everything you know about money is wrong

What You Don’t Know Will Cost You Exposing the secrets of money that conmen and the elites don’t want you to know.. Not All Debt is Bad & How to Clean Up Your Credit Report The secret in

Everything You Know About Money Is Wrong!

Published by Jonah Jones at Smashwords Copyright © 2012 by Michael Jonah Jones

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from Michael Jones, except for brief excerpts in reviews or analysis “Economic Comic” is a term coined

by Michael Jones and is used to describe the four ways to make money in America

“Unfair Edge” is a term trademarked by Michael Jones and represents the methods described in this

book for creating and retaining wealth

All photos used in this book are either original creations or purchased from photos.com for royalty free use These photos may not be copied or reproduced in any form without the written consent from

of publishing, the author does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result for

negligence, accident, or any other cause

See More at AnUnfairEdge.com

Table Of Contents

What You’ve Been Told About Money That’s Flat-out Wrong!

Debunking the common myths that are passed down from generation to generation as valuable wisdom, but are really detrimental to becoming rich

What You Don’t Know Will Cost You

Exposing the secrets of money that conmen and the elites don’t want you to know Example after example of how certain things are not how they sound or seem When it comes to money, ignorance is anything but bliss

Avoiding the Five Financial Traps

Step by step guides on how to avoid (or get out of) the five biggest pitfalls that condemn good, working people to the dreaded rat race

hard-Debunking Every Myth You’ve Ever Heard About Money

From the most common clichés to supposed “conventional wisdom”, every single one of them is dead wrong and believing in them will prevent you from ever being rich

Money is not a Physical or Tangible Thing

When you look at money this certain way, your view on it and feelings toward it will change

dramatically

The Honorarium Theorem

Exposing the laws of compensation, earnings, rewards and returns

The Formula of Fortune

Wealth is not a matter of fortune, but formula After reading this, you’ll never again believe the lie that getting rich is all about luck or fate

The Four Ways to Make Money in America

Everyone tells us that in order to make money, you have to get a job But that’s only 1 of 4 ways to make money See the four things that keep the economy moving and how you can capitalize on all of them

How to Raise Your Earnings

You work hard enough at your job already, and your employer is probably underpaying you It’s time you learn how to right that injustice, because your time is too precious to spend it earning far less than you deserve

The Most Important Word for Your Wallet

There is one word that sums up the most powerful vehicle of investment This is one that everyone can have and benefit from This is something that the rich have kept secret all to themselves

Not All Debt is Bad & How to Clean Up Your Credit Report

The secret inside information the credit card companies and the three credit bureaus don’t want you to know

Conclusion: Now that You Know the Rules…

About the Author

What You’ve Been Told About Money That’s Flat-out Wrong

Ask your parents, teachers, bankers, financial advisors or just about anyone, “How do you get rich?” Here’s what they’ll tell you:

“Oh, you have to go to school, get good grades, then go to college and get more good grades Also, do lots of unpaid internships in college so you can get a good job, and make sure that job is safe, secure and loaded with good benefits Then once you start working it, you need to live below your means, cut back

on the Starbucks, keep a budget, and contribute 20% of your income to a 401k that’s well diversified in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds Then when you’re 65, you’ll be rich!”

When they say that, what I hear is “be a slave to some employer for 40 years that has no reason to care about you and is just using you to make himself rich and never have any freedom or fun until you’re too old to appreciate freedom and have fun.”

First off, who’s going to stay at the same job for 40 years? What company will even stay in business that long? And that 401k is not diversified because stocks, bonds and mutual funds are all in the same market: the paper assets market If there’s a market meltdown the day before your retirement (we have market turmoil almost every year in October), you’re screwed What are you supposed to do then? Live off of social security? I guarantee you that it won’t still be around in 40 years and it’s not even enough to

be social or secure

There is an alternative route

The people getting rich today did not get rich this way Instead, they do it by selling stock files, eBooks and info-products, by having monetized blogs and by affiliate marketing

The fact is, the new rules for riches are very unfair But there’s not one thing in life that’s fair Why would money be any different? Fairness is really just a concept we made up to keep children in line There isn’t a solid standard for it And when it came to money, even Jesus Christ himself was unfair He said “Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance Whoever does not have, even

what he has will be taken from him.” (Matthew 13:12) This series is all about giving you that unfair edge

How to Use This Book

One thing I skip past that I probably should read is instruction manuals Gentlemen, you back me up on this one; isn’t it easier and more fun to just put stuff where it looks like it belongs and then relax?

But the box said only “Some Assembly Required.”

But bear with me for a moment When it comes to your money, you want to know everything there is, because what you don’t know will cost you There are five things that make up everything when it comes to money; the five forms of financial aptitude:

Throughout much of the time I spent learning these five forms of financial aptitude, I had an ongoing argument with myself The cynical side of me kept saying things like this:

“YOU’LL NEVER BE RICH, EVER! ALL OF THE EXPERT ADVICE IS SO GENERIC, NONE OF IT IS PRACTICAL, THEY’RE JUST A BUNCH OF CONMEN CAPITALIZING ON YOUR IGNORANCE AND ENVY!”

Perhaps you hear a voice just like that inside of your head Say hello to your number one obstacle in your financial life: yourself Your own cynicism can be your undoing, as it almost was mine But there are many ways to combat this inner voice and eventually shut it up Throughout the book, you’ll see this voice appear (maybe even at the same time you hear your own cynicism), and I’ll show you how to put it

to rest

Are you a skeptic? I hope you are Cynicism is bad, but skepticism is quite good Firstly, because if you take anything I’ve written in here as gospel, you’re a knucklehead Secondly, skepticism is a principle of wealth

New Rule for Riches #1:

It is highly appropriate and beneficial to be very skeptical of everything when dealing with the financial

services industry because of possible conflicts of interest

The reason it is a principle of wealth is because it’s nobody’s job to make you rich but your own So the logical conclusion to that is that everyone else is only out to make themselves rich and possibly off of you

For example: a guy on CNBC going crazy about a particular stock, encouraging you to buy it, and yelling that you’re a fool if you don’t You may think, “It’s not every day somebody goes nuts on TV about a stock It must be a good buy,” but what really may be happening is the guy is pulling a little scheme called “pump & dump.”

The scheme works like this: he buys a lot of shares of a stock that’s cheap, then goes on TV encouraging others to do so Others watching him on TV buy the stock, which causes the price of it to go up (pumping

up demand) Then the guy on TV sells all of his shares of the stock (dumping supply) and the price dramatically goes down, so the poor folks who bought the stupid thing can’t get any gain out of it This is what a conflict of interest looks like

People you should be highly skeptical of are the following:

 A student loan office advising students

 An agent selling a life insurance policy

 A money manager recommending a stock on TV

 A broker suggesting a good mutual fund

 States offering college savings plans

“WHAT ABOUT YOU, MR JONES! WHY SHOULD WE TRUST YOU? I BET YOU WROTE THIS BOOK JUST

TO MAKE MONEY!”

