Book Review: I Wish They Taught Money In High School

I have a reason to believe that this year is gonna be a ROARable year for me. Why? Because for the first time in my life, I finally have a plan on what to do with my life. Yes. I spent the last two weeks of 2013 working on spreadsheets and on Google Calendar, carefully planning what to do and accomplish week after week, January to March 2014. And I intend to continue with all the planning beyond March, of course. For this post, I will only talk about the money plans.


A 2-in-1 Book To Kick-start My 2014 Money Goals

I received a book to review on January 5th. It is a 2-in-1 book or a combi-book written by Clarissa Serina-Dela Paz and Sharon W. Que, two successful women with a passion for educating Filipinos on Personal Finance Management. Clarissa wrote "I WISH THEY TAUGHT MONEY IN HIGH SCHOOL So I'm Not Dependent on My Paycheck" and Sharon authored "I WISH THEY TAUGHT MONEY IN HIGH SCHOOL So I Can Start My Own Business Right Away".

I am so eager to reach a few financial goals this year and the timing of this book couldn't be more perfect. I actually devoured it in one sitting! Yeah, I'm like that when a particular topic piqued my interest enough. And this book did.

The authors have a way of presenting ideas in an encouraging, engaging and almost demanding manner to put them into action. The book contains essential financial principles too small and basic that we fail to recognize them for what they truly are - golden nuggets of wisdom that can guide us into financial independence.

As a Business Administration graduate, I already KNOW most of these principles. They're all in my mind, but what I failed to do until now is to ACT on them. This is why I'm not anywhere near financial independence

But hey, they actually taught money matters in my high school. We were taught budgeting, entrepreneurship and investing as early as the first year. I remember investing Php100 into our school cooperative and getting twice the amount at the end of the school year. I mean, that sounds like a mutual fund blah blah, right? What they fail to taught me is how to work towards certain financial goals I have in mind.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS BOOK

- Plan and adhere to a budget; (Income-Savings=Expenses)
- Invest a portion of my earnings on stocks, mutual fund or a business; (So my money could work for me)
- Establish a good credit score; (Credit cards aren't evil.)
- Educate my children about money management the earliest age possible; (This book have plenty of ideas on how to teach your children the value of money.)

In closing, I really wish I was taught how to work towards my dreams in high school. That would have saved me a great deal of headaches caused by financial issues year after year. Imagine if I realized the value and importance of saving and investing earlier on in my life, my lifestyle now would be a lot different.

They say the best time to plant trees was 20 years ago. The second best is NOW. Same goes for a lifestyle upgrade. It's never too late to chase your dreams.

Do check out Lifestyle Upgrade 101 on Facebook!

Virtual Book Tour – A Parent’s Playbook for Learning

I really resonated with Lexi’s post back in June when Dirk headed off to Kindergarten. Like Lexi, I was lucky enough to have a WAHM schedule to be able to be there for my daughter’s very first day of big kid school and my son’s very first day of preschool. I have also worked hard with both of my kids to, in my case, semi-homeschool them and get them enrolled in schools with smaller classes so they get more one-on-one time with their teachers. What’s made a big difference for me both in terms of helping new teachers get to know my kids and also in terms of me understanding how my kids learn best is keying into their individual temperaments…and continuing to think of myself as one of my kids’ most important teachers even after they’ve headed off to elementary school.

When I started getting my firstborn ready for school, I started teaching her in the ways I most liked to learn as a child. I thought this would be a great approach, considering I graduated both high school and college early and with honors. I knew that interests played a big role in making learning “click” for kids because I’d done my undergraduate thesis on multiple intelligences in college. But I didn’t realize until I started teaching one-on-one just how important it is to know your child’s learning personality type.

My eldest daughter has a very different personality type than I do, and until I started keying into those personality type differences, learning wasn’t as fun for her as it could be. Because my ultimate goal is to make sure my kids enjoy learning and turn into life-long learners, my original strategy of doing it the way I did as a kid just wasn’t working. I began doing a lot of research and started weaving in personality type based techniques into our work together and things started to change. She started to understand new concepts better and faster…and to enjoy learning more. I think one of my simultaneously best and worst moments came last year when we were working on homework together and she said, “I love the way you teach me, Mom. Why can’t my teachers teach me this way in school?” This is not to say we don’t have our moments—it’s certainly not all peaches and cream—but our time together is more effective and more enjoyable now that I’m tuned into her temperament. I wrote my book—A Parent’s Playbook for Learning—for other parents like me who want their kids to grow up to love learning and have yet to discover the magic that comes from honoring their kids’ natures in a learning context.

This is a guest post by Jen Lilienstein, founder of Kidzmet.com and author of the award-winning book, A Parent’s Playbook for Learning, which can be purchased in paperback or ebook formats on Amazon.com, BN.com, iTunes, and in bookstores around the world.