One of the leading causes of depression, suicide, and divorce in America is something you probably would’ve never guessed; financial illiteracy. Not illiteracy as in not knowing how to count money, but more in depth on how money works in the system and how it can work in your benefit. The 1% aren’t the 1% because they “take from the poor”, it’s because they are financially literate. A lot of the knowledge and discipline is inherited through generations while there are others who learn through self education. There’s a quote I love, “Formal education (school) makes you a living, but self-education makes you a fortune.”
In what seems like the richest or most financially prosperous nation, did you know 76% of people live paycheck to paycheck, 50% of people have no money in their savings, and 70% of seniors have less than $60k in their savings? There’s a study from USA Today showing the millennials new retirement number is $1.8 million (or more). Sports Illustrated did a study of former NFL and NBA players. After only 2 years of retirement, 78% of NFL players are either broke or struggling financially. Within 5 years of retirement, 60% of NBA players are broke. 
Those numbers are crazy right? People make the biggest mistake of relying on school to truly educate them not realizing the hidden agendas in the curriculum to keep the cycle of financial illiteracy continuing. The schools won’t teach you and they’re not required to teach you, and for my “I take a personal finance” or “I take an economics class” people, you won’t even develop the knowledge there. If you will and have learned so much, why are those numbers still so high? Those courses have been around for years, it’s a deception. To beat the system is takes knowledge and discipline. You know what gives you the most information for free? Yes, for free with no cache, monthly membership fee, or even any intitial payments. Google. Google isn’t only good for finding test answers or celebrity gossip, but it gives you information to win at life.
It begins with knowing simply placing your money in a bank is a fastest way to being broke. Every year your money loses over 2% in value merely sitting in a bank. So if you had $1 million in your account to start the year, then you would have lost between $20k-$30k in value at the end of the year. 
Not in number, your account will still say $1 million, but the value of the dollar has decreased. While the value of the dollar decreased over the year, the price of goods and services has increased. There is a term for that, inflation, and many people don’t even know what inflation is. Inflation is when the price of goods and services go up, but the real value goes down. Here’s an example:
With inflation, goods in America increase by 3% annually while your money grows .03% in the bank. So if a pack of gummy bears is $1 today, how much would it be at the end of the year due to inflation? If you said $1.03 then you were correct. Using the same equation for your dollar in relation to the bank’s interest rate, how much would your dollar be worth at the end of the year? If you said $1.003 then you were correct. So at the end of the year, you couldn’t even afford that same pack of gummy bears you once could in the beginning of the year.
Forbes did a study and found that you need over $1,800 today to buy the same good or service that was only $100 in 1936. Sounds petty? Well you need $137 today to buy a good or service that you could purchase for $100 back in only 2000. The largest issue to the whole thing is the amount of money being made by the working class citizens is not growing faster than the price of goods and services with inflation. Don’t invest money when you’re guaranteed to lose. I’m not saying don’t put your money in the bank, that’s NOT what I’m saying, but don’t place all of your money in the bank thinking the bank’s interest rate is what’s going to help you get richer or get ahead financially.
The average household in America is $15,572 in credit card debt. The reason being, people buy things they can’t afford with their credit card and the banks know that. So if you decide to purchase an item for $3,000 with 15% APR and you are paying $60 a month then it will take you 16 years to pay it off. That’s not the bad part. The worst part is actually that at the end of the 16 years you end up paying $6,641 in total. Why? Because the bank takes $36/$60 for interest. That makes it impossible to build wealth.
Banks make money with your money. Every dollar you deposit, they take it and loan it at a higher rate, and then charge us 4% when we want to borrow it. Author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, says “Savers are for losers, invest”. 
Personally my greatest investment is with the foreign exchange market trading currency simply because it’s the same game the government, banks, military, fortune 500 companies, and other big business entities play. That’s not even the biggest benefit. I can watch my money compound in as little as a few minutes sometimes, the forex market will never crash, and as a retail trader you can’t shake the market (it’s $5.3 trillion in volume a day compared to the NYSE at $1.2 billion) so you don’t have to worry about every one beginning to learn how to trade currency. Funny saying all traders know, for retail traders in the market it’s simply the exchange of money from the impatient traders to the patient traders. Greatest advantage of living in the golden age of technology, I’m not merely an independent trader spending hours at a time looking at charts. It’s 2017, technology is advancing and evolving. I use a technological advancement allowing expert traders to trade for me, send me trade alerts, and learn from live tutoring sessions online given by the expert trades and an academy full of videos in simplest terms with visuals to help me develop skills to be an independent trader then later share the skill with my children. Literally anybody can do it. If you have a phone, tablet or iPad, laptop or computer, then yes you can do it. You can even type in words, “Good investment options for 2017” and find great investment options to help compound your money. The marijuana boom is on its way, so I suggest pay attention to some marijuana stocks. It’s really easy, but you have to shift your paradigm to begin having those thoughts on the daily to want more knowledge. Education begins with understanding and accepting that one truly knows NOTHING.
Nobody is saying do not place your money in the bank, but do not let the bank be the only place your money is going. Invest. There are various great investment options, you just have to do your research. Some will say, “Well not everybody wants to be a millionaire” and that is true but it costs to live, eat, for transportation, clothing, and to provide for others. With the statistics remaining true, the majority mindset is just a subconscious setback. Strive for financial and time freedom even if Forbes list isn’t your goal. Financial stability is the illusion which keeps the cycle of generations suffering from this illness of financial illiteracy going. Be knowledgeable and disciplined with your spending habits. If you can’t buy the item you desire five times then essentially you can’t afford it.
Let’s test your knowledge: Which would you choose, a dollar today or a dollar tomorrow? It’s simple.
Whoever said “tomorrow” is completely wrong. Due to inflation and the banks interest rate, a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.
Stay classy, stay conscious. Bless up 🙏🏾
Be Carefree, Be You 