The Beginnings of My Financial Education

As I covered in my previous, and first, blog entry I am not a financial expert. So perhaps, at 28, I'm a little behind the ball in getting started with my financial education. I attribute part of this to the fact that I come from a family background where both of my parents are hard-working principals, one in an elementary school and one in a middle school. Their background in business is limited and therefore I didn't grow up in an environment where there was much discussion about business, finance, investing, etc. I don't harbor any resentments about this. My only wish is that they had someone teach them personal finance at an earlier point in their lives so that they could be in a better position today.

When I graduated from college and started at my first real job I took two important, but minimal steps. First, I immediately enrolled in my company's 401(k) plan and, second, I started to pay down my debt. I didn't do anything else because, frankly, I didn't know what else was out there. Over the next few blogs, I'll discuss each of these two points individually but for now I'll stick with the overview.

It wasn't until about six months ago that my real financial education began. By that time, I'd been out of college for five years. One day I picked up a book that had been gathering dust on my bookshelf, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki. Now I know that many people have read this and the other books in the Rich Dad series and have varying views on the books themselves. That's fine with me. However, for me, this book opened up a whole new world of thinking. That book started my transformation from Joe Employee, saving a bit in a 401(k) and spending pretty much everything else, to someone researching, learning, and exploring new ways to make money everyday. You don't have to agree with everything that Mr. Kiyosaki writes in his book, but it has the ability to inspire and get you thinking about what could be. And, for that reason, I recommend it.