Financial literacy starts at home. And that’s why the crusade to disrupt the financial industry must begin with families.

If you’re a parent, you have the power to influence your kids more than anyone or anything else. Your child’s response to conflict, their career, their relationships, their hobbies, their values, their politics, the core of who they are can all be shaped by you, the parent.

The same is true of your mindset towards money. The way you deal with your finances can have a profound impact on how your children deal with theirs.

Research has shown that most people start learning about money by age 3. By age 7, their attitudes about money are set.¹

What do you remember between ages 3 and 7? Probably very little on the conscious level. But you may carry some of their habits around with you…

You probably remember if your parents had frugal or flippant attitudes about money.

You probably remember if your parents fought about money.

You probably remember trying to persuade your parents to buy you things… or if your words fell on deaf ears.

On some level, you probably feel all those things now when money comes up in conversation. When your stress vanishes after buying a new toy. Or your heart sinks when you check your bank account. Or you get a head rush of discomfort when your coworker starts talking about the size of their investment portfolio.

Here’s another fact—almost no one is happy with the financial education they got growing up. 83% of parents wish they had learned more about money when they were kids.²They’re eager to avoid mistakes from their own childhood. But there’s just one problem…

Do they actually know how money works?

It’s unlikely. A 2020 global survey revealed that only 15% of young adults were financially literate.1 Translation—85% of adults, through no fault of their own, are poised to repeat their own parents’ mistakes.

That’s why reaching families with financial education is foundational to our mission. If parents get a financial education, their children are far better positioned to build wealth. And if families can learn how money works together, they can remove emotional obstacles and grow closer together, as well.

That’s why financial education is central to my mission. Because once families know how money works, they’re far less likely to be taken advantage of. They start making decisions that favor their futures, not someone else’s.

And when that happens to enough families, the financial industry will never be the same.

The financial industry loves debt. They love it because it’s how they make money.

And best of all (for them), they use YOUR money to make it happen.

Here’s how it works…

You deposit money at a bank. In return, they pay you interest. It’s just above nothing—the average bank account interest rate is currently 0.06%.¹

But your money doesn’t just sit in the vault. The bank takes your money and loans it out in the form of mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, etc..

And make no mistake, they charge far greater interest than they give. The average interest rate for a mortgage is 3.56%.² That’s a 5,833% increase from what they give you for banking with them! And that’s nothing compared to what they charge for credit cards and personal loans.

So it should be no surprise that financial institutions are doing everything they can to convince you to borrow more money than perhaps you can afford.

First, they’re counting on the fact that you never learned how money works. Why? Because if you know something like the Rule of 72, you realize that banks are taking advantage of you. They use your money to build their fortunes and give you almost nothing in return.

Second, they manipulate your insecurities. They show you images and advertisements of bigger houses, faster cars, better vacations. And they strongly imply that if you don’t have these, you’re falling behind. You’re a failure. And you may hear it so much that you start to believe it.

Third, they lock you in a cycle of debt. Those hefty car loan and mortgage payments dry up your cash flow, making it harder to make ends meet. And that forces you to turn to other loans like credit cards. It’s just a matter of time before you’re spending all your money servicing debt rather than saving for the future.

So if you feel stuck or burdened by your debt, show yourself some grace. Chances are you’ve been groomed into this position by an industry that sees you as a source of income, not a human.

And take heart. Countless people have stuck it to the financial industry and achieved debt freedom. It just takes a willingness to learn and the courage to change your habits.

So you want to start a business.

You’re done with the 9-to-5, and ready to transition from employee to entrepreneur.

But there’s one last hurdle—how will you pay for it?

Starting a business requires resources. Whether it’s a laptop, store front, circular saw, or musical instrument, you’ll need tools to ply your trade. You’ll also need to consider the cost of hiring employees as your business grows!

There are three common strategies entrepreneurs leverage to raise money for starting a business…

1. Raise capital. Trade ownership of your business for money.

2. Borrow money. Pay interest for money.

3. Self-fund. Cover business expenses yourself.

There’s no right way to fund your business. But there are clear pros and cons to each approach. Let’s explore them further so you can have a better idea of which may be best for you!

1. Raise capital. This strategy involves scouting out wealthy individuals and institutions to give you money to fund your business. But it’s no free lunch. In exchange for funding, investors want a slice of your company. As your business grows, so does their profit.

That gives them a powerful say in the management of your business. If you raise capital this way, you may find these stakeholders calling the shots and pulling the strings instead of you.

Plus, raising capital simply is out of reach for most entrepreneurs. Unless you’re disrupting a major industry and have extensive experience, the risk-reward situation may not make sense for potential investors.

2. Borrow money. It’s straightforward—you ask a lending institution or friend for money that you’ll pay back with interest. Both parties take a calculated risk that your business will increase its value enough to repay the loan. It’s a simple, time-tested strategy for funding a new business.

