Wealth and finance is often a subject that many of us only think about when we have a specific goal in mind; whether that be saving for a holiday, building up a deposit to buy a home or work towards creating a portfolio that supports you to be able to reduce or stop work and live life on your own terms.
But where do we learn about how to build wealth and how to manage money? For many, we learn this from our parents, our family, the people that surround us, or our own first hand experiences.
As a child I remember asking my parents about how people get wealthy. My father who was very well read, gave me a crash course in business, stocks and real estate and explained the importance of building a portfolio of wealth. In my mind I pictured something that I could comprehend and I still remember seeing a picture of a physical folder that contained this so called ‘portfolio’ inside of it. This foreign concept of wealth creation was difficult to grasp and for many, this is something they struggle with for their entire lives.
Learning The Fundamentals
Without a fundamental understanding of money and finance I have seen many people travel most of their working lives trying to turn their earned income into wealth that prospers and grows. In the majority of instances, there are trials and tribulations that they experience trying to navigate the complexities of surplus, savings, investing, using debt appropriately, superannuation, risk management, insurance without having a proven system to support them. For many, wealth and finance is done re-actively without a well thought out plan and future planning consists of navigating from one financial milestone to the next without considering all of the variables that could influence their ability to achieve the outcomes they desire.
So what do we do to change this?
-
Take time to get educated around the basics of wealth and finance
It is important to self-educate around the key areas that will influence the majority of your financial decisions moving forwards. We can categorize these into 6 areas; cash-flow, debt management, lifestyle planning, emergency funding, risk management and estate planning. Having a basic understanding of these 6 areas will have a significant impact to your ability to navigate life’s financial complexities and ensure you make informed and educated decisions. Don’t rush straight towards the sexy and sophisticated strategies before you master the basics
2. Learn from credible sources that have proven results
Everyone claims to be an expert these days without having the experience, skills or results to support their claim. Many people find themselves being lead astray by these individuals who are just looking to fulfill their own selfish agenda. Make sure you do your research into who you are learning from, their experience and education to provide you with advice, and their track history of performance when following the same steps they are teaching you. Check Google, social media accounts, previous client testimonials and online reviews to validate their claims. Make sure you ask questions and complete your due diligence and remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
3. Take action and implement what you learn
A good idea in theory, is just a good idea so your ability to reap the rewards of what you learn comes down to taking action. Be sure to take the time to understand the concepts, strategies and tactics, work out how they apply to your situation and craft an action plan that provides you with clarity around the steps you need to take to implement this plan. Don’t expect to get immediate results but take the time to review the success of what you implement, revise where needed and seek additional support where needed to make sure you have done it correctly.
After 12 years of working in the wealth and finance space we have searched high and low to find credible sources of wealth and financial education that provide a well-rounded framework that applies to everyone. With this in mind, we created a platform called The Wealth 101 Academy which is an industry first learning portal providing simple and straight forward courses and programs that will help you learn how to master the language of money. Additionally, we provide you with all of the worksheets, activities and calculators you need to implement what you learn and get clarity around your path to financial freedom.
You can sign up for your free account at www.wealth101academy.com