Why You Must Learn Investing and Personal Finance?
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Everyone Needs to Learn Investing and Personal Finance?
In schools, we are taught on many subjects, ranging from the Sciences to Mathematics to Arts and Humanities. I believe the aim of these subjects is to equip us with skills that will assist us in our future life as we graduate from schools. It might be qualifying for a job; an accountant would need to be educated in accountancy while an engineering degree is almost certainly required for industrial jobs.
However, there is a necessary skill that the schools didn’t teach us. This skill is necessary because EVERYONE needs it regardless of your job, gender, race or interest. Yes, you need to learn this even if you don’t like it.
And that skill is the Knowledge of Investing and Personal Finance.
Why is Investing and Personal Finance a Must?
We learned so much “non-essential” stuff
In other fields of knowledge, while it is important to be acquainted with (with the possibility of sparking an interest), it is seldom important to understand deeply. For example, while Geography allows us to understand the inner workings of nature, it is most certainly not a necessity in our daily life. Even for Social Sciences such as Economics; while it explains the phenomenon of our society (perhaps making a good conversation starter), you can probably survive without it. Just ask a simple question such as “What are pros and cons of Inflation?”, and you will most likely find most people (other than the real economists among us) are unable to answer it satisfactorily. However, we could still lead our life properly without much difficulties.
Yet, the story couldn’t be more different for Investing and Personal Finance.
From getting your very first paycheck, you are already required to carry out decisions that involve personal finance and investing. Decisions such as:
- What should I do with my salary?
- How much of my salary should I spend? What’s my budget?
- Do I need to buy insurance now? And how much?
- Should I be saving some money? And how much?
- What are the most suitable investments I can make?
- How much should I invest now?
If you have difficulties answering any of the above questions, you may want to read my previous posts to understand better.
The irony of our education is:
While we equip our children with skills to find a job and earn a salary, we fail to equip them with the skill to use that salary well.
Then Why Do You Work?
Somehow, despite not teaching them on investing and personal finance, we expect them to plan their finances well and invest prudently as they step into the society and meet the financial world. It is almost like sitting for an exam without studying for it. This is perhaps why we still have so many “educated” people falling for financial fraud and money scams due to ignorance in investments. This is also why we are still witnessing high-income earners falling into bankruptcy due to mishandling of their finances.
During my course, my first question is often “What’s the main purpose of our job?”. While some will claim that it is for aspirations and interests, everyone will admit that it is also to earn a living. My follow-on question is “Do you intend to work for a living forever?”, and almost everyone will respond something similar to “Of course not! I look forward to retiring one day”. Then, my last question is “So have you started planning for it?”, and the room will often be silent with a tinge of guilt.
The Goal of Investing and Personal Finance
My retirement goal is to spend more time with family
We all look to retiring one day and have our well-earned freedom. To retire, you need to be financially free (no doubt about that!). This means earning a level of passive income that can sustain your desired lifestyle, while no working at all! And in order to achieve that goal, you need the knowledge of Investing and Personal Finance. Unfortunately, many are lacking in it.
However, the saving grace is that it is not too late. You can still learn this knowledge after you have graduated from schools, and most importantly there is no pre-requisite. If you want to learn more about investing and personal finance, just drop me a comment and I will get in touch with you.
See you soon!
Investing Always,
Pete
