What am I referring to? I am referring to how you’re taught and trained to get a job; taught, trained and educated to get a job.

And you’re taught, trained and educated that you can get a better job if you want to make more money and have more of the comforts of life, when in fact there isn’t a job that will ever do it for you. A job, which some people say is an acronym for “just over broke,” is, as a matter of fact, what most people are.

What are we talking about? This: it means being in business for yourself. But not just any business. Many business “owners” simply traded their job for a “pay yourself last” chain around their neck.. That could be worse than a job. You’ve got to get away from trading hours for dollars.

“Oh, this is a good job. It pays $20 an hour.” (Adjust this figure for your own location and time.)

You think so? Hey, on an eight-hour day that’s $160. Now, you can convert that to your own currency, but then by the time you pay 40-50% to the tax person, that ain’t a good job!

And what are you going to do? Are you going to put in a little bit of overtime? How much can you do, and how much do you want to do? You’ve got to think leverage. You’ve got to think multiplication.

What can you do, for instance, like a rock star or an information marketer, just once and have it sell over and over again? What can you create, in the Internet Age of course, that’s digital and when you sell it anywhere in the world, you’ve still got it and you can sell it again?

Think multiplication, think leverage, think like a business owner. Think, what can you leverage?

You can be sure that Henry Ford, had he stayed an employee instead of employing thousands and thousands… You can be sure that Andrew Carnegie, had he stayed an employee instead of employing thousands and thousands… Neither would never have found the leverage and gone on to the great wealth and benefit they brought to the world.

It is no discredit to be an employee if you’re getting educated, getting motivated, determining the insight, creating a strategy to get out of it. Think leverage. Think multiplication. Think, what can you do once-design a system, patent something, copyright something-then have it sell forever or a long time? What can you get other people’s money to do for you?

Think, think, think like a businessperson. Financial literacy comes into the life of every person who achieves success. No, you don’t have to keep the books. No, you don’t have to do all the micro-managing… But you’ve got to be involved. The business depends on the direction and the energy that you give it. That being the case, jump in!

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Lack of financial literacy is one of the reasons given for people getting into money trouble. But that only describes some of the effect of not being financially literate. It does not define what financial literacy is.

Financial Literacy is the skill set you need to deal with money and financial matters in your life.

A literate person is one who can read and comprehend what they are reading. A financially literate person is one who can keep track of their money and make decisions about how they spend it and invest it to accomplish their objectives.

To the average person, financial literacy means knowing how to maintain a simple household budget with a bank account and credit cards. This includes knowing how to save for emergencies, save for special purchases, and save for retirement. Financial literacy also means knowing how to make decisions to spend money wisely. To do all these things, you need to understand some basic math. Actually, you can do all your household planning using only addition, subtraction, and multiplication. If you understand the way compound interest works you will be much more confident in making decisions about getting a loan, or saving money in an interest bearing account.

To some bankers and business owners, financial literacy is their job skill. They need to know a lot more about how money is used in credit situations. They need to understand the terms of financial contracts, and a lot more. They also need to know how to read an income statement and a balance sheet. Understanding complex tax codes and insurance practices also become part of financial literacy at that level. But let’s get back to what financial literacy means for the average person.

Just like you need different financial literacy knowledge for different jobs, you need different financial knowledge at different stages of your life — from childhood to retirement. You probably won’t learn the basics of Social Security benefits until you are ready to collect them, but there are other things to learn earlier in life. Financial literacy education starts when your parents give you your first allowance. It continues with studies in arithmetic and economics in school. There are also some terrific school-related programs like Junior Achievement, Jump$tart Coalition, Money Smart, etc. Some of the programs are sponsored by the Federal Reserve Banks, FDIC, and insurance companies.

One of the problems with teaching financial literacy in school is that different states have differing curriculum requirements. There is no “core curriculum” that is designated as a nationwide requirement for teaching financial literacy. And it’s not just states that differ on this issue. Many communities within a state have their own opinions about how to teach the basics of money in our lives.

Parents need to nudge their children into classes that will teach them the use of math to calculate loan payments and interest earned on savings. They need to make sure their children are being exposed to simulated economies in the classroom where the children can practice making decisions with money (while it is still a game to them).