The advantage of getting a business loan is that it keeps you in full control of your business. No board of directors or controlling shareholders!

But business loans require planning to manage. Your business will need to consistently make payments, meaning you’ll need to consistently earn profit. That’s rarely a surefire proposition when you’re first starting out.

So while debt can help your business expand and hire new talent, it’s typically wise to hold off on borrowing until later.

3. Self-fund. This is far and away the most realistic strategy for most entrepreneurs. It’s exactly what it sounds like—pay the upfront costs of starting a business yourself.

No debt. No working for someone else. You’re completely free to run your business. You’re also completely financially responsible for the outcome.

Will you be able to buy a storefront outright? Or start a competitive car manufacturer? Probably not. But there are dozens, if not hundreds, of opportunities that require far less capital.

Look around. You may have the tools you need to start a business at your fingertips! In fact, if you’re reading this article on a laptop or desktop, you’re positioned to start an online business right now. All you need is a service to provide clients.

The takeaway? The funding your business needs will depend on your situation. Challenging an established industry with a revolutionary approach? Then you may need outside funding. But if you’re like many, you have all the tools and resources you need to start your business.

What’s the biggest industry in the world?

It’s not Wal-Mart or Amazon or Apple; those are companies. The answer, while it might surprise you, actually makes perfect sense. It’s the industry that manages, stores and protects money for billionaires, conglomerates, companies—and you.

That’s right, the financial industry is the largest industry in the world!

Totalling $109 trillion, it dwarfs the competition.¹ For comparison, real estate is worth $33 trillion and retail amounts to $26 trillion. But what exactly is the financial industry? Here’s a quick look.

Financial services.

Technically, the financial industry is composed of companies that offer financial services. But what exactly is a financial service? The International Monetary Fund defines it as “how consumers and businesses acquire financial goods such as loans and insurance.”²

The most obvious example of financial services are the services a bank offers. It offers a place for you to safely store your money. You can also get a loan from a bank if you need to make a big purchase like a home or car. Banks make money by charging interest on loans and adding fees to their services, and they can range in size from local, small-town establishments to massive nationwide banks.

But there’s more to the financial industry than just holding and lending money. Investment is a huge part of this sector. Financial advisors and brokers help everyone from the middle class to the rich and powerful make and manage their investments. They can manage staggering amounts of money for huge businesses. Financial protection services, like insurance, is another major segment of the financial industry.

The foundation of the economy.

Modern economies are fueled by the financial sector. They’re the gatekeepers to prosperity. Anyone trying to start a business, save for their future, or protect their family has to go through banks, advisors, and agents. Economies thrive when the financial sector is healthy and melt down when it’s not!

The financial industry might appear as conspicuous as other sectors. We don’t go to a financial advisor every week for groceries or fuel our car at the bank. But that doesn’t mean it’s not vital to every part of our lives.

2021 was another wild ride.

It was no 2020, thank goodness. But there were enough ups, downs, and head scratchers to warrant a retrospective.

These are the top financial literacy stories of 2021.

Memes rocked the financial industry. You read that correctly—memes.

It began with struggling companies like Gamestop and AMC soaring in value. The cause? Rabid speculation fueled primarily by Reddit. There was little rhyme and even less reason to the frenzy, with devastating results—the boom became a bust that wiped out $167 billion of wealth.¹

And notice, that’s not even counting the rollercoaster year that cryptocurrency enthusiasts have “enjoyed.”

Memes also literally became hot commodities in the form of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens).

What’s an NFT? In short, it’s an image that’s modified with blockchain. The blockchain makes the image a one-of-a-kind collector’s item since it’s possible to verify the image’s identity. Think of it as a mix of cryptocurrency and trading cards.

That means almost any digital image has the potential to become incredibly valuable. For instance, one NFT sold in 2021 for $69.3 million.²

And it makes sense why people have turned en masse to memes to build wealth. They don’t know how money works. They’ve never been taught how to build a financial legacy. And deep down, they know it. So when something, anything, comes along that looks like an opportunity to stick it to the man, they take it. The results are predictable… and often tragic.

The housing market caught on fire. Speaking of extravagant pricing, the housing market boomed in 2021. The numbers speak for themselves. Rent increased 16.4% from January to October.³ More dramatically, home prices surged almost 20% between August 2020 and August 2021.⁴

The housing market serves as a window into other forces impacting consumers. Inflation raised the cost of almost everything in the last half of 2021. And with the supply chain in chaos, it seems possible that prices will continue to rise in 2022.

That makes financial literacy more critical than ever. Families have less and less margin for error, and common milestones seem harder to reach. Without the right knowledge and strategies, building wealth may be increasingly difficult.

