Such a dirty word. I don’t really remember talking about it much growing up—Gen X here. I knew you needed to make it, keep it, save it, but I really didn’t have a grasp on its unrelenting presence in my future adult life. It was an unknown. I knew I wanted it. Seemed like if you had it, life was more fun. But I had no idea how to master it. I think watching my now-adult son smack into the money wall so hard made me revisit my own past frustrations and naivete . He went through a phase where he was heated about the reality that you couldn’t leave your bedroom without money coming into play. No fun. No food. No travel. None of it was free–it all required a steady supply of cash. So why didn’t I have a grasp on one of the most important tools I would ever have to master when I was a young adult? Gen X should say it all. It wasn’t really talked about. Those parents were just trying to get us grown up and alive.
I think my interest in money and its power started when I was in my early twenties when get rich quick scenes were abounding and Dave Ramsey was getting his feet wet. I even remember going to one of his lectures. I say lectures because it was more like a church gathering. A few hundred people maybe, gathering around to buy his new book, “Financial Peace.” So the “live like no one else, so you can live like no one else” mantra was drilled into my head. That and “cash is king.”
My dad had made friends with an Amway (at the time had changed its name to Quixtar) guy, Mike and convinced me that “for only $250 I could build a business.” Now my dad was self-employed and not looking for a quick buck but seemed to think it would be a good investment. I got roped into buying all the books every month that were encouraged for growing our “businesses”. I didn’t make a dime at it and early on felt like it was all a sham. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. Not my concern. What dad did get right though was the invaluable returns of the self-education path it put me on. I have always loved books, but this…this was transformative. I have owned (and read) so many personal development and personal finance and business books that I have lost count. My walls are covered with them. They have played an enormous part in my journey to financial independence.
But the times are changing. E books became audio books. Audio books have become podcasts. Now, there is a plethora of knowledge and a variety of ways to consume it. There is no excuse for not building wealth. The information is readily available.
So the only thing that remains is ACTION. The early these young people learn to navigate the world of money, the more confident and successful they will find themselves when the weight of their own finances is fully in their control.