After graduation from high school, we learn about financial matters as we need to. Those people who study business in college get their basic business financial education there. But the need to learn does not stop-it evolves. As you go through life you will learn many of the finer points about financial matters-as you need them. Among these topics will be balancing a checkbook, the ins-and-outs of credit cards, financing a car, buying a house, educational loans, retirement savings accounts, investments, medical insurance, Social Security, long-term health care, power-of-attorney, wills, etc. There is simply no way you are going to learn all these things in school.

I wouldn’t recommend learning everything about credit from Visa®, or about buying a house from Re-Max®. Those sources may be a big help to you, but they may also be biased in their interpretation of decisions you need to make. Instead, get on the internet and look at www.mymoney.gov. This site is a government sponsored collection of information and links. Mymoney.gov has advice, tools, and resources to answer your financial questions. It also provides timely advice about scams, and pointers for financial decisions that require caution.

Financial Literacy is developed over a lifetime, but it needs to start in school. Schools need community support to encourage the development of robust curricula that include math and financial decision strategies. After students get that basic foundation of knowledge in school, they will be better able to use the pieces of information that will be picked up later in life.

If you’re an adult finding that you need to become more financially literate, check out mymoney.gov. If you need more help than you find there, talk with an officer at your bank. Or ask your community college if they have non-credit courses that might help you with specific areas of need. Don’t feel bashful or ashamed; the best way to find answers is to ask questions.

James W. Stone, has been involved in new product development and marketing for most of his working career. Jim has a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and an MBA. His current interests focus on the psychology and sociology that influence our daily decisions when we spend money.

Much of this is covered in his book “Spend Joyfully!” – http://www.spendjoyfully.com

Read more of Jim’s articles at http://www.jameswstone.com.

Financial literacy is defined as the ability of individuals to make appropriate money decisions by learning the principles that relate to the management, growth and preservation of their money. When people are educated about the appropriate actions to take with their money, then they are more likely to save towards their goals, manage their debt, purchase assets such as a home, and make positive contributions to the economic development of the country.

Anecdotal evidence points to an overwhelming demand from Jamaicans for practical information on or about basic financial strategies such as budgeting, debt control, investing options and retirement and estate planning. Although some financial institutions have been offering public seminars to address some of these issues, their initiatives have been insufficient to meet the country’s requirements.

There is now an urgent need to provide a coordinated national financial literacy programme to adequately disseminate critical information throughout all sectors of the Jamaican society. I often wonder why I learnt so many subjects in school that later proved irrelevant to my life, yet a crucial topic such as money management was never addressed in my primary to tertiary education.

Around the world, financial literacy education is an important focus of governmental agencies involved in finance. Let’s look at some of the programmes that have been developed in some other countries:

FDIC Money Smart Programme

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was established In the United States to preserve and promote public confidence in the financial system by insuring deposits in banks and thrift institutions. In 2001, this independent agency of the US federal government developed a national financial education campaign called Money Smart, to “help individuals outside the financial mainstream develop financial skills and positive banking relationships.”

The FDIC collaborates with financial institutions, non-profit organisations, and community- and consumer-based groups to disseminate financial education using its Money Smart educational material which covers topics such as saving, borrowing, credit card management and home ownership. To date, the agency reports that it has distributed over 750,000 items of Money Smart curricula and has reached over 2.4 million consumers across the world.

NFLP in Trinidad & Tobago

The National Financial Literacy Programme (NFLP), launched in January 2007, is spearheaded by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. According to the NFLP’s website, the purpose of the programme is to develop “a nation of citizens who are conscious about and capable of managing their finances.” The NFLP’s aim is to change people’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviours around money issues, and give them the skills to function in a sophisticated financial environment.

The NFLP carries out primary school interventions and is currently working with their Ministry of Education to incorporate financial literacy in the secondary school curriculum. They have already trained over 200 teachers to impart the financial material in schools. Other initiatives include addressing the needs of persons with disabilities, with documents converted to Braille and sign language in their television advertisements. The NFLP has also developed financial literacy training material relevant to small and micro entrepreneurs.

ECCB’s Financial Literacy Programme

The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has been playing the lead role in promoting financial education in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU). This union comprises seven countries including Antigua & Barbuda, St Lucia, Montserrat and Dominica. According to the ECCB, “educating the public about financial and economic matters is key to supporting the bank’s stability, growth and development objectives.”

