Real life, not learned in school

  Credit is one aspect of financial literacy we have all heard of at least once in our lives because you need it to buy most things. Acquiring credit is exceptionally more difficult when you are low-income because it tends to perpetuate a cycle of dependence. For credit to provide people with success, people must not be forced to use it from a place of scarcity. Credit as an alternative to welfare The article from Rachel E. Dwyer titled “ Credit, Debt, and Inequality " provides information surrounding the presumed purpose for the expansion of credit. The book has a chapter, explaining that credit functioned as a “welfare trade-off” because it gave people access to things like land, housing, education, and insurance without the use of welfare resources.  The article from Dwyer goes on to explain that Americans must make investments that improve security, freedom, and democracy but this can only be achieved with the right kind of credit. As a result, people seek out credit and a...

      My name is Walter. I began my career in Real Estate at age twenty-one in 1994 while working at a grocery store from age sixteen to twenty-six. Once I left the grocery store, I pursued other job opportunities while building my Real Estate business. Years later, I found the seven money milestones that refined how I viewed money. I started this blog to provide people with financial literacy skills typically not taught in schools but are ESSENTIAL for our success. As my introduction, here are a few insights surrounding my experience with the seven money milestones.   Milestone 1: Get a Financial Education  My first in depth look into financial education was when I met my now business partner Shon Agnew from WFG Wealthwave. Today, I continue my education by sharing information with others and further that knowledge through my recent work with WFG Wealthwave. I also read (or listen to) books and blogs on finance on a weekly basis to supplement my knowledge....

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Financial literacy is essentially having skills that develop your understanding of how money works-for example, how to earn, spend, and grow it. To be financial...

     The article posted last week titled “Combating Inflation with Compound interest” describes how inflation impacts the value of the money in our savings accounts and how compound interest can help reduce that. The article explains that investing your money in an account with compound interest would double the amount money made over time because you are taking advantage of the interest you earn along the way and on money you deposited.       Taking advantage of compound interest is a great way to increase the value of your money over time. It allows you to account for changes in inflation rates and potentially double your initial investment. According to the book “How Money Works: Stop being a sucker” by Tom Mathews, Steve Siebold, and Andy Horner a typical savings account is likely to have an interest rate under 1%. The same book provides a mathematical formula to help calculate how much time it would take to double the money you have invested based...

 Inflation is a term often mentioned in finance because it impacts how we spend and save our money. According to an article written by Poonkulali Thangavelu, in 2005, a movie ticket cost $6.41; by 2019 the cost was $9.16 and by 2022, the average price was $16.29 (Thangavelu, 2023). Thangavelu provides an example of how inflation impacts a luxury expense, but it can also impact the cost of your groceries and other necessities. An article written by Western & Southern Finance group describes inflation as when the price of goods and services increase due to supply and demand, but when that supply or demand goes down, the prices still rise (Western & Southern Finance Group, 2023). Inflation is happening constantly and directly impacting our spending power. How inflation is impacting your savings Later, the same article explains how inflation can impact money you have in your savings account. As noted above, inflation is ultimately the reduction of the value of your dollar due t...

 All of us have heard the same song all throughout school "Show up on time, Do what you are told. Go to school. Work hard go to college, graduate and get a good job." Seems like a great, plan, in theory.  Maybe what our educational system is teaching us is a tad dated. I  personally, as a formal IT professional know that there really is no such thing as the stay at one place, work thirty years and then retire , is a dated philosophy. Now companies are changing. In order to move forward we all need to work smarter and not harder.  Downsizing seems the quickest way to cut costs. Makes it very hard to stay relevant when the employee is a liability instead of an asset on the corporate spreadsheet. I heard someone say the other day that for 99 Percent of us , our educational system has taught us how to become an employee. Words like overhead, depreciation , compound interest, carryover were not emphasized in our earlier education. I am someone that bought into notion of g...