The real world is different from how schools project it to be. Schools, unfortunately, do not teach about personal financial standing. The problem with this is that students do not know much about saving and managing money when they come into the real world. As a result, it can later blow a country’s economic standing.
Personal financial knowledge is essential. At a young age, you should know how money works and how to use the money to work for you. Here are five things you need to know about money that schools won’t teach you.
1. Invest Money When You Have the Chance
Investing is important. Starting at a young age is golden. If you’re going to be wealthy, you should be able to plan and invest your cash. You can invest your money in stock markets or real estate. However, you need to know that investing is not just for wealthy folks.
When investing, focus on those investments that have a long-term return value. Investing in long-term assets is at times less risky; even when there’s a price drop, there is a tendency that before the end of that investment, the price will rise again.
Investing in company stocks can bring you dividends in any form. If you want to try investing, you may do so with companies that allow low investment fees. Since you want to try it, it’s always best to go for a low investment plan.
Difference between Investing and Saving
Most people cannot tell the difference, but these two words have different meanings. Saving can be said to be for a short-term purpose. One can save money from about a year to two to meet a specific goal, such as making savings for an emergency.
Investment, on the other hand, is long-term. Investments can go from five to ten years. So investing your money will, in most cases, do you better than saving it. This is because investment gives a higher return in months or years, but inflation can affect saving money.
2. 9-5 Is not the Only Source of Income
If there’s one tradition about the school, it’s teaching that 9 to 5 jobs are the only source of income available. This is probably why most kids don’t try starting up anything while in school. Instead, there is the belief that after learning what you want in school, you should get a job in the field of expertise.
As are lots of remote jobs available that pay on a daily to weekly basis. Sites like Fiverr and Upwork provide remote job seekers jobs. Even though the market for these apps is competitive, it’s an excellent way to earn money from the comfort of your home.
Thanks to the availability of remote jobs, it is now possible to have more than one income stream. In addition, the world is technologically advanced, and people have started to use their phones and laptops to make money for themselves from anywhere.
Aside from finding a remote job, forex trading can be done with your laptop or phone.
3. Keep Track of your Money
Keeping track of your money is necessary. Keeping track of how you spend, where you invest your money, or how much you saved last month is important because this way, you will be able to know just how much money you have.
Some people don’t keep track of their money, which often makes them mistake spending and other financial-related things. Keeping track of your money will help you to spend less because you will be able to know those things which take most of your money.
Keeping track of money will help create more investment plans and save in an emergency.
4. Emergency Funds
You never can tell when something unexpected will come up. That’s why it’s called unexpected. Real life is filled with unanticipated occasions which will most likely require that you spend money. It is always good to have an emergency fund that will be used in this case. Save aside in case of any emergency.
It can be challenging to save aside for emergency purposes. Temptations can arise to spend the money. If you do not have self-control, you can do the savings in any application that helps save money. Digit and Qapital are two great apps you can try out if you want to start saving.
Digit is an app that automatically saves money for its user. This makes saving more effortless and more accountable. Qapital is also able to help with saving and even making investments.
5. Don’t take Loans that will be Difficult to Pay Back
If you can avoid taking loans, it’s a plus for you because if there’s anything that slows down wealth, it’s debt. Try not to take loans that will become difficult for you to repay. There are, of course, good debts such as mortgages. Bad debts are what you should avoid.
A debt is counted as bad when you cannot get any return from it, especially a return higher in percentage than the loan you are offsetting. So whatever you do, make sure to avoid bad debt.
The Reason why Schools will not teach about money
Money is a powerful tool an individual can use to stand on their own, so why do schools not shed enough light on how to make, manage and save money? For example, have you heard of the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki? In the book, he talks about the cash flow quadrant.
Schools cannot teach about how money works or what to do with money because of the government. However, suppose Money classes are available from the high school level. In that case, there is a tendency for the number of millionaires today to be much.
Conclusion
Learning about money at a young age will avoid many errors that people often make with money later in life. For example, since schools do not provide enough lessons on how money works, people do not get early knowledge about investment and savings, buying the right assets, etc.
If you want to expand your money knowledge, you can read financial books. Such books have steps on how to manage money from your twenties. With the tips we have given above, you can start your journey by utilizing the money you already have.
Schools have most students think that only a 9-5 job can give you a steady source of income. This is not so. With your laptop and from the comfort of your home, money can be made faster and even more effortless.