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Hi Team,

This week I would like to introduce the topic of financial intelligence, which is defined as the skills and knowledge to manage personal finances. This is one of life's most important topics which is largely overlooked by your education or training, but it has the power to change your life.

I became interested in money at a very early age and loved doing jobs around the house and the neighbourhood to earn pocket money. After working my way through university, I really wanted to buy my first house, so in my first year as a teacher I started reading books to find out how to make this dream a reality. The first book that had a huge impact on my financial intelligence was "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki (An all-time classic). The quote below sums up his message,

"The single biggest difference between financial success and financial failure is how well you manage your money. It's simple, to master money you must manage money."  Robert Kiyosaki

Managing your personal finances in today's society is analogous to the title of the 1960's classic spaghetti western film
"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"
 
The Good, is the fact that there has never been a better time to manage your personal finances and with a little knowledge, self-discipline and plenty of time, everyone can become financially independent.
The Bad, is the fact that we live in a consumer economy, where it is almost impossible to avoid "bad personal debt" such as personal loans, car loans, credit card debt or an overdraft. These debt traps are what stop the vast majority of people from having any real savings or investments other than compulsory superannuation.
The Ugly, is the fact that the big banks have been engineering the personal economic system to work against us for decades. Credit card debt is now the number one negative force on personal finances, and I will have a lot more to say about credit cards in future emails. The Royal Commission into Banking Practices is only now exposing the extent of unfair banking practices that have been affecting all of our finances for several generations. 

From my experience, financial intelligence is very straight forward and relatively easy to learn and implement. The best news is that there is no entry barrier or minimum requirement to financial intelligence, but the earlier you learn and start implementing a plan the better. It is important to remember that, it's time and savings that are the biggest factors in growing your wealth, not how much money you earn.

Over the next few weeks I will work through several main topics such as loans and finance, investment strategies, superannuation, taxation etc. There are many good books and podcasts that I will be referring you to as we go through each topic and please sing out if you have any questions or suggestions along the way?

One last closing quote to ponder on,

"How to double your money? Fold it once and put it back in your pocket",  Jim Dodds.

Thanks for reading,
David.