The answer is ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. I have my reasons. First No, if you don’t have the skills, whatever you acquire by luck in terms of wealth will not last. I’ll also say yes, because when you’ve skills, more opportunities will continue to come your way even by luck. Although, opportunities dance with those who are already on the dancing floor, so get financially intelligent and stop waiting on luck (Baba Ijebu).
It is an unfortunate thing that one of the most essential educations that we need in our lives is seriously lacking in our education system…Financial Intelligence, that part of our intelligence that is used in solving money problem. Financial intelligence is missing in the curriculum of our school system, from kindergarten to the university. The worst is that what is taught in our school system about money and its management is grossly against the rules of financial intelligence.
Irrespective of the numerous changes in the rule of money, majority of the world population still live their lives with the 20th century mentality about money. The society preaches; “Go to school, get good grades and get a secured job that has good retirement plan.” This does not work again in today’s 21st century economy. Why?
The economy is changing every day. The rule of money is also changing as well. First, there are no more jobs not to talk of secured jobs. Even the so called secured jobs with good retirement benefit cannot fetch you financial freedom. If you don’t know, financial freedom comes with time freedom and this means that you own your life. Money is not your problem. You can buy anything that you desire that money can buy. You can afford to sleep and play around the world from 1st of January to 31st of December without working and yet you live your dreamed lifestyle enjoying whatever you desire. This is what I mean by owning your life. You are truly free because you have built a business system which gives you leverage and leverage pays you residual income and residual income makes you free. This is the kind of lifestyle that is only dreamed by many but enjoyed by a few.
Statistics have it that only one percent of the world population is enjoying financial freedom. But the truth is that if you are financially intelligent, the probability of you attaining financial freedom in your lifetime is very high. This explains why so many people will continue to struggle all their life working harder and having very little to show for it. Again, you can acquire financial intelligence and develop your financial IQ in your lifetime. All it takes is commitment, discipline and taking action. If you want to start your journey to improved financial intelligence and subsequent attainment of financial freedom, keep a date with this thread.

Statistics have it that only one percent of the world population is enjoying financial freedom.

alarming

Why Do You Need to Be Financially Intelligent?
“The rich will continue to get richer while the poor and the middle class will continue to get poorer” – Robert Kiyosaki

