How Financial Literacy is Important in Today’s Difficult Economic Environment

FINANCIAL LITERACY IS THE KEY

Financial literacy is one of your greatest keys to financial success. The more you know, the better you can protect yourself. You can protect your money and your assets, now and long term. No one cares about your finances as you do. A major problem is that most advisors are paid on commission from the money you pay them, so the advice is not always in your favor.

Before you can engage in financial literacy, you must know what that means. That holds true with anything you do. The number of people who come to me with mistakes oftentimes tell me, “I didn’t even know what it meant before I did it”. So, know your definitions, before you get involved

Definition of financial literacy: According to Investopedia, Financial literacy is the ability to understand and use various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing.

There are many aspects to financial literacy. But I will show you a few that can protect you in a difficult economic environment.

First, you must create a mindset of abundance, whether than one of “broke and poverty”. This mindset will be a top protector of your financial power whether times are good or bad. You will always be prepared.

THE CONCEPT OF BROKE AND POVERTY RUNS IN ALL INCOME LEVELS

What causes broke and poverty when times are hard 1. Not understanding investments in real estate for beginners, namely buying your own home the wrong way. 2. Learn how to identify high yield savings accounts best for regular, retirement, and college savings. That is how your money grows. 3. Then, learn the best scams definition and how to stay off scams list.

After the pandemic, the United States economy was devastated. Companies and schools were forced to close which brought much of the economy to a standstill.

Those who understood financial literacy sailed through the economic crises. Why? They understood how to buy big things right, save money and invest savings and retirement far in advance of an economic downturn.

What happens to those who do not understand financial literacy? They buy overpriced homes in poor condition, that are in bad shape and costly over time. They purchase cars they can barely pay for.

They don’t learn to save in even simple accounts, money to them means spending and suffering. Then the big kahuna is learning to invest for savings and retirement. Then, when they do get a lot of money, they get scammed and even get on scams list.

MINDSET OF ABUNDANCE

A mindset of abundance, allows you to believe you deserve to have great finances, including low debt, affordable bills, savings, and investments to back you up. The opposite would be those who feel managing and monitoring finances is useless since they feel that financial abundance will never happen.

If you have a mindset of abundance, you will not stop trying to obtain financial literacy. It is difficult to change the way you think about finances, but a mindset of abundance will enable you to keep moving forward.

HIGH YIELD SAVINGS ACCOUNT BEST FOR LONG TERM GROWTH

Most savers know what a money market account is or a certificate of deposit because you purchase those through your local bank. These are what they use for a high yield savings account.  These accounts will give you a slightly higher return than a passbook account, but there are problems.

One problem is your money is tied up for 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, or more to get the stated interest rate. If you need the money before the due date, there will be a penalty to get your own money. That penalty could destroy all acquired interests and some principal.

A better option for a high yield savings account is a low-cost, low-risk mutual fund. Mutual funds are purchased through major investment banks. All are currently online and easy to use. These funds have been around since 1924 and are used in many corporate retirement accounts.

 Savvy investment individuals also use them for long-term savings accounts. There are low-risk, low-cost mutual funds that deliver large returns over time. They have a slight learning curve, but they are worth it.

A mindset of abundance, allows you to believe you deserve to have great finances

-Lois

USING AN INVESTING GROWTH CALCULATOR WILL ALLOW YOU TO MONITOR PROGRESS

You can calculate the money you will make over time with an investing growth calculator.

You can analyze before you buy with financial calculators, namely an investing growth calculator to increase your returns on everything from homebuying to mutual funds.

An investing growth calculator also known as a savings calculator can be found at Liverichcalculators.com. It is important in your quest for good returns to find out how that works first.

INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE FOR BEGINNERS STARTING WITH THE RIGHT HOME

Investing in real estate for beginners starts with learning how to buy a home the right way. That doesn’t mean finding the home you absolutely love because it is pretty. It starts with finding a home with a price within your budget easily. Then, there should be many ways you verify the home is in good shape. Not just one single home inspector.

One of the biggest problems homeowners have is they never anticipate big problems in the future using financial literacy to buy a home. That includes buying a home with a mortgage that is affordable when times are good or bad. Most who have no financial literacy, only consider good times.

Understanding financial literacy will teach you the right way to buy a home, lower than your income, and extensive inspections with multiple tradesmen.

Investing in rental real estate is very expensive and complicated, so it’s best that investing in real estate for beginners is limited to owner-occupied real estate.

THE BEST SCAMS DEFINITION THAT CAN KEEP YOU SAFE

A major part of financial literacy in today’s economic environment is to learn to keep the money you make out of the hands of scammers. What is a scammer? They come in many ways and forms.

Understand why smart people are losing all their savings to sophisticated scammers. Many of the scammers appear as legitimate and honest businesses. Financial literacy and awareness will keep you suspicious enough to research everything you do and identify potential scammers

The best scams definition that will keep you safe: Be suspicious of all strangers on phone calls, letters, home visits, emails, and even online dating sites. Links in text messages, emails, and websites that appear to come from real companies, or small businesses.

There are many simple signs to look for. Poor email addresses and website names that are similar to legitimate sites, but have added letters, numbers or symbols are suspicious.

A simple click of a text link can retrieve information from your phone, or a click of an email link can lead you to a bad website or retrieve information from your computer.

STAYING OFF SCAMS LIST

At some point, most of us will be contacted by scammers in one form or another. But you won’t be placed on the scams list for suckers if you don’t engage with strangers, who contact you.

Scammers will put you on the scams list when you answer the phone and engage or answer an email because you think they are real people. In most cases, you talk to or have contact with a computer voice first.

Since most contacts do not answer a scam email, phone call, or text, when you do, you are quickly moved to the scams list as a potential victim. From that point forward you will be contacted frequently.

The lies will become more robust to get you to eventually send your information or money. The number of intelligent people who lose money to sophisticated scammers is heartbreaking but directly related to a lack of financial literacy.

SUMMARY OF FINANCIAL LITERACY

There are many things you can do to improve your financial literacy. Understanding financial literacy will protect your finances now and in the future. Start with a mindset of abundance to convince yourself you deserve great finances.

Then learn the high yield savings account that will send you into financial growth. One type of account is a low-cost, low-risk mutual fund. Learn to analyze and monitor your accounts with an investing growth calculator.

Don’t make a mistake with your biggest investment, know that investing in real estate for beginners will put you in a great home.

After, all the hard work, don’t give your money to sophisticated scammers. The best scams definition will keep you off scams list. Know all of them.