Financial illiteracy cost Americans billions. An annual survey by the National Financial Educators Council revealed that financial illiteracy cost the average American $1,634 in 2021.⁵ That’s a total of $415 billion.

Worst of all, that’s likely an underestimate. Think of what $1,634 could do if it were put to work building wealth in a business or retirement account. That’s the true cost of financial illiteracy—both in the short-term AND building wealth long-term.

What are your top financial literacy stories from 2021? Do you foresee any exciting changes in 2022?

Millennials have faced some of the greatest financial challenges of any generation in modern history.

Many came of age during the Great Recession, only to confront a pandemic-fueled economic downturn just a decade later. Here’s a quick look at the financial health of Millennials.

Few Millennials are financially healthy. A 2019 survey found that only 24% of Millennials are financially healthy. That means less than a quarter are “spending, saving, borrowing, and planning in a way that will allow them to be resilient and pursue opportunities over time.”(1) 54% are financially coping. They’re not sinking, but not necessarily thriving either. The final 22% of this generation are financially vulnerable. Bear in mind, these findings are from before the COVID-19 shutdowns which have left millions unemployed.

Employer practices and financial health. There are several contributing factors to the financial instability of Millennials. For instance, they typically hold fewer assets than the previous generation (Gen-X) but have roughly the same amount of debt.(2)

The evidence seems to suggest that employer practices like setting stable hours and offering benefits have tremendous impacts on financial health. Millennials with consistent schedules were 2.2 times more likely to be financially healthy.(3) Stable monthly income, employer-provided insurance, and paid sick leave also correlate to high financial health.

Millennials are skeptical of financial services. There’s a strong perception among Millennials that financial services should help them improve their financial lives.(3) And there’s an extent to which the industry is rising to meet those needs. Millennials are all over online and mobile banking; 65% to 72% have used those services in the last 12 months, respectively.(4)

But overwhelmingly, Millennials don’t feel like their financial institutions stand up for them. Only 14% agreed with the statement that “[My primary financial institution] helps me improve my financial health.”(5) That means that, even though they prioritize businesses that fight for them, Millennials feel abandoned by the financial industry.

So where does this leave this generation? It means that Millennials, by-and-large, feel financially unstable, neglected by their employers, and ignored by financial institutions. Who knows how COVID-19 has escalated those sentiments? The question is; who will meet the needs of Millennials?

Life insurance hasn’t always existed.

In fact, most people throughout history have had zero outside financial protection in case of an untimely death. So why did life insurance appear? Let’s start by defining what it is.

What is life insurance? <br> Life insurance is essentially an agreement where people pay a company a premium on a policy that will provide a financial benefit in the case of an untimely death (or if other circumstances occur that are defined in the policy). Let’s say you have a spouse and a few kids. You know that if something were to happen to you it would leave them in a serious financial bind; being down an income could mean moving to a worse neighborhood, serious lifestyle changes, debt, and so on. An appropriate life insurance benefit Life insurance is worth considering if anyone in your life depends on you financially.

Roman soldiers: pioneers of life insurance <br> So where did the idea of life insurance come from? The first known example of life insurance was in a powerful organization with a high turnover rate: the Roman Army. Burials were culturally significant to Romans but expensive, which was bad news for poor soldiers constantly waging wars across ancient Europe. In response, they started burial clubs. Members of these clubs would cover funeral costs for their fallen comrades. It wasn’t much compared to the complexity of modern life insurance, but it at least provided a basic honor to soldiers and their families in the case of a tragic death.

Coffee Houses and Churches Not much is known about insurance in general after the fall of the Roman Empire. However, another high-risk field sparked its rebirth during Europe’s colonial era in the late 1680s. Merchants, sea captains, and sailors all worked high risk jobs; pirates, storms, and disease were serious threats to shipments and crews. What we think of as insurance was born to protect the pockets of investors in the case of a maritime catastrophe.

The first life insurance company opened in London just a few years later in 1706. The Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office was founded by William Talbot and required members to pay an annual fee. In 1759, American Presbyterian ministers created an organization to protect families of deceased pastors, with the Episcopalians following suit a few years later.

Something like modern life insurance was beginning to appear. But the next two centuries saw massive economic and social changes that permanently affected the insurance industry. We’ll explore those in part II!

Didn’t do so well in history at school? No worries.

Here’s an historical fact that’s easy to remember. Millennials are the largest generation in the US. Ever. Even larger than the Baby Boomers. Those born between the years 1980 to 2000 number over 92M.¹ These numbers dwarf the generation before them: Generation X at 61M.

When you’re talking about nearly a third of the population of North America, it would seem that anything related to this group is going to have an effect on the rest of the population and the future.

Here are a few examples:

• Millennials prefer to get married a bit later than their parents. (Will they also delay having children?)
• Millennials prefer car sharing vs. car ownership. (What does this mean for the auto industry? For the environment?)
• Millennials have an affinity for technology and information. (What “traditional ways of doing things” might fall by the wayside?)
• Millennials are big on health and wellness. (Will this generation live longer than previous ones?)