How much did you pay for this book? Nothing, which is a lot less than the price of stocks getting

pumped and dumped, I bet However, if you have serious skepticism, now is the time to hit it on the head What are some of your doubts?

Can anyone be rich? I don’t think so If making money were easy, everyone would be doing it It requires

you to make sacrifices and change your life, but I argue for the better It forces you to become more productive, more intuitive, and much friendlier

Do I have to take great risks? In the old days, yes In today’s world, no The risks have been greatly

reduced with advances in information technology All that is necessary is for you to be able to read, write and think of things others hadn’t thought of yet

Do I have to be a single twenty year old? While that is who this book is targeted to, no This is for

anyone is sick and tired of deferring what they really want to do because they have bills to pay Do you want to start living or keep postponing?

Do I have to be smart? Of course not Many of the people I researched for this book didn’t go to

Ivy-league schools or college in general All you need is basic math skills and logic I, for one, truly despised

my college experience as the biggest waste of time in my life I didn’t fail school, but I feel that in the long run, school failed me

Institutions of higher learning, for the most part, give you a piece of paper that supposedly “guarantees” employment (tell that to the unemployed grads moving back in with mom and dad) for the rest of your life I sought out the skills that guaranteed I’d never have to work again Furthermore, most of the jobs that college prepares you for are 80 hours a week, 30 years of torturous labor, causing you to grow to hate the field you were once so passionate about studying Who wants that?

The rich among us don’t do a good job for themselves as far as public relations goes You may remember the Occupy Wall Street protests that occurred world-wide, starting in September of 2011 The genesis of these protests was simple to understand The rich may not being lighting their cigars with $100 bills, but they’re not making themselves very likable or someone that people would aspire to be like When there’s a giant gap between the rich and the poor, history shows that trouble arises, such as in Germany

in the 1930s or Greece in the 2010s

What they say: “You’re just jealous because I made it and you didn’t!”

What You hear: “All complaints about unfairness in the system are just like a high school drama queen

complaining about rumors spread about her.”

What I say: “The system is absolutely unfair The world is unfair Life is very, very unfair But there’s a

way you can even up the odds of success for you I’ll show you how to have it.”

What they say: “I’m not some lazy bum, rich-for-nothing like Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian I work hard

for 80 hours a week to get what I have.”

What You hear: “I make 100x more than you because I work 100x harder than you.”

What I say: “We all work hard The flow of money doesn’t go to those who work the hardest, but to

those who understand the new rules for riches and can spot an undervalued asset or opportunity the moment they see it.”

What they say: “If I can get rich, so can you.”

What You hear: “Every one of my golf buddies at the country club got rich What’s stopping you?” What I say: “It’s not as simple as doing, but rather knowing what, when and how to do Specific

attention to detail and hard sacrifices are mandatory That’s why most don’t make it And first, you’ve got to have something to sacrifice Let me show you.”

What they say: “Don’t punish me for my hard earned success! Stop calling for higher taxes on me!” What You hear: “Because I didn’t inherit or cheat my way to riches, no one deserves a damn thing from

me Not even starving kids in poverty.”

What I say: “I want you to be just as rich as me, if not more Because an increase in your wealth will help

everyone around you I’ll show you how.”

I don’t believe that the secrets of the rich should be kept and hoarded only for the benefit of the elite I believe that when someone gets rich, it benefits everyone around them Here’s how I come to this conclusion, if there are more rich people in this country:

1 The government will collect more in tax revenue, be able to provide more helpful programs to the less fortunate and not need to raise taxes on the fortunate

2 Home values will go up for everyone

3 More people will have the ability to create more jobs, thus more people will be able to find jobs

4 More charities can be started and funded

5 More expensive medical research can be done, which can lead to saving and improving lives

6 Expensive technological development can be funded and possibly make our lives easier

7 Less people will have to rely on government assistance and entitlements to live on when they can no longer work, thereby ensuring that government help will go to those who truly need it

Furthermore, if everyone in this country knows how to make big money ethically and legally, why would anyone ever feel the need to commit crimes and steal?

My message to you is this: if you buy groceries, wear clothes, watch TV, listen to radio, drive a car, or even just surf the internet, a lot of people are making a lot money off of you Want to get in on the action? I’ll show you how

Information Yields Power Ignorance Yields Profit

And that’s profit for someone else, not you

Is ignorance really bliss? Not for your wallet

You’ve heard the phrase that when you assume, you make an “ass” out of “u” and “me” When it comes

to money matters, assuming does worse than that It can clear out bank accounts and tear up wallets The smallest detail or overlooking can make a drastic difference in dollar bills

New Rule for Riches #2:

What you don’t know will cost you

Here are just a few examples of how that works:

At First: Credit card companies will try to sell you an insurance policy for a monthly fee in case your card

is stolen so that you’re not legally liable for fraudulent transactions

But Really Now: Under law, the most you can be liable for is $50 per card, and most credit card

companies will cover that because they want to keep you.5a

At First: You receive a letter from a branch manager that appears to be nothing more than a

customer-relations effort, such as, “Hello I am the branch manager If you have any questions, call me.”

But Really Now: It means your broker may be mishandling your account The branch manager is

required to contact you to legally protect himself It may seem that he’s just being nice, but really he’s only covering his butt.5b

At First: Part-time students aren’t eligible for financial aid

But Really Now: Part-time students do qualify for federal financial aid, but the calculations for this

group look a little different.5c

At First: A dollar saved is a dollar earned

But Really Now: A dollar saved is taxed on interest earned and eaten up by inflation Your money is

losing value when it just sits in a savings account

At First: It’s safe to assume that the car dealership knows your credit score, thus they can properly

determine your interest rate

But Really Now: If you know your own credit score, you can bargain better and not be at the mercy of a

dealer

At First: Supposing that when you buy gas with your debit card, the amount it says at the pump is the

exact amount taken from your account

But Really Now: Some gas stations put holds on your account.5d They’ll at first charge you as high as

$50, even if you only bought $10 worth of gas Then the charge goes down to $10 when it clears But this could cause an overdraft on your account, forcing you to pay a $35 fee! That’s $45 for a mere $10 of gas!

At First: It’s safe to assume that insurance rates are set in stone

But Really Now: Rates are constantly changing In fact, in certain states and for certain policies, rates

have actually dropped significantly since 2011 And, if your record has improved, you may even be eligible for additional reductions You can be sure, however, that your insurance company isn’t going to call you up and let you know their rates have dropped.5e

“STAYING ON TOP OF ALL THIS SOUNDS SO EXHAUSTING!”

