Without financial education, your child will leave school naked. He or she might be an “A” student… but they will be parading through life like the emperor.
As the tale goes:
“Although he knew he was naked, he never admitted it for fear that he was too unfit and stupid to see that he was wearing nothing. He too was afraid that the townspeople would think that he was stupid.”
Since our schools will never admit that they are not preparing your child for the real world, it is up to parents—a child’s first and most important teachers—to give children the financial education required for the real world, a world that runs on money.
ARE SCHOOLS PREPARING YOUR CHILD FOR THE REAL WORLD?
Modern-Day Version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain, 1876
School is a great experience for some children. For others, school is the worst experience of their lives.
Every child has a genius. Unfortunately, their genius may not be recognized by the educational system. Their genius may even be crushed.
Thomas Edison, one of the great geniuses of modern times, was labeled “addled” by his first teacher. Addled means “mixed up or confused.” He never finished school, and instead became an inventor and an entrepreneur. The company he founded, known today as General Electric, creates products that have changed the world. A few of Edison’s early projects were the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the electric light bulb.
Albert Einstein also failed to impress his teachers. From elementary school through college, his teachers thought he was lazy, sloppy, and insubordinate. Most of his teachers said, “He will not amount to anything.” Yet Einstein became one of the most influential scientists in history.
Genius is an acronym for “Geni-in-us”—the genie or magician in each of us.
All parents have met the genius in their child. Most parents know that a child’s true genius is found in their dreams. We see glimpses of it from an early age… the ideas and things that delight them, fascinate them, and challenge them.
Protecting and nurturing the genius in your child is a parent’s most important job.
This book is written as a guide to help you develop your child’s financial genius.
The 2012 U.S. Presidential campaign between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney brought to light the difference in their levels of financial education.
While both are highly educated men, one candidate was financially sophisticated… the other less so.
Obama vs. Romney
During the campaign, President Obama disclosed that he paid 20.5 percent in taxes on approximately $3 million in income. Mitt Romney paid 14 percent on $21 million in income.
This gap in income and taxes angered many voters, especially the poor, middle class, and younger voters. Rather than ask why and how Romney made more money and paid a lower percentage in taxes, many voters just got angry. Most failed to ask, “How did Romney do that?” Or “How did he earn $21 million and pay 14 percent in taxes?” Or “How is that legal?” Or “Who is smarter when it comes to money… President Obama or candidate Romney?”
In his second term as President, Mr. Obama seems determined to and already has raised taxes on the rich—rather than teach kids about money and capitalism, which is how and why the rich get rich and stay rich and often pay less in taxes. Rather than teach kids to fish, it seems President Obama prefers to give kids fish.
This book is about teaching kids to fish.
What Does It Take to Become Rich?
Many people believe the rich are crooks, and some are. Yet there are far more rich people who are honest, hard working people… and are not crooks. They achieved the American Dream the old-fashioned way — through education, hard work, budgeting wisely, building businesses, creating jobs, and paying their taxes… as little as, legally, possible. They also acquired this wealth by studying subjects not taught in our schools.
This difference in education is reflected in President Obama and Mitt Romney.
Both men went to great schools. President Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Mitt Romney is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.
The primary difference between President Obama and Romney is that the President came from a poor family and the former governor comes from a rich family.
Their story is similar to the ones found in Rich Dad Poor Dad. The lesson of financial education is taught at home… not in school.
This book is written for parents who want to give their child a financial headstart, at home, studying subjects most students—even “A” students—never study.
Making the Case
The “business” of education is one of the biggest industries in the world, impacting the lives of nearly every person on the planet in one way or another. In the United States, public elementary and secondary schools alone—which employ 3.3 million full time teachers—will spend $571 billion for the 2012-2013 school year. That’s only in the United States, a country where approximately five million students entered high school in the 2010-2011 school year. Globally that number grows exponentially. I often ask myself how many of these kids finished high school… and how many dropped out? How many went on to college or university… and how many actually graduated? The staggering statistics on the college loan debt they’re saddled with have made headlines around the world. And how many went on for an advanced degree—at even greater cost—in the hope of proportionately higher salaries when they joined the global workforce?
Not only are hundreds of billions of dollars spent on elementary through university education, but the military also spends billions of dollars to train young men and women to serve their country. Corporate training of employees is another billion-dollar
