The first class (last week) was basically an over-view of the 8 steps in the program. The course is called I-Quadrant Financial Education. It stresses the importance of Financial Education, Business Education, and Leadership Education.
"If you are frustrated, your education is tapped out!" - Jesse
If you are going to play the money game - treat it like a game. Go into it prepared and remember that the goal is Financial Independence.
If you are going to play football, you don't jump on the field unprepared. You know that you are going to get hit, so you put padding on, train yourself to handle those hits, and learn the play book. The game of money is the same, you will get hit. Most people pretend there is no game, and run onto the field unprepared. They have no padding, and no game plan. They are not ready or expecting to get hit. So when they do get hit, it flattens them.
As part of the introduction, they gave a brief history of money. They encouraged us to study the hyper-inflation of Germany before WWII (the German mark went from 4 marks per US dollar to over 3 trillion marks per US dollar,) and the period of the Great Depression.
Step 1: Financial Independence
Books: Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki; Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason
This step involves the goal setting process. You need to decide if Financial independence is what you want. If it is, continue with the rest of the steps.
Step 2: Become a Business Owner
Books: E-Myth by Michael Gerber; Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki; The Business School by Robert Kiyosaki; The ABC's of Making Money by Denis Cauvier and Alan Lysaght
There is a whole class on this particular step, and they don't recommend that you jump into something without knowing what you are doing. Again, this is a goal that you need to think and ponder about. In preparation for this class (which is going to be on the 12 of February) they asked us to come up with 10 business ideas that we think will thrive in a time like the Great Depression.
Step 3: Track and Trim your Time and your Expenses
Book: The 4 Laws of Debt-Free Prosperity by Blaine Harris and Charles Coonradt
We were given a tracking sheet, and asked to track our expenses and our time for at least a week. The purpose of this is to sit down with them, and they will help us see where we can trim our expenses and our time to come up with extra money and time to build a business and to learn. They talked to us briefly about the difference between needs and wants. For example: a family only NEEDS one vehicle if there is only one bread winner.
The next section of Steps they called Defensive Investments. Just like in the game of football, you have to go in prepared to get hit. This means that you need padding, and face masks, and training.
Step 4: Develop a 12 months Supply of Food for your Family
Book: Don't Get Caught with your Pantry Down by James Stevens
If there is any kind of emergency, the grocery stores will be completely out of food within 2 days. It could take up to three weeks to fully stock them once more, and that is if there is only a small delay. You do NOT want to be a millionaire and starving in that kind of situation. This is if there is a big emergency, but every family has prosperous times and lean times. Having a years supply of food helps stabilize those times, and guarantees that you can eat. With the extra money you have found through Tracking and Trimming, they recommend you build your food storage FIRST!
Step 5: 6-12 months of Income Saved in the form of Silver Rounds
Book: Rich Dad's Guide to investing in Gold & Silver by Michael Maloney
The second Defensive Investment is Saving your money until you have between 6-12 months worth of income. They recommend you hold this savings, not in an account, but in Silver. Why Silver? A few basic reasons. 1, Sliver is a commodity, and is not currently liquid. This means that you cannot dip into it easily. It will be available when you really need it, and since it might take some steps to turn it into dollars it will keep you from spending it unless in an emergency. 2, Silver and Gold have been commonly termed "God's Money" because there is only so much of it on earth. It has represented currency for centuries, and should the dollar fail, it will be used again. 3, Silver will maintain its value during inflation, so the money you put away today in silver will have the same or greater buying power in the future. 4, There is currently a huge short on the silver market, so of all the precious metals, it is the greatest value for your dollar.
Step 6: Pay Off Debt
Book: I didn't catch it, but will ask at the next meeting.
Only after your food storage and your savings are built do you turn your focus to paying off debt. They did stress that you continue to pay debts, but extra money builds up the other things first. Why?
If there is an emergency and you have put extra money on your Visa, is it going to feed your family when there is no food in the grocery store? The same principal surrounds Savings. You need to take care of you and your family FIRST before you pay off your creditors. Disaster strikes without warning, and you need to be prepared.
Step 7: Insurance and Estate Planning
Book: Becoming Your Own Banker by Nelson Nash (I think this is the book, but not sure)
They didn't go into this a great deal as we were out of time, but I am sure the class will be very interesting.
And that leads us to the final step:
Step 8: Offensive Investing
Book: The Master-Key to Riches by Napoleon Hill
These are the 8 steps that we will explore further as we go through the class.
