[Music] hey you guys so I recently came across a viral video claiming that 40% of the world is financially illiterate and apparently this lack of financial literacy costs the average adult approximately are you ready for this $110,000 in 2022 yeah not good and I don't want this to be the case for you or for anyone so today I'm sharing six ways to become financially smarter than 40% of the population and if you can commit to doing even just a few of these six things the next coming year you'll be way ahead of the curve and well on your way to winning with money so the first way to become financially literate is to implement a Zer based budgets you guys we talk about budgeting a lot on here but you have to understand that budgeting is the foundation when it comes to winning with money so a zerob based budget just means your income for the month minus all of your expenses including giving and saving should equal zero so every dollar coming in is assigned to a category and we talk about this being so uh specific to your income and to your life because your expenses is your life it's what you spend money on and you want every dollar every single dollar of your income to be going to something to have a specific job when it comes to your spending because you want to spend on purpose and what happens is you go through the month you get paid paid and you look up and you wait on the next paycheck to get paid and go through the month and you just keep living in that cycle and you look up a year 2 years 10 years down the road thinking where did all my income go what did I spend it on but when you're budgeting you know what to do and if you've not downloaded every dollar our budgeting app make sure to do that because it's going to help you walk through budgeting on a really easy basis and it's amazing and my second tip for becoming a financially smart is to consume financial news regularly and critically so listen I don't want you like in the new cycle 24/7 because I just don't like that's good really for anyone but I do want you to be aware of like hey kind of what's going on in the market overall what's going on with inflation how about the housing market just to get an overall picture of what the world is doing financially because not only is this going to help you possibly make decisions later on in life if you have big decisions coming up but even in conversation with people when they're freaking out about something you have knowledge to be like okay yeah I saw them Market was a little bit down last year but I also knew it was a better year then and here and you can start to pinpoint knowledge and facts when it comes to money so again I don't want Scare Tactics to go on because again depending on the news source that you're reading or watching fear is a big part of what um keeps the news going and when they talk about the government or the economy that can like really get you in a spiral so stay focused be aware but just bring in some of your own personal experience and context to all the headlines know that the sky isn't falling but also have some knowledge to put around you on what's going on in the world right the third way to become financially literate is to become wise with your investment decisions so just like we talked about there is changes in the economy constantly but if you stick to a proven investment strategy plan then you can look back and say okay historically here is what has happened and I can know going forward I can I can depend on that history I think that's really big because people's investment strategies sometimes can change depending on like what is cool right now like what's the new hip thing what's the thing that's going to make everybody rich and people just go all in on this stuff that doesn't have a long-term track record they go in with not a lot of knowledge because it may be a new thing so listen to have peace of mind know what your Investments are understand okay what a mutual fund is that's what we teach at ramsy to not go into single stocks but to get a mutual fund that has 90 to 200 stocks in a mutual fund diversify your your money is spread around when it comes to that stuff and you're able to look back on the history of the market and say okay what has happened from the beginning of the market to now and you can again have that data to help you so when it comes to investing it can be really complicated so I'm going to leave a link in the description so you can connect with a smart Vestor Pro and get started right away when it comes to investing okay before I share the rest of my tips I want to tell you about one of my new favorite board games Apple guys board games it it is such a fun thing to do with your friends and your family we played some games over Thanksgiving and just the amount of joy and laughter that comes with games everyone needs it and if you need a game to play tapple is it it is easy to learn it's kind of urgent so like there's like you know you have to be like thinking on your feet and there's like a timer and so there's a lot of intensity and that's what makes games fun it's competitive I'm telling you it your kids will love it the parents will love it the grandparents will love it so make sure to grab taple at Walmart all right my fourth tip for becoming financially smart is to consume content from experts you trust and the good news is you are watching or listening to this episode of my show so you're kind of doing that right so it is digging in and understanding okay what are people saying about this topics whether it's in books or podcasts or YouTube channels make sure that you have people that you trust when it comes to money and listening to them listening to their tips their experiences I think it's really big so yes we can consume the news and what is going on in the world out there but also being able to have practical people in your life that you may not know like BFFs with right but people that live and breede this content all the time they're able to deliver to you ways to think about your money I think it's really important so I personally love Jade warshaw George camel Dave Ramsey so there's a lot of money experts out there but if you are really new to all of this I would recommend grabbing The Total Money Makeover book because it's a great place to start all right my fifth tip is to research where you put your savings to make sure you're getting the most of your money so whether you're saving for an emergency fund or a down payment on a house it's important to know which kinds of savings accounts can passively earn you extra money with interest without the risk of losing money so we always talk about things like high yield savings accounts or money market accounts to put money in that is for short-term savings so 5 years or less so again your emergency fund this is a great place for it uh again down payment for a house if you're saving up for a big vacation even that's in like 2 years so any amount of money that you have it's a good size I would recommend looking into again a money market account or a high yield savings account so these will give you better interest rates and you'll be able to earn a little bit more on your money even though they're not Investments than just sitting in a checking account or a traditional savings account so just understanding your options when it comes to savings is really big even some Vanguard accounts are great you can look into index funds again you could be the one in charge of that putting some money in that's now more investing putting it into the market and looking at index funds but another great place to check out as well and finally the sixth way to become financially smarter than most people is to know your personal money Tendencies so no matter where you stand financially everyone has unique habits when it comes to spending money and saving money so knowing your natural Bend is really a first step in understanding how to take control of your money and why you do the things that you do with money because if you're going along and you're forcing yourself to try to be someone you're not in this process it can be really daunting and exhausting I am a spender at heart but I have had to learn to save so yes you will understand okay I have to learn maybe different ways to handle money there will be things that are uncomfortable but overall I can celebrate the fact that I'm a spender by having a budget and knowing I can spend money freely permission to spend that is a budget so again understanding how you're wired is really key and if you're married this is a really important conversation to have with your spouse so that you two together can be in it and say Hey you bring things to the table you bring different things to the table let's again together understand how this works all right you guys I have some great news for you if you are watching this video you're already doing tip number four and I'd be willing to bet that you're doing some of the others on the list too but there's always room for growth so let me know in the comments which tip you're going to try out next and keep me posted on your progress and to help you on your journey to financial literacy again make sure to check out every dollar I mentioned it earlier but it is is a great budgeting app to kind of be that Foundation point for you when it comes to your money so send this video to a friend who is ready to be smarter with their money just in time for the new year and remember to take control of your money and create a life you [Music] love