Sounds like it is, but it doesn’t have to be Perhaps you think you’ll feel like a pest, making sure you get the most bang for your buck But that’s far from the truth The way the American economy is set up, the businesses are the ones pestering you about how they’ll give you the most value for your dollar

It only takes a little bit of time and research to make sure you’re not spending more than you should, especially with how easy the internet has made research for consumers So reverse the roles and make

it so that the businesses are the ones under the pressure to get your almighty dollar bill

BEAR IN MIND:

Every business has a competitor If it seems like they’re out to screw you, remember that they’d much rather screw their competitors They will bow down to you for your money before they bow down in

defeat to their competitors Take full advantage of this

Being thrifty was once a virtue in our society, then somehow it became stigmatized as being cheap I for one don’t understand why economizing is looked down upon so much We call people who do that penny pinchers, cheapskates, and stingy But why? Do you not work hard for you money? Do you not want the effort and fruits of your labor to be respected? Aren’t your earnings worthy of respect

considering what you had to do to get them?

New Rule for Riches #3:

Thrift is demanding respect for your money and how hard you had to work in order to get it

One of the greatest things about the business world is that businesses are willing to negotiate Some stores will match competitors coupons and prices just to make the sale Consumers on the other hand rarely negotiate You just have to remind yourself that you have the money, thus you make the rules

A WISE MAN ONCE SAID:

“He who has the gold makes the rules.”

A fitting analogy is to liken your life to the life of a business Individuals have cashflows, expenses and revenues just like businesses do Be more like a business with your life and it will operate smoother When businesses spend money, the expense is proposed, reviewed, analyzed, weighed and then

approved or rejected If all of us did this, we might not have the debt problems we have today

“THERE’S STILL GOING TO BE PEOPLE THAT ARE OUT TO GET YOU! WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT THOSE?”

Oh, yes There are crooks out there, make no mistake about that They set up some ugly traps to rip your wallet to shreds So it’s time now to show you how to avoid these miserable bastards’ traps

Avoiding the Five Financial Traps

Many of these traps are ones that people fall into every day without ever even knowing it It has been said that “Broke is temporary Poor is eternal6.” So this chapter is all about how to avoid being poor

“Zordon didn’t set me up with a Retirement Plan.”

As the picture above suggests, poverty can come upon anyone Not even all-star NBA players are safeguarded from poverty The Chicago Bulls’ Jason Caffey, who made an estimated $29 million during his eight-year NBA career, was in bankruptcy court seeking protection from his creditors, among them the seven women with whom he fathered eight children7 Sure he brought that financial trouble on himself, but he also fell for the traps

You’d think that $29 million well-managed should cover everything But the problem was that it wasn’t well-managed Thus, being aware of the five financial traps and knowing how to avoid them are two of your best ways to start your financial education

Financial Trap #1: Student Loans

The student-loan game has changed dramatically The cost of college always goes up and loans are replacing grants, which is a bad idea Always look for a grant first Academic institutions are only worth attending if you can get someone else to pay for it Some colleges and universities are complete wastes

of time dishing out useless degrees that get you nowhere while sucking out your money like parasites

So it’s best to try to get your higher learning for free in the form of scholarships and grants before looking at loans

MOMENTARY TANGENT:

Option A: $100,000 Ivy League education

Option B: $5 library card

Catch: You’ll get access to the same information either way!

Tragically, it has become common practice now for youngsters to get student loans Like the credit card sharks, there are student-loan sharks that are aggressive at dropping debt on your shoulders This debt

is extremely tough to get rid of once it’s amassed and it’s very profitable for the sharks doing the

lending

Scholarships are always better than loans Check these websites to see if you qualify for one:

BrokeScholar.com, Educationgrant.com, Fastweb.com, and Fastscholarshipsearch.com

Just the facts:

 Federal and State regulators are investigating the possibility and frankly the likelihood that

private lenders are buying college financial aid officers much like the way a lobbyist buys a politician They buy them gifts and the aid officers then add the lenders to the “preferred lender” list Well hello there, Mr Conflict-of-interest So nice to see you again… not

 Consumer advocates have found that some sharks are misleading students into taking out more expensive private loans when the borrowers are eligible for lower-rate federal loans

 Studies even show that more than half of these student debtors take out private loans without even exhausting federal resources and 24% receive no federal aid at all

 There’s no way out In 2005, lenders persuaded legislators to make private loans impossible to

shake You can’t even declare bankruptcy

Before taking one out, learn the 3 types of loans:

1 Loans directly from the federal government

2 Loans made through private lenders but subsidized and guaranteed by the federal government

3 Private loans made by private lenders with no federal guarantees

One reason students are turning to private lenders is because the amount of students allowed to receive the first two kinds of loans has been frozen since 1992 Private loans can be good, but there’s a danger

to them if you’re nạve You have to make sure that the career you’re majoring for will pay off There have actually been graduates with debt in the hundreds of thousands but their degrees (mostly in liberal arts) only qualify them for jobs that earn less than $50k a year

The rates of a private loan are around 19% if you have no credit history Compare that with the fixed rate of 6.8% for federal loans And the rates aren’t even disclosed before the student submits an

application13 Thus comparison shopping becomes difficult and time-consuming

http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans - If you graduate, can’t find work, but still have to pay back a loan,

go here to get a deferment (you don’t have to make payments and the government may cover the interest during a set period of time) If you don’t qualify, ask about forbearance, which lets you stop paying temporarily (but interest still accrues) There’s also a list of steps you must take if your loan is in default

The bottom line is that if you default on a mortgage, you can give back the house If you default on a student loan, you can’t give back your degree

Financial Trap #2: Credit Cards

When I first got into college, I felt like a little baby seal stuck on a melting ice berg surrounded by great white sharks There were so many sharks mailing me letters, calling my cell phone (no idea how they got

my number) and clogging up my email box, wanting me to sign up for credit cards And they were more aggressive than any sales person I’ve ever seen “Come get your credit card You don’t even need a job!” Nowadays, there is legislation that keeps these sharks off campuses, but they’ve made a fortune preying

on vulnerable youngsters and are finding new ways to get to their little baby seal victims everyday

The overwhelming temptation to get a credit card is understandable They’re convenient They’re a good thing to have in case of emergencies And they’re seemingly indispensable You’ll hear all this from the same sharks that make the $5,000 credit limit sound like they’re giving you $5,000 for free

Whenever something seems too good to be true, it often is While they push the positives, there are negatives they don’t tell you about

Universal Default Penalties: Half of people with these cards don’t even know what those are Lenders

and credit card companies make their money on people’s failures When you sign up for one of these, you’re putting a target on your back because the company will keep a keen eye on your timeliness If you have more than one credit card (which is suicide), and you’re late on a payment with one of them, the interest rates on both of them will go up because the company of the one that you paid for on time will have reason not to trust you

MOMENTARY TANGENT:

Speaking of suicide, if I were ever to commit it, I’d sign up for a whole bunch of credit cards, max them out visiting every awesome theme park in the world, then leave a suicide note citing financial trouble as the cause Then my family could sew the credit card companies for emotional damage I’d be laughing

my ecto-plasmic ass off!

