I read Barron's regularly and find it a great source to build financial acumen. This week's edition, May 27, 2019, has an excellent article that most should read to foster and grow their financial literacy.
Being financially educated, while often given short shrift in many formal educational programs, is essential to reaching financial freedom. Without it, life can be a constant treadmill trying to stay ahead of the bills! Even very sophisticated and high earning individuals are unfamiliar with or disregard the key building blocks that nurture the successful pursuit of financial freedom.
Just like building physical capabilities, the earlier we start on our financial education, the better chances we have for reaching our financial goals.
I was a judo player for a long time and the way to refine your moves was exactly the same way to get to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice. The result of the constant practice enabled the development of strong habits. While habits can be good or bad, the development of good habits can bring phenomenal results. The same can be done with becoming financially literate.
In the movie, The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise learns the way of the warrior (bushido) while being held captive in a village of Samurai. One of those lessons is conveyed to him by another Samurai. The Samurai calls it "No Mind". This is essentially building habits that become engrained and result in automatic actions. Late in the movie, Cruise is attacked by a cadre of excellent swordsmen. Before he knows it, he makes all the right moves to successful defeat them.
By starting on a journey of financial literacy and developing engrained habits, the automatic responses can be imbedded in actions or “No mind”.
