Financial Intelligence
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Choose your jobs for what you will learn not what you will earn.

Do NOT specialize! Your skills are not always transferable across different industries and even different companies. I’m sure you have heard the term “over qualified” and the reality is this happens all too often. What about the athletes or musicians who end their careers and find they haven’t got any other skills? Do they have the financial intelligence to make their money work for them? Often the answer is no.

Knowing a little about A LOT is a lot better alternative to specializing. Let’s look at the four main elements of your Financial IQ and ways to improve them.

* Accounting – perhaps you won’t work as an accountant (you obviously need qualifications for that) but you may be able to get a job in an accounting firm.

* Investing – banking and financial planning would be a great place to look for a job and pick up some great investment skills.

* Marketing – a sales job is a fantastic way to get use to the rejection that comes with sales and marketing; the fear of rejection for many is the biggest problem, overcoming this fear puts you high above the rest. Sales and marketing allows you to sell to communicate this includes writing, speaking and negotiating – it can be used not only in business, but it all areas of your life, it can be used to sell your idea of where this year’s family vacation should be or even what’s for dinner.

* Law – working for a legal firm or being involved in legal dealings within any organization is a great start.

Management skills are the next element you need to become proficient at, importantly the management of people.

Associate with people who are smarter than you, attend meetings, conferences and seminars. Learn how to communicate with professionals so that you can bring specialties together to work for you. When you are looking at potential jobs, look at the training they offer and embrace the opportunity to get the most out of all available training, rather than just treating it as a day out of the office.

Think long term and plan for the future rather than simply thinking about your next pay check and waiting for your next pay rise – it may never come! Robert T. Kiyosaki is a best “selling” author, not a best writing author! The key here is the selling. Can you make a better burger than McDonalds? I’m sure you can, but can you sell a burger better than McDonalds? No, I don’t think so. The key here is the selling, the sales, the marketing.

No matter what your product or service is and how great it is if you can’t sell it you may as well get a J.O.B (acronym for Just Over Broke). Whilst you work that JOB remember, “Work To Learn – Don’t Work For Money”

This article was inspired by well know Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator, Robert Kiyoaski’s famous book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad. What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not!

Do you really want to stay middle class or be rich? All you need do is decide to be rich.

For starters, let’s agree on definitions. ‘Middle class’ means you do not abuse your body to earn money (but you are not rich). ‘Rich’ means you do not spend your time to earn money. And ‘How to’ means a method, a way of doing things..

Let us also assume that a ‘middle class’ person is so because of his upbringing… not because he was a ‘rich’ gone broke.

Now there is a lot to be said about this ‘upbringing’ because it is often the main reason we stay middle class. The root lies in “conformity”. Do what the neighbors do! What will our friends think? Think about this… hang out with rich friends and conformity will pull you up rather than maintain status quo.

So how do you make rich friends or get in a rich neighborhood? The internet comes to the rescue! More about this later.

Today, because of the multitude of choices we all have, it is easy to get distracted from where we want to go in life. Robert Kiyosaki, the guru of financial intelligence, says, the first step is to ‘Decide to Be Rich’.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start coming in awareness. Watch your words. You will stay middle class if you say…”We’re setting a few dollars aside every month, so we can afford the down payment on our dream home.” Or if you are focused on comfort. “I don’t want to be rich. I just want to be comfortable.”

However, the rich use the vocabulary found in the asset column. The rich are rich because they are not focused on comfort and the acquisition of liabilities using credit, as the middle class is.

The rich are rich because they focus on the long-term acquisition of assets… assets such as stocks, bonds, system-based businesses and income producing real estate. Many times the rich will forsake meals, a steady pay check, a vacation, or the comfort of a nice home, to build or acquire real assets.

Here’s how a Canadian teacher-couple I know stated it in their personal middle-class-to-rich story… I quote 2 gems of their exemplary advice:

“If you’re a renter looking for a new place, don’t just accept what the market has to offer. Instead, put the word out about your good qualities. Great tenants are hard to find. My wife and I placed an ad in the local paper stating that we were two responsible teachers looking for a quality long-term rental. We mentioned the price we’d pay and the exact specifications we sought. Another teacher answered the ad, and offered her place for $180 per month less than nearby apartments. That saved us more than $8,000 over four years – equivalent to a $12,000 pre-tax bonus.’

Notice what they focused on? Their Assets… Themselves!

“Low-cost index funds beat most actively managed mutual funds over the long haul. So when financial planners try to put you into an actively managed fund, tell them thanks, but no. Sure, you might get lucky and pick an actively managed fund that does beat the market, but it’s nearly impossible to pick winners ahead of time. Looking at past performance doesn’t help: the top performing funds of one decade usually lag in the next decade. Pick a guru who buys and holds stocks for long periods (so you don’t end up buying after the guru has sold) then emulate what he’s doing. Warren Buffett would be my choice. His most recent large investments have been in Anheuser-Busch and Wal-Mart. Once you buy, hold on and be patient.”

Once again, their focus has been to follow the rich on asset-linked investments.

Now as mentioned early on in this article, the internet is a great place to make rich friends or get in a rich neighborhood. Why? Because many forums, facebook included, house communities of rich-minded people. And entry for anyone is at par. Soon you will learn how to professionally network.

Networks, by definition, are assets for their owners and you can own your part of the world’s biggest network, the Internet!

So snap out of the middle class and ‘decide to be rich’. Join some successful business owners . Watch and copy them… asking questions frequently And you shall be on your way!