Who To Trust with Your Financial Education

I’m going to make a statement and I believe you will agree with me.

Here it is: Much of what we learn in life is learned through context and repeating actions we’ve observed in others.

We can agree on that right?

For example, the entire English language is learned by an infant by simply mimicking the sound patterns the baby hears from those around him. This is how we learn almost everything growing up. We may not intend for this to happen, but it is the job of the analytical part of our minds to record the data around us, label it, file it, and store it for future application.

This does not stop when we’re older. Our minds are still always constantly running, recording data, and attempting to accurately file the data so it can be drawn from later. This is important to realize when we are choosing to be influenced by somebody that we perceive to be a thought leader. A thought leader is a person or group whose opinions or ideas are considered true and listened to by others.

Let’s say I decided I want to learn how to “Win Friends and Influence People”. So, I picked up the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Now I’m sure Dale is a great guy, but let’s pretend he wasn’t. As I’m reading this book on winning friends and influencing people, I may not realize this, but all of Dale’s opinions are based on his perception of reality and the subjective experiences he has had. So again, Dale is a great guy, but in this example, we are going to pretend Dale was rather negative and didn’t take care of his personal health. Again, I want to stress that this isn’t necessarily true, and we are just pretending for the sake of example. But, as I’m learning about how to win friends and influence people, the advice I’m reading was influenced from a perception that physical health does not matter. My intention in reading that information was not to learn anything about physical health but instead learn skills with people. But regardless of my intention that is still the perception I am going to be influenced by. This is like inhaling second hand-smoke. Even if you don’t smoke, it is still going to get in your lungs and you’re still going to be negatively affected by it. Consider it “second hand-mis-information”.

Let’s take another example in the arena of finances. You want to learn about finances and so you go online and start looking for someone to learn from. You find some articles and YouTube videos by someone who seems to know what they’re talking about, but you don’t realize that this person isn’t generous with their money and they’ve filed bankruptcy several times due to their style of investing. But you don’t know this and you begin following them, taking what they teach to heart and trying to apply it in your own life. Without knowing it, you are learning about wealth and finances with the imbedded intention that being generous isn’t important and that it’s okay to over-leverage on investments, not pay people back what’s owed, etc. You may not believe those things personally, but because it is never covered in the content of this person, you simply don’t learn it and if you don’t learn it, you can’t apply it and it doesn’t become part of your financial behavior.

When we decide, we are going to learn a subject like finances from another person, we can protect ourselves from “second-hand-mis-information” by simply studying a little bit about the person before we directly study from the person. You’ll find that many of the perceived experts, authors, and gurus are simply great at marketing and not so great at applying what they teach. It really is that simple. Read a brief history or biography of the person you are going to learn from before you decide to learn from them.

In ancient Hebrew culture, students would select a Rabbi to learn from and this person was going to mentor them and pour all of their knowledge into the student. Before a Rabbi was selected, a student would look at the track record of that Rabbi, ask other students about their experiences with that Rabbi, and make sure they have as much information possible on that Rabbi before committing as a pupil.

Here are two easy questions to ask yourself before learning from another person: “Would I want the lifestyle this person lives?” or “What does this person have that I do not want?” or “What do I want that this person does not have?”

Because of this, many years back I created a Wealth Coaching program through my company Wealth DynamX that allows people to work with a trusted Wealth Coach. Somebody who is going to help them learn about wealth based on what the Top 1% of wealth actually did in their lives. The Wealth Coach is somebody that is going to help you confront where you currently are financially, set big & exciting future goals, and then provide you with information and accountability to help you get to your destination. The result of this program is that our students and members see their incomes increasing, a higher overall financial IQ, more money saved & invested, and ultimately, they are able to think for themselves financially and create wealthier lives for themselves, their loved ones and the world around them.

So, if you’re a good person who wants to help make the world a better place and this article helped you, I want to encourage you to start planning your next quarterly trip and putting this into practice. And feel free to write to me and let me know how it went.

If you’re a client of mine and you’d like help leveling up, send an email to my team with “Level Up” in the subject line to [email protected].

If you’re a follower and have not read my book The Blueprint to Financial Freedom yet, that is the place to start. This book covers the specifics for each level in the various chapters and you can grab the book for free as my gift.

Click here to get a copy!

The Blueprint to Financial Freedom by Jerry Fetta

To Purpose, Wealth & Freedom,

Jerry Fetta

Jerry Fetta is the CEO and Founder of Wealth DynamX. He is a nationally recognized financial expert featured in