Interest rates are often hidden: One of the tricky things these predators do is heavily boast about their

low introductory rates It seems like a bargain, but the problem is that over a period of usage, the rates

go up astronomically without cause And the reason why was hidden in the microscopic fine print that you may not have read Most rates are even tied to the prime rate, which is one that can rise suddenly

Grace periods are more like grace minutes: A grace period is the window of time between the initial

charge and the moment interest is incurred on the charge Supposedly, it’s 25 days But for some cards, the time period is shorter And some transactions don’t have grace periods, like cash advances and balance transfers

Balance transfer fees and inactivity charges: These two are exactly what they sound like, very bad jokes

they play on you

“Bait-and-switch” offers: Once you have one card, other companies will send you crap in the mail,

advertising low interest, and even if you’re not approved, you’ll be issued another And that’s the trick It’s written in microscopic print So you sign up and switch, but the card you thought you signed up for, you weren’t approved for, and you don’t get it Instead you get another one with higher interest By the time the damn thing arrives, they hope you’ve forgotten what rate you were getting into And most times people do Until that first bill arrives

Two-cycle billings: Most companies will compute your interest and charges monthly, but some do it

bi-monthly The latter figures your charges by averaging your daily balance over the last two billing cycles Never apply for these cards

“MY PARENTS TOLD ME THIS ALREADY! THEY WOULDN’T LET ME GET A CREDIT CARD! WHY WOULD

ANYONE WANT THESE LITTLE WALLET TERMITES?”

Two reasons: one is instant gratification and the other is that it is a good way to build up credit But only

if you do it right One last thing, credit cards from stores like Sears, JC Penny, Home Depot, Lowes, or other department stores are the absolute worst Don’t ever get those

NerdWallet.com – When you are ready to get one and want to be sure you’re not getting conned, this website compares credit card rates and rewards to find the perfect card to fit your personal or business needs And using this site is free

Financial Trap #3: Early Marriage

It’s important to know the fiscal situation of the person you’re marrying I don’t mean just bad credit spouses or gold diggers But marrying early in general could be a financial disaster for you as well

By marrying early, I’m talking about under the age of 25, because 25’s when everyone is likely to be all done with college and set on their chosen career

They’re happy, aren’t they?

Let’s look at the emotional aspect of this first Psychotherapist Tina B Tessina believes that romance has been blown out of proportion “Many college students’ brains haven’t finished maturing yet,” she explains “Unfortunately, many couples part because they feel as though they’ve grown apart.” The spouses might even start to say to each other “You’re not the person I married anymore.” This happens because the reasons you fell for them in the beginning (intelligence, sense of humor, sexiness) don’t measure up to trash not being taken out or a stack of dirty dishes And anything to do with physical attraction doesn’t last for long

Problems you didn’t expect arise from nowhere Household responsibilities, missing out on the fun of being young, sacrificing educational endeavors, and then not being able to get good jobs because of that limited education will certainly spark fights And don’t even think about kids

Now for the financial effects of early marriage, it follows a cycle similar to this:

Step 1: The couple marries and moves in together

Step 2: The combination of all their stuff creates a scarcity of space

Step 3: Couple decides a bigger place is needed

Step 4: Couple takes out a mortgage on a house

Step 5: More space means they need more stuff to fill the emptiness So they buy more furniture on

credit cards

Step 6: Couple starts reproducing

Step 7: They finance a minivan

Step 8: They end up struggling for the rest of their lives with all the bills and stashing savings away for

their children’s college fund and end up with nothing in retirement

This is how their bank accounts go from green to red They move in together in a one bedroom

apartment, think that two can live as cheaply as one because there are two incomes paying for a one bedroom unit But the couple either has the dilemma of cramming all of their possessions into a tiny unit and realizes the need a bigger place, or they have too much space (which rarely happens) and they

go out and buy more stuff on their credit cards

Once they realize they have too little space, they decide to look for a house Perhaps they’ve moved up

in their careers and are making more Maybe they’ve even paid off most of their debt So they take out a mortgage and buy a house Now they have the problem of too much space again and buy more stuff on their credit cards, because you have to furnish a home They may even decide to have kids They start reproducing, but they realize that their sedan or sports car isn’t big enough to carry them all They finance a minivan

Now they are in the rat race They’ve bought two liabilities (a house and a car) thinking they’re assets Combining the mortgage, car payments, credit cards, electricity bills, water bills, maintenance (perhaps

the only house they could afford was a money pit) and possibly left over student loans, they barely have enough to save for their children’s college, let alone for themselves

This is why the right age is often estimated to be 25 Early marriage is a key predictor of later divorce Nearly half of people who marry under that end up divorced It’s only 24 percent for people who marry after age 25 Figures released last year from the National Center for Health Statistics found nearly half of marriages in which the bride is under 25 ends in separation or divorce within 10 years For brides 25 and older, half as many marriages break up

And I don’t think I even need to go into what a financial mess divorce can be

MOMENTARY TANGENT:

I’m not saying don’t ever get married or go on dates (even expensive ones) But while we’re on the subject of couples, I suppose I could show you a few ways couples can save money together After all, a financial mistake when you’re single doesn’t hurt anyone but you However, when you’re married or seriously dating, it hurts others can cause more problems than just money problems And if you’ve

started a family already, there’s more complications with that

1 You can have fun without spending money, can’t you? Spending money on your significant

other seems like a requisite in today’s culture You may exchange little gifts back and forth, or constantly eating out and seeing movies How about instead of going out and spending, you stay

in, cook a meal together and watch TV? Maybe play some board games or video games, because

I don’t think you bought them just to collect dust on a shelf Feeling cooped up and need to get out of the house? Take a bike ride to the park or go to a community pool Check out events that are going on in your local community Churches are always having events like potlucks and Barbeques and some apartment complexes do movie nights

2 Be honest with each other That probably goes without saying when it comes to relationships,

but when it concerns money, there may be something that you absolutely love to do, a hobby or interest, and costs a little bit This becomes a problem with your other if you weren’t up front about it from the beginning If you’re honest about this hobby or habit that costs a bit and you can’t give it up, you will avoid bigger problems down the road

3 Agree on a Budget Remember the analogy on how your life is like a business with revenues and

expenses? Well a marriage or a serious relationship is like two businesses merging together and forming a partnership When businesses merge, they work very closely together on a budget