It’s interesting to speculate and predict what may occur in the future, but what effects are happening now? Well, for one, if you’re a Millennial, you may have noticed that companies have been shifting aggressively to meet your needs.² Simply put, if a company doesn’t have a website or an app that a Millennial can dig into, it’s probably not a company you’ll be investing any time or money in. This may be a driving force behind the technological advancements companies have made in the last decade – Millennials need, want, and use technology. All. The. Time. This means that whatever matters to you as a Millennial, companies may have no choice but to listen, take note, and innovate.

If you’re either in business for yourself or work for a company that’s planning to stay viable for the next 20-30 years, it might be a good idea to pay attention to the habits and interests of this massive group (if you’re not already). The Baby Boomers are already well into retirement, and the next wave of retirees will be Generation X, which will leave the Millennials as the majority of the workforce. There will come a time when this group will control most of the wealth in Canada and the US. This means that if you’re not offering what they need or want now, then there’s a chance that one day your product or service may not be needed or wanted by anyone. Perhaps it’s time to consider how your business can adapt and evolve.

Ultimately, this shift toward Millennials and what they’re looking for is an exciting time to gauge where our society will be moving in the next few decades, and what it’s going to mean for the financial industry.

When you finally make the commitment to organize that pile of financial documents, where are you supposed to start?

Maybe you’ve tried sorting your documents into this infamous trio: the Coffee Stains Assortment, the Crumpled-Up Masses, and the Definitely Missing a Page or Two Crew.

How has this system been working for you? Is that same stack of disorganized paper just getting shuffled from one corner of your desk to the top of your filing cabinet and back again? Why not give the following method a try instead? Based on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)’s “Save or Shred” ideas, here’s a list of the shelf life of some key financial records to help you begin whittling that stack down to just what you need to keep. (And remember, when disposing of any financial records, shred them – don’t just toss them into the trash.)

1. Keep These Until They Die: Mortgages, Student Loans, Car Loans, Etc.
These records are the ones to hang on to until you’ve completely paid them off. However, keeping these records indefinitely (to be on the safe side) is a good idea. If any questions or disputes relating to the loan or payment of the loan come up, you’re covered. Label the records clearly, then feel free to put them at the back of your file cabinet. They can be out of sight, but make sure they’re still in your possession if that info needs to come to mind.

2. Seven Years in the Cabinet: Tax-Related Records.
These records include your tax returns and receipts/proof of anything you might claim as a deduction. You’ll need to keep your tax documents – including proof of deductions – for 7 years. Period. Why? In the US, if the IRS thinks you may have underreported your gross income by 25%, they have 6 whole years to challenge your return. Not to mention, they have 3 years to audit you if they think there might be any good faith errors on past returns. (Note: Check with your state tax office to learn how long you should keep your state tax records.) Also important to keep in mind: Some of the items included in your tax returns may also pull from other categories in this list, so be sure to examine your records carefully and hang on to anything you think you might need.

3. The Sixers: Property Records.
This one goes out to you homeowners. While you’re living in your home, keep any and all documents from the purchase of the home to remodeling or additions you make. After you sell the home, keep those documents for at least 6 more years.

4. The Annually Tossed: Brokerage Statements, Paycheck Stubs, Bank Records.
“Annually tossed” is used a bit lightly here, so please proceed with caution. What can be disposed of after an annual review are brokerage statements, paycheck stubs (if not enrolled in direct deposit), and bank records. Hoarding these types of documents may lead to a “keep it all” or “trash it all” attitude. Neither is beneficial. What should be kept is anything of long-term importance (see #2).

5. The Easy One: Rental Documents.
If you rent a property, keep all financial documents and rental agreements until you’ve moved out and gotten your security deposit back from the landlord. Use your deposit to buy a shredder and have at it – it’s easy and fun!

6. The Check-‘Em Againsts: Credit Card Receipts/Statements and Bills.
Check your credit card statement against your physical receipts and bank records from that month. Ideally, this should be done online daily, or at least weekly, to catch anything suspicious as quickly as possible. If everything checks out and there are no red flags, shred away! (Note: Planning to claim anything on your statement as a tax deduction? See #2.) As for bills, you’re in the clear to shred them as soon as your payment clears – with one caveat: Bills for any big-ticket items that you might need to make an insurance claim on later (think expensive sound system, diamond bracelet, all-leather sofa with built-in recliners) should be held on to indefinitely (or at least as long as you own the item).

So even if your kids released their inner Michelangelo on the shoebox of financial papers under your bed, some of them need to be kept – for more than just sentimental value. And it’s vital to keep the above information in mind when you’re considering what to keep and for how long.