ONE OF BIGGEST FAILURES OF FORMAL EDUCATION

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.

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