We go into greater detail on budgeting later on

4 Keep gifts reasonable Does she really need a Godzilla-sized teddy bear on Valentine’s Day? It’s

probably just going to get stuffed into a corner or closet a week later Does she really need to buy him a gift at all? There’s one gift all men like from women that’s free, if you know what I mean

5 Screw the Jones’ One of the worst things you can do is try to keep up with the Joneses’ While

they may appear to be happy with their little gadgets and awesome toys, the truth behind the showing off is that the Joneses’ are going broke Believe me, I know because I am a Jones

MOMENTARY TANGENT:

“Keeping up with the Joneses” is one expression I was confused by during my childhood and adolescence Because I’m a Jones, and my family was cheap We used to water the lawn with the suds

water in the sink after washing the dishes

6 Understand that your debt hurts you both In a marriage, when you go into debt and your

credit score starts to slip, it also hurts your spouse’s credit score too, especially if you have them

as an “Authorized User” of your account

7 Keep separate checking accounts Opening up a joint-checking account together sounds like the

ultimate gesture of trust and so romantic Watch the movie Original Sin and see where this can all go wrong I’m not saying never have one It might be a good idea to have a joint account that you both use to pay the bills and each contribute to But it’s also a good idea for the both of you

to keep separate ones for yourself so that you have the freedom to purchase some small items for yourself without dipping into each other’s money

8 Can you afford to start a family? The financial impact of a child is far greater than just another

mouth to feed You have to take into consideration if she will be able to take paid-maternity leave and if not, can she afford the time off to give birth? Will one of you have to quit working to stay home and raise the kids? Then there’s the cost of clothing, school, insurance and don’t forget the demolition crew a kid can be

Financial Trap #4: Diversifying*

“BUT EVERY FINANCIAL ADVISOR TELLS YOU TO DIVERSIFY! ARE THEY ALL LYING?”

Did you notice the asterisk right next to the word? The question isn’t “are financial planners lying to you”, the question is “are you really diversified?” You buy a thing called a mutual fund, which your broker says is well diversified And that’s a bad joke

Even though I’m saying you’re better off staying away from mutual funds all together, it’s important to know what one is in order to avoid things similar A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment that’s diversified in paper assets It works like this, you give about 5 to 10 thousand dollars to a

professional investor, and they put it work in a variety of different investments like stocks, bonds, and money markets and they manage it as well as they possibly can to keep the fund healthy and earning something in return The idea sounds great You may not know what stocks or bonds to pick, so you hire someone else to do that for you But the problem is that if that someone else wasn’t making a killing in doing it, they wouldn’t be doing it And the killing they make is at your expense

MOMENTARY TANGENT:

You buy these mutual funds from a broker A more appropriate name for them would be Joker They

care as much about your money as the Joker cared about the mob’s money in The Dark Knight

“Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” they often say When a broker or manager tells you to

diversify, it’s because they don’t know which investments will be successful and which ones to pick It’s a security measure they take Diversifying is nothing more than admitting ignorance and playing it safe They tell you it’s safe because if one stock goes down, you’re invested in another that could go up and balance out

But what about a full system crash? Your 401(k) is invested all in paper assets That’s not really

diversifying And legendary investor Warren Buffet does not diversify He says that “Diversificiation is a protection against ingnorance It makes very little sense for those who know what they are doing.”

Did you know that there are more mutual funds than stocks? So investing in multiple mutual funds is investing a lot in the same stocks, so if one goes bad, that hurts all the mutual funds Consider this analogy: investing in multiple mutual funds could be just like drinking a variety of drinks that all contain alcohol Too much of that and you know what happens

Each vehicle you invest in must be different on both the inside and outside (by that I mean it must be in

a different asset class) The vast majority of financial planners sell only paper assets because that’s all they’re licensed to sell you They don’t sell Real Estate, businesses or commodities So it’s not true diversification

The great thing about stocks and paper assets in general is that they are all very high in liquidity So why would you ever want to invest for the long term? High liquidity also means high volatility, which makes things risky Liquidity and volatility are tied together because when something is so easy to buy and sell that anyone can do it, then anyone and almost anything can influence the price There are 3 problems with investments in volatile markets, like the stock market:

1 The wider the swings in an investment's price, the harder it is emotionally to not worry,

2 When certain cash flows from selling a security are needed at a specific future date, higher volatility means a greater chance of falling short, and

3 Higher volatility of returns while saving for retirement results in greater chances of the

investment’s final value disintegrating

FINANCIAL JARGON TRANSLATED:

Liquidity- the ability to sell an investment quickly and convert it to cash Your savings account has high

liquidity Real Estate however is not so liquid because it takes time to get money out of it and sell

Volatility- a measure for variation of the price of a financial instrument over time In a volatile market,

prices go up and down dramatically, making the charts look crazy

The reason so many people think the stock market is risky is because they do as their financial planner tells them to do¬: invest for the long term By doing that, you expose yourself to more volatility than you would by investing for the short term with focus While investing for the long term, you are at the mercy

of this:

How can you predict and plan your way in and out of this?

This is why I say that the 401(k) is the gun used in the mugging of America Financial planners tell you to stash away 15% of your income into it That 15% can be quite a lot and when combined with your other expenses, such as necessities and bills for the cost of living, you’re not left with much

It’s almost as if you spend your whole working life poor for the promise of being well off in retirement But your 15% of earnings is exposed to the volatility of the stock market for 40 years There are going to

be many crashes and downturns in those years, thus your savings could be easily wiped out Even if there is a substantial amount left when retirement time comes, it is taxed as earned or active income, which is a high rate What are you left with? Social Security? If you’re my age, you can forget about it

New Rule for Riches #4:

Don’t diversify Instead, focus

The people getting rich today did not get rich by investing in mutual funds and by being well-diversified

in paper assets Stocks, bonds and mutual funds are vehicles for preserving wealth, not for creating wealth Instead, the people getting rich today focused on things they knew that could make money from, like eBooks and info-products, monetized blogs and affiliate marketing

Financial Trap #5: Saving

This final trap that I write of will probably anger many But saving in today’s world with today’s money is losing in the long term You know the rationale behind saving, that it’s best to prepare for a rainy day There are two problems with that kind of thinking First, if you prepare for rainy days, guess what you’ll have a lot of? Rainy days Second, the Federal Reserve Bank is out to get you, sort of

If you are familiar with economics, you know that the Federal Reserve Bank, aka the Fed, is the

institution that controls the money supply They are the ones that print the physical dollar bills on cotton and pass it out to the banks which then pass it out to businesses, home buyers, and perhaps even you in the form of loans The problem this creates for you if you’re a saver is that the value of your money is going down As the Fed prints more and more dollar bills, the purchasing power of the dollar bill goes down, provided that the economy hasn’t expanded enough to absorb those new dollar bills