The ECCB education initiative includes offering ten-week savings and investment courses teaching topics such as budgeting, understanding loan documents, avoiding financial scams and understanding wills; after-work seminars, a monthly financial newsletter; schools programmes with presentations, competitions and mentorship components; radio programmes; and financial month activities held every year in October.

CARTAC Financially Fit Campaign

The Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC), a regional resource which provides training and assistance in economic management for member countries, is funded by international agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

CARTAC recently launched its financial literacy website http://www.financialliteracycaribbean.com, which is designed to educate readers on financial terms and pertinent information to help them to increase wealth and prepare for unforeseen situations. The website provides practical guidance on topics such as budgeting, saving, risks and returns of investments, and estate planning; and also offers resources to assist Central Banks and other regional financial supervisory agencies.

Given their current emphasis on achieving positive economic changes, it’s now the perfect time for our local financial authorities to join with the over 60 countries around the world which have developed structured programmes to educate their citizens about basic financial principles.

Copyright © 2010 Cherryl Hanson Simpson.

Cherryl is a financial consultant and coach, and the founder of Financially S.M.A.R.T. Services, Jamaica’s number one source for practical, down-to-earth and independent answers for all questions relating to personal finance. Cherryl is currently writing her first book, The 3 Ms of Money. See more of her work at http://www.financiallysmartadvice.com and http://www.financiallysmartonline.com.

So now that you have imagined that you might want to know how to achieve that. And the simple answer to that is by learning. Yes, you need to go back to school books, well, financial education books anyway. And the good thing is, there are thousands of those books out there. We’ll look it some of them a bit later on.

Making more money will usually not help people to get out of debt because they don’t have Financial Education Literacy. People tend to spend more when they earn more. So when you get a payrise, you just go out and buy a bigger house with a bigger mortgage. Or you run out and get a new car, of course on a car loan. So the more you earn, the bigger the hole gets and it becomes a never ending circle. So what do you do? Well, you have to get educated. The schools don’t teach us how to take care of our money, the schools are quiet happy to churn out good little employees who will depend on that paycheck for the rest of their lives.

But what if you are not happy with that? What if you want more in your life? Well, you are in luck because there are literally thousands of different products out there to teach you everything you need to learn. There are books and there are courses both online and offline to help you get started. The only thing is between you and Financial Education Literacy is your commitment to do it. That’s right, that’s all it takes. You just need to make a commitment and you can have financial freedom.

Researching properties in Australia is a very big job but if you are serious about making passive income and you don’t want to depend on the old age pension once you retired, you really have no choice but make a start. And the sooner you start the better it is.

Luckily there are a couple of tools that can help you tremendously in finding the right property. But I suppose you will never never know if you never never go… Head over to [http://www.aussiepropertyresearch.com] to get the most important info that you will need in your search.

The game teaches you similar lessons in ones personal financial real life experience such as accumulating wealth such as investing in real estate, business, stocks, gold, mutual funds, handling debts and managing your expenses. The wonderful objective of the game is to simply accumulate passive income(income generated from your investments in areas such as real estate and business)suchthat it will be more than your total expenses. Once you have reach this stage in the game, it will enable you to get out of the rat race in the game and you can be considered as financially free in the game.

When I first played the game, it took me more that two hours if I remembered vividly to understand the game. As I understand more about the game, it creates great excitement when I played the game. I realized that my financial education knowledge increases as I played the game more. I began understand the significance terms in our personal finances such as assets, liabilities, doing small and big deals, ROI and so much more great education in the game. In developing a home business, the game enabled individuals like me to understand the importance of starting small but dream big to reach your goals.

The factor that I like most about Cashflow 101is I am able to play and learn together about financial education through this game. Just like any game, you will strategize differently to get out of the rat race as soon as possible to financially free in the game. Similarly, in running a home business, the game enables one to think and strategize the plan to develop the business further.

Aside from handling my personal financing in the game, I learn another fantastic learning lesson from the game. It is the art of handling and coping with your emotional intelligence in the game. When you play with 5 or more players, you are able to learn from each other emotions in the game. It seemed surreal to me at time.I learn that in business and personal finance, one has to handle his emotions well when dealing with investments.

In the game, I realized that the responsibility in the decision making in my investments lies in me. I am responsible for where I will be in the game. It made me realized that handling emotions well is certainly important in running not only a home business but other factors in life too. The beautiful part of such great financial board game, it enabled one to make mistakes in the game and learn to be more effective in dealing with real life situations thereafter.