"Someone's sitting on the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
These are some of my favorite quotes that I like from Warren Buffett - the world’s greatest investor and one of the richest men in the world.
THE JOURNEY:
And here are some of the books that I have read. I never know they exist.
None taught me to read books about financial or investing or entrepreneurship.
Because no one has ever taught me about financial education, a kind of education that I have never learned in school.
I don't know about you, but subject Financial 101 has never been offered and never been taught in our classroom.
It's like an alien language in another world.
That's why many graduates like me, a middle class, struggle in real world when it comes to handling money.
OLD SCHOOL LESSON:
Like everybody else, the famous tagline...
"Go to school, study hard, get good grades, pass your board exam, make the best resume and find a stable job."
This was the blueprint or the kind of programming that I had in my mind.
Now I did got my job, and I figure out that somethings are not right.
In my experience, I came to realized being just an employee is always the loser.
There are too many to mention but I list down some of the many reasons are -
You don't have control. You don't have any freedom. They can easily hire another and replace you.
Government will take your hard earned money. They taxed you the highest bracket.
If the company struggles, the inevitable happen - massive layoffs.
Cases like this was never discussed in our school.
That's why most graduates students like me weren't prepared in real life situation.
In my generation of my schooling years,
The problem during that time, schools never educate us what to do with our earnings.
It never tell us what to do with our money.
Schools never taught us how money works.
Schools never taught us how to invest.
The word stocks and investments in school was unheard of.
Schools only taught us to be an employee and work for a company you never own.
We were only taught subjects that were never really used in our career.
I followed the advice of study well, getting good grades, passing the board exam and getting a decent job.
But one troubling crisis for me is, I was poor in managing my own money, lack financial literacy
and worst, never had a chance in investing at all.
THERE'S A SAYING:
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day.
Teach a man how to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life."
SEARCH BEGIN:
So, I dig my own research.
Hoping I could find the right path.
Hoping someone could shed some lights unto me.
And hoping to be able to satisfy the financial education hunger that I was craving for.
I search topics about investing strategy in the web.
Watch financial lessons in You Tube.
I attend basic seminars.
Read books about financial.
Read biographies of rich and successful people.
Read books about business and entrepreneurship.
In short, rather than watching trash telenovelas, I educate myself.
I invest in time and make an effort to learn and study all these things.
As I dig deeper, I came to realized -
Money is the common denominator we have in this world.
Why not include subjects about money in our school and how to manage it.
Money is important. After all, we used it all the time.
Because money brings freedom — freedom to buy what we want, and freedom to enjoy the best things in life
as well as giving you the opportunity to share and help others.
At the same time, not worrying having an empty pocket while you age and retire a happy multi-millionaire.
And I also thought, why not school teach us to build our own company, our own empire.
Why not also include financial literacy in our school curriculum.
THE REAL WORLD:
I also discovered that you don't have a degree to be successful in life.
The biggest companies in the world and world's richest men -
Bill Gates - Founder of Microsoft,
Steve Jobs - Founder of Apple,
Mark Zuckerburg - Founder of Facebook,
Larry Ellison - Founder of Oracle,
Michael Dell - Founder of Dell
Do you know one of these these guys? What do they have in common?
That's right! They never bothered to get a college degree!
Many tech titans in silicon valley don't have one.
They are dropouts but turn out to be successful billionaires.
Not everyone needs to have a college degree to be a millionaire or billionaire.
But it is ingrained in our culture that a college diploma is needed to assure one's future.
CREATE YOUR WEALTH WITH PASSION:
Do what you love and start from there.
Learn about business and the investment world.
Become familiar with a variety of different investment vehicles and financial instruments,
such as real estate, stocks or funds.
Then choose one primary area in which to become an expert. Begin investing in that area.
Somehow, I found a away to increase my wealth.
Today, I follow the rich and successful people habits and how to manage their money wealth.
Today, I invest in the stock market and toss some in mutual funds
and I am very happy of the results of what I've accomplished.
One secret here is to feed your mind with positive great ideas and empower yourself with the right mindset.
You are what you think.
Get financially educated and know the importance of money.
SEEKING A BETTER FUTURE:
I've seen people who are constantly in debt because of financial illiteracy.
I've known people and heard their stories wasted their years moving from one employment to the other,
forever searching for the "better job".
I've seen people cried because they are force to resign in their job because their company is struggling
and needed to reduce their employees.
That's why let us help each other and help improve the lives of every Filipinos
and help them break out of the circle of poverty and illiteracy.
Encourage everyone and teach young kids to invest at early young age.
Like Warren Buffett who started investing and bought his first shares at age 11,
and bought his 40-acre farm by the time he was 15.
Teach young kids to be an entrepreneur like Steve Jobs who started his Apple Company in their own garage.
It has been said that we are the products of the choices we make.
I have migrated my poor thinking into a rich, spiritual and wealthy thinking.
Certain important decisions that we make early in our life can determine the rest of our life that we will take.
And the next period in your history is being defined by your choice - I made my choice long ago.
Now, It's my role to share what I have learned and help others towards the journey in attaining financial freedom.
Hopefully I have shed some lights to you my dear reader and friends.
Go get out of your cage of comfort zone and start creating your wealth.
Build your own business and empire.
Start investing in stock market now.
Do it now, because time never waits.
Help us spread and create a new breed of young multi-millionaire
because everyone of us deserves to be both happy, rich and wealthy.