They measure the expansion of the economy through the M1, M2, and M3 counts If this sounds like complex financial jargon, making no sense to you, don’t worry This will all be explained and illustrated

in vivid detail for you But remember, when new money is printed and the economy hasn’t expanded enough to absorb it, what we have is inflation, and inflation is what turns savers into losers

Figuratively, this is what inflation does to your savings

Your bank doesn’t pay you very generously in interest on your savings At best, you can get about 2.5% And you can take this fact to the bank with you, no savings account interest rate will ever be higher than

the rate of inflation Furthermore, you’ll have to pay taxes on whatever money you make in interest on your savings Here is one of the many areas where the government really screws you

The people getting rich today are not doing it by saving either!

so they have found ways to turn savers into suckers I’ve listed them here:

Free-falling The “for Free” thing is one good trap I don’t mean legitimate promos like Ben & Jerry’s free

cone day on April 12 I mean things like buy-one-get-one-free deals or “free shipping with a $100

purchase.” These are just tricky gimmicks they use to get us to spend more than we should When something is free, we falsely assume that there is no downside It’s a dirty trick on your mind

Bulk-crap It’s conventional wisdom that buying in bulk is cheaper The cost per-unit of an item at Sam’s

Club or Costco isn’t marked up as high as it is at the grocery store Here’s the catch, though Let’s say you’re buying food in bulk, with more food around you, you’ll tend to overeat Just like the financial thermostat analogy, there’s one when it comes to food You’ll adjust to eat however much is in your fridge The reason these stores exist is to serve the convenience store owners who will then mark up the price and charge you The same goes for coupons Yeah, their often not a problem, but you could end up with too much of something And don’t drive out of your way to use one 50% off of something may not

be worth driving 15 miles, burning up gas

Warranty rip-off When it comes to electronics, retail stores don’t make very much money from them,

because in order to compete with online retailers, the prices have been greatly reduced The big

retailers make their big money on warranties, service plans, and other protections And the profit from those plans can reach at least 50%, largely because the consumer has little chance to make a claim on them Andrew Eisner of Retrevo.com says “Electronics tend to fail either in the first 30 days or not at all.” And the first 30 days is covered by the manufacturer’s warranty So there’s really no need for extra protection from the retailer However if you want extended protection, go through the manufacturer

directly They give you 30 days from the purchase date to buy extended coverage that you can actually make a claim on

New Rule for Riches #5:

Don’t save your money Leverage your money

Leverage simply means to do more with less, but not by being cheap Remember Jesus’ parable of the talents? That was leveraging money Leveraging money is taking $100 and turning it into $150 A good idea that almost anyone can do is become a lender

BEAR IN MIND:

Don’t be stupid though! DO NOT just give your money out to anyone Have you ever taken out a payday advance from places like AMSCOT? Do everything that they do Use contracts and get as much personal information from the borrower as possible, as well as ID For large sums, you might want to get

collateral too

In the UK, there’s a peer-to-peer lending network website, Zopa, that has this set up already For the US, there currently isn’t one that I’m 100% sure about I’m not saying that peer-to-peer lending is bad, I just don’t trust it yet The default rates on the loans are still high and there’s hardly any recourse that can take place In February 2007, 45% of the loans went bad23 But this eBay style approach to lending, I do believe, will be the way of the future as trust in banks is eroding The market simply hasn’t adjusted to this new fad, so I suggest staying away for now It’s better to make loans in person and get collateral

This is a way you can legally print your own money like the Fed The difference is you’re figuratively printing, and actually backing it up with something if you get collateral

Debunking Every Myth You Ever Heard About Money

“Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred,” – Gordon Gecko from the Movie Wall Street

This statement spread the common myth that “when the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.” If you believe that, you believe that creating wealth causes poverty By that logic, you would also have to believe that shining a flashlight spreads darkness, and you’re an imbecile Money is not a finite resource anymore than man’s ability to work, invent new things, and come up with new ideas Ever since we left the gold standard in 1971, money has just become a certificate for something of value, an I-O-U Is there

a limit to the amount of value in the world? Do we need to gather up all the value on the planet, make it into one big pie and slice it up for everyone proportionately? Even if we could, that would just make us all equally miserable

Why is it that when a third world country becomes a first world country, a first world country does not become a third world one? When the United States (or Singapore is a better example) gets richer, the poor nations now have someone they can borrow from and catch up on their economic development When one gets rich, it helps everyone

Do I even need to mention that millions of new dollar bills are printed every day? There is no set amount

of money in the world

That is just one of the popular beliefs about money out there these days There are many others that are totally wrong The following are the most widely held beliefs about money and all of them are false:

MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL! If you are a religious person, you’ve probably heard this But the

actual phrase is “the love of money is the root of all evil.” The problem with this is that money is merely

a means to a result, whereas evil itself is a result Money is neither good nor evil It only is what you do with it Cars kill a lot of people, but in the end the car is not responsible, only the person driving it Money is also the root of all charity No church, charity, or hospital could exist without money

MOST RICH PEOPLE PROBABLY DID SOMETHING BAD OR DISHONEST TO GET RICH! If being bad or

deceitful was all that it required to get rich, wouldn’t most people be rich? Because we all know how to

be bad and deceitful This belief is widely held because of media Most rich people on TV and in movies are portrayed as evil, but the reason why that is isn’t because that’s true to life It’s just a more exciting story when the villain has a greater advantage over the hero and money is one hell of an advantage But the only good guy I can think of on TV that was rich was Bruce Wayne/Batman

GETTING RICH TAKES TOO MUCH WORK AND STRUGGLE! Whoever says this obviously hasn’t heard of

passive income The paycheck you get from your job is earned income because you have to work for that But passive income is money that you do little work for or none at all It just keeps coming in each

month All you do is collect And best of all, while earned income is taxed up to 50%, passive income is barely taxed, if at all Later on, I will show you examples of passive income anyone can have

HAVING MONEY REQUIRES TOO MUCH RESPONSIBILITY! While it is true that one must be responsible

and disciplined to manage wealth, it requires less responsibility than that of working a job just to get by The employee’s lifestyle of showing up on time, meeting appearance standards, obeying rules to the letter, and meeting their deadlines for their bills requires more responsibility than simply sitting down with an accountant to manage wealth Is the weight of responsibility and stress not greater when living paycheck to paycheck?