The secret of the rich No. 3 is; mind your own business. (Note: There is a set of secret that makes the rich richer which you must know so as to change your mind set about money and how it is made) The rich mind their own business. What this means is that the rich consciously mind their asset column on daily bases. Before I go further, let me bring your knowledge to No. 1 rule of financial intelligence; know the difference between an asset and a liability and to buy asset. Asset is anything that puts money into your pocket while liability is anything that removes money from your pocket. Let me explain this with an illustration. Your house is a liability except if it is a rental property. If you build a house where only you and your family live, you have just succeeded in acquiring another liability.
How do you mean? I can hear so many persons questioning me right now in their mind. Yes! When you live in your house alone, you bear all the bills; electricity, water, neighborhood levies, wear and tear maintenance, property tax etc. These are taking away money from your pocket. You may say, but I’m not paying any house rent again. The cost it is saving you is at the same time lost through these bills. The rich first make their estate a source of income and not a liability. It is only when their asset column is big and paying them excessive passive income that they will enjoy luxuries with their passive income, that is, building a house where they live with their family alone. They invest a good percentage of their active (linear) income in acquiring assets and their assets pay for their luxuries through excess passive income. Therefore, instead of building your first house where you live alone, consciously make out a space for rental purpose, even if it is a room apartment or some shops by your fence. This way, your house yields you money from which you can take care of the bills that come from the house. This is how the rich think…they are financially intelligent.
So many things that the poor and the middle class acquire are liabilities, and these take away money from their pocket. The truth is that we are naturally programmed to spend by impulse without weighing if that which we want to buy is a need or want. Your needs are things that will attend to your essential human problems while your wants attend to your natural human desires. That is why economics says that human wants are insatiable but his resources are limited thus we need to spend by scale of preference else you will continue to post deficit budget month in month out even if you are earning the biggest paycheck monthly in your place of work. If you are not conscious of this, you will continue to repeat the same financial blunder daily. Even me that am writing this, sometimes I found myself guilty of this blunder. It has to be a continuous effort until you discipline your spending pattern such that it becomes a new habit in you. It takes discipline and consistency to acquire this habit. If you don’t culture yourself on this, you will continue to work hard all your life time and have very little to show for it. While you are spending according to your need based on scale of preference, you will defer immediate gratification so as to invest at least 10% of your active income in acquiring asset, another 10% on continuous personal development and 10% for your religious obligation. Every of your needs must be taken care of with the remaining 70%. Mind you, you should learn to spend by budget. Pre-plan your expenditure before you earn, that way, you can carry over any expenses that your 70% cannot take care of in any particular month. Don’t tell me you are not earning enough to do this. It is a matter of choice to move out of your comfort zone by consciously planning for a surplus budget and not a deficit budget. You know, when you first pay yourself by taking away the 30%, you will be left with only 70%. If the pressure is too much for you, then you will start thinking of how to expand your means. Yes! You can expand your means to earn more by creating more values. You should learn to monetize what you learn from your continuous personal development. They say, empty your pocket to fill your head and your mind will refill your pocket. Just charge yourself to discover any human need around you that demands for solution. Find solution to it and you make money. It could be your expertise that you will package into information product and market it to make money. It could be joining a good network marketing company to build a business that pays you more. It could be anything that drives your passion, but just think.
The above explains why the poor and the middle class will continue to be poorer except if you determine to mind your business. Let us do a little exercise. Take a stock of everything you have now which you consider as your assets and the things you consider as liabilities. Then draft your asset and liability statement of account. Write assets on the left column and liabilities on the right column.
Most people’s statement will look like this,
ASSET /LIABILITIES
House /Taxes/Bills/Loans
Car /House rent
Stock (General Paper Investment) /Children’s school fees
Job /House-keeping allowance
Bank savings /Etc
Designer accessories
Designer clothes/shoes
Electronics
Etc


The above statement looks like a typical poor/middle class man’s asset and liability statement. For the rich, theirs will look thus;
ASSETS /LIABILITIES
Business/Job/Profession /Mortgage
Paper Investments /Taxes/Loans
Rental Property(s) /Utility bills
Intellectual Property(s) /House-up keeping etc

The difference between the two statements is that the rich mind their business, their asset column. They conscious acquire those things that put money into their pocket and their focus is mostly on things that pay them passive income. If you do not know, passive income is a type of income that you work once and that work will continue to pay you over and over again. This is different from active (linear) income. Your specialization/expert consultation charges are linear income. Your contract charges are linear income. Your small business daily proceeds are linear income. Your salary is a linear income. You work, that is, you put in your time, and you are paid for your time and effort, to earn a linear income. In the other hand, any money that you earn from a system that you put in place which does not require your direct involvement to pay you income is a passive/residual income to you. When you put away 10% of your linear income monthly to invest in either stock, co-operative, or part payment of a piece of real estate, each time you earn return on investment (ROI), that is a passive income. If you build a house that pays you rent, that is passive income. If you put up a business that does not need your involvement for it to be paying you, that is passive income. Note: Any business that you cannot leave for at least two months and travel without getting into any form of involvement in its daily transactions, and while you are away, the business is paying you profitably. And even when you return, you meet your business more profitable than you left it, that business does not qualify to be called a business according to financial intelligence perspective. Instead of seeing yourself as a business owner, you are classified as somebody who owns a job. There is a difference from having a job and owning a job. You have a job when you are working in someone’s business system while you own a job when you are managing your own establishment. The employees fall within the former while small business owners, consultants, professionals and specialists who manage their own establishment fall within the later.
Till I come your way next time, kindly go home and start getting financially literate. See you at the top.