed. Remember what was said
about ignorance? Only you can determine what you do or do not understand.
Don’t wait for one day to be rid of your ignorance, rather let this be day
one! Kiyosaki summarises the above with the summary for the ages; “Spend on
assets, not liabilities.” He defines liabilities as anything that costs you
money like your car, the house you live in (I know what you’re thinking), debt
and so forth. Assets, on the contrary, make money; e.g your rental property,
investment account at your bank and your car that you’re leasing with Uber.
Sidebar: Accountants who are appalled by these definitions, don’t shoot the
messenger. The abridged version is more poetic anyway. We’ll go with that.