GETTING RICH IS A MATTER OF LUCK OR FATE! If that were true, how was Donald Trump able to get

back to being a billionaire after being nearly one billion in debt? In order for him to recover, there must

be a science to wealth He must have known something that lottery winners gone bankrupt didn’t know We’re conditioned to think this way because the rich are called fortunate and the poor are called unfortunate I say it’s not a matter of fortune, but formula I will show you the formula

TO BE RICH, YOU HAVE TO USE PEOPLE AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM! A lot of the rich are

business owners and entrepreneurs In order to succeed in business, you have to create a good or service that people voluntarily want to buy Consumer purchases are not forced Katy Perry gets a lot of

my money She doesn’t steal it I give it to her willingly, because she puts out music I want to hear (actually, music videos that I want to look at and the songs just end up catching onto me) So she’s in a way, obeying the golden rule; do unto others as you’d have them do unto you In order to be rich, you must obey this rule

IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF MONEY, THAT MEANS SOMEONE ELSE IS GOING TO HAVE LESS I think I

debunked this one earlier, but this is the most common lie spun from complete ignorance of the

monetary system, so it bears repeating Everyone has the wrong idea that there is only a finite amount

of money in the world, like a pie chart that you can only have a piece of But the reality is that it’s not a pie chart, it’s a pie factory! How can you assume that the wealth of some causes the poverty of others? Does the health of some cause the illness of others, or the intelligence of some create the ignorance of others? Did Steve Jobs and his crew get rich by stealing iPad’s from homeless people? Hell no! They’re printing more and more money every day The question is, are you creating or producing something equivalent in value to earn some of that new money printed every day?

HAVING EXCESS MONEY MEANS YOU’RE GREEDY The idea of greed is quite unique because it seems

only to apply to money matters Look at it from this perspective, is the scholar not greedy for

knowledge? Is the athlete not greedy for victory? Is the body builder not greedy for muscle? Or the hopeless romantic, are they not greedy for love? All of these things can be used for good or bad And after debunking the last myth, you know that you’re not taking away from others

MONEY CAN CAUSE A LOT OF PROBLEMS Only if you mismanage it In The Recession Survival Guide, I

will show you how to best manage it Once you can do that, money can solve a lot of problems Besides, doesn’t having little or no money cause a lot more problems?

IT TAKES MONEY TO MAKE MONEY This one is kind of true You can’t make money in stocks without

putting up money to invest You can’t start a business without capital In order to make big money, you

do have to put money down But not big money down The fact of the matter is that money is just an idea and ideas alone can be sold for money I’ve once saw an investor make $10,000 in one day with just

a piece of paper, a contract This trick he pulled is called Wholesaling Real Estate

YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE MORE THAN YOU NEED Your parents probably taught you this; that you

should never want more than you need Ironically, didn’t they always tell you to eat up and finish your plate because other kids were starving in Japan? Chances are you probably have way more than you need right now Do you really need all the clothes you have, all the channels on your TV? All the

furniture you own? Ladies, do you really need all the shoes you own? Gentlemen, do you really need season tickets? Furthermore, living on minimal means hurts the economy whereas going all out helps it expand, creating more jobs for people

IT’S DIFFICULT TO GET RICH IN A BAD ECONOMY This one is perpetuated by the fact that employees

are less likely to get a raise in a bad economy But an employee never gets rich as an employee Most think it’s risky to start a business in a recession But the only reason you should ever start a business is in you can fill a need or solve a problem because otherwise the business won’t last Which economy do you think has more problems and needs, a good one or a bad one? In a bad economy, there are more problems and needs which equals more opportunities

MONEY IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS LOVE, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS How can you make such a

comparison? It’s like asking what’s more important, your lungs or your heart? While they both serve different purposes, they’re both important!

MOMENTARY TANGENT:

An example of how counterproductive it is to think that money is not important: if you told your wife or husband, boyfriend or girlfriend that they were not that important, would they stay with you? No!

Neither will money If it’s not important to you, why would you have any?

YOU HAVE TO BE VERY, VERY SMART TO GET RICH Many rich people dropped out of college, high

school, or never even went I could write a very long list here for you, but I think it’s all summed up best

by this one fact: Sidney Weinburg, the managing partner of Goldman Sachs, also known as Mr Wall Street, dropped out of the 7th grade

MONEY CORRUPTS ARTISTIC ENDEAVORS Can these endeavors be achieved without money? Probably

not Canvases and paint cost money The movie industry spends obscene amounts of cash to make the pictures Thus money aides them

IT’S NOT RIGHT FOR YOU TO BE RICH WHEN OTHERS HAVE NOTHING How does you having nothing

help them? Wouldn’t it be better to get some and share?

MOST INVESTMENTS ARE RISKY Some investments are risky But for the most part, that’s just

something investment brokers tell you so that you’ll buy their investment Very few brokers even invest themselves, and rarely in the same product they sell They simply live on commission But most of these investments like mutual funds, bonds, money markets, and certificates of deposit which yield about a 3% return are a con The fund manager takes your money, puts it in an investment with a 10% return and takes more than half of it for himself Wouldn’t it be better to just know how to do it yourself? If risks made people rich, we’d all go to Vegas, not Wall Street

MONEY CAN’T BUY PEACE OF MIND! This is widely believed and was embodied in a story that was

spread around to millions through email forwarding about a decade ago The story goes like this:

Happy Feel-Good Story Time!

An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked Inside the small boat were several large tuna The banker complimented the Mexican

on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them The Mexican replied, “Only a little while.” The banker then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs

The banker then asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?” The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, play with my children, have sex with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos I have a full and busy life.”

The investor scoffed, “I am an Ivy League MBA and could help you You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats “ The investor continued, “And instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would then sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own fish market!”

The Fisherman asked, “How long will this all take?” To which the banker replied, “Perhaps 15 to 20 years.” “But what then?” asked the Mexican The banker laughed and said, “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich You would make millions!” “Millions Okay, then what?” wondered the Mexican To which the investment banker replied,

“Then you would retire You could move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, play with your kids, have sex with your wife, and stroll to the village where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”

******

That story makes it sound like money doesn’t matter at all If only that were true If only everything else

in life would remain constant and the only expense you’d ever have was providing food for yourself and your family But what about unexpected expenses? Like sickness? Or tooth aches? Doctors and dentists don’t work for free How are they going to be able to enjoy their life of material nothingness when they have an agonizing ache in the mouth or blood clots in their legs? Also, he only caught enough to feed his family Where does the family stay? Cause wherever it is, it must require paying rent or a mortgage

They stay in a straw hut that the fisherman built from scratch and don’t have any health concerns like

diseases from bugs that could crawl in Yeah, right!

There’s no such thing as the “simple life” for poor people because you’ll always be worrying about how you’ll pay the bills This is what living paycheck to paycheck is really like You look at all your expenses like food, gas, phone, water, electricity and rent and wonder which one you can be late on without them cutting you off or kicking you out And then you have to think about what you can survive without Where’s the peace of mind in that?

If you make just enough money to cover your current monthly expenses and not a cent more, what happens when your car breaks down? How do you have peace of mind when you have to pray after each time you buckle your seatbelt and turn the key in the ignition?

Isn’t there peace of mind in knowing that if you lose your job, you have resources to fall back on? Imagine the peace of mind that comes with not needing a job, being unemployed by choice because you don’t need employment

THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE! There’s been this saying that money can’t buy the simple pleasures

in life So what exactly are those simple pleasures? A good night’s sleep? A fun time out with your friends? Or true love? Let’s look at all of them

Starting with sleep, while the activity itself is free, in which scenario will you rest easier?

Scenario 1: Bills have not been paid, nor have you made enough money yet to pay them Your food

supply is running low Your car is old and could go out on you at any time And your house is in a poor

neighborhood with just a mere lock on the front door Anyone could break in to steal from you or do worse

Scenario 2: Your bills are all paid on time and you have enough money to pay them 6 months in

advance Your fridge is filled, so much that you donate some food to the soup kitchen each week Your car is new and under warranty and your house has locks, alarms and a guard dog, plus all of your

valuables are in a safe

Why, scenario 2 of course! How could you sleep in such a state of both financial and physical insecurity laid out in scenario 1?

A WISE MAN ONCE SAID:

“It is better to go to bed sleepless than to rise in debt.” –Benjamin Franklin

Also, the quality of your life largely depends on how well you sleep Not getting good quality sleep can make you very irritable and grumpy Which bed do you think you’ll get better sleep on: a cheap old mattress where the springs are sticking right into you, or a tempurpedic?

If this girl came with it, I’m not sure I’d sleep at all

Sure you can sleep on anything when you’re young, even on the floor But when you get old and starting dealing with chronic back problems, a comfy bed is the difference between a painful, miserable morning and a delightfully chipper morning

Now onto spending time with your friends Sure, that doesn’t cost money, providing they live in close proximity to you Let’s say your BFF has to move across the state because of a job offer Now all the sudden, seeing them costs you $50 in gas and you better hope nothing happens to your car on the way over there like a flat tire Then there’s also the matter of getting time off from work, and making sure the both of you can get the same time off

The same goes for true love Are you very compatible with many members of the opposite sex living within close proximity to you? Dating websites claim they can match you up with someone absolutely

perfect for you But what happens when that perfect someone turns out to be miles and miles away from you?

Imagine two people who met online and are totally in love with each other after various video chat sessions The woman decides to move in with him, but that means moving to a state where she knows

no one but him and has no job He better have some damn money to support her! Sure, money doesn’t make someone feel they’re in love with you Sure it brings you gold diggers Sure, it causes a lot of divorce But the lack of money can certainly prevent true lovers perfect for each other from getting together

You wouldn’t be able to do this if these two pages were in different parts of the book, just like two

lovers in different parts of the world

There are many movies and songs that tell you money doesn’t matter But you have to understand that they were written by people with money for other people with money to remind them that money won’t solve all of their problems But it still matters

All of those bold statements are just that, statements Nothing more They only have the power you give them They’re only true if you believe them to be Need an equation to settle this?

Consider the following:

This is the process of manifestation What you think about dictates how you feel As emotional

creatures, the way we feel most often dictates how we behave which ultimately dictates the

circumstances you find yourself in The physical reality we exist in is like a giant hologram that is

constantly reflecting and supporting the being you believe yourself to be If you believe that life happens

to you, that you’re problems are bigger than you, and that you’ll never be rich, you’re right If you believed any of the red statements to be true, then true they are, at least for you If those statements mirror your thoughts about money, then they will influence your feelings toward it, which will

manipulate your actions involving it and in the end, determine your results and situation when it comes

to money

A WISE MAN ONCE SAID:

“Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.” –Henry Ford

In order to change your relationship with money, you must change your mind when it comes to how you think of it You can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it Some things to remember when analyzing your thoughts:

1 Nothing has any meaning at all except for the meaning you give it

2 Don’t believe a thought you have It’s only a thought, not a fact Scrutinize the hell out of it

Your minds primary function isn’t to make you happy, healthy or rich; it’s only there to protect you and keep you comfy Therefore, you’re going to have to do some fighting with it

Money is Not a Physical or Tangible Thing

The first and most important thing you must come to understand is that money, while it may be the lifeblood of your lifestyle and ability to function, it’s really nothing more than a concept or a simple idea One thing I pondered on for a long time: what exactly is it that makes money valuable, anyway?

Prior to 1971, money was a certificate for precious metals like gold and silver You could take you money

to the bank at any time and trade it in for gold and silver This is known as the gold standard But in

1971, President Richard Nixon took us off of the gold standard Today, dollar bills, Euros and currencies

of every sort are practically backed by almost nothing So why are they valuable? Because they are certificates of exchange or trade They are IOUs

Originally, before there was money of any sort, the first system of trade was barter Barter is a very simple system: trading a product or service for another product or service If a blacksmith wanted a cow, he’d make something in his shop for the farmer who owned the cow and they made the trade

Obviously, this system has very tight constrictions So as people evolved with wanting and needing different things, money evolved along with them

To increase economic freedom, people mutually agreed that certain tangible items were of value to all Among these items were food, cattle, colored gems, goats, gold and silver Rather than the blacksmith making something in his shop for the farmer, he merely had to give the farmer silver coins for the cow, thereby speeding up the process of exchange Then people came across a new problem What happens when these circulated items become scarce in certain regions?

MOMENTARY TANGENT:

In Ancient Rome, soldiers were often paid in sacks of salt The Latin word for salt is sal, which is the root

of the word salary

That was when certificates were made, which are like what dollar bills are today The wealthy held the bulk of the gold and silver Since they didn’t want to constantly carry that around with them all the time and make themselves a target for theives, they’d leave it with someone they trusted, who’d write them

a certificate or receipt that they could use for exchanges This was the start of banking It started out

simple and was very convenient for all in speeding up the process of business Then the process got complicated when fractional reserve banking hit the scene

FINANCIAL JARGON TRANSLATED:

Fractional Reserve Banking – a form of banking where the bank maintains reserves that are only a

fraction of the customer’s deposits Funds deposited into a bank are mostly lent out, and a bank keeps

only a fraction of the quantity of deposits as reserves

This is how banks “print” new money As you can see, $100 can become $171

Bank vaults then were filled up with commodities that ended up never being used Why carry around heavy bars of gold when you could carry around light pieces of paper that were just as good? Banks decided that if people only needed the receipts, why not just issue receipts alone without taking in cattle, goats, and gold? That was the birth of lending A bank would loan out money by printing more receipts, though there was nothing to back them The loaned money would be paid back to the bank by interest accrued payments, which they thought was sufficient backing for the newly printed money

economy wouldn’t be able to continue

Today, the way a bank “prints” even more money is through credit cards I put quotation marks around

“prints” because it’s not really printing A lot of the money supply is digital and stored in computers When you charge say $100 on your credit card, that $100 doesn’t come from your bank account or anywhere That $100 is literally created right there when the charge is made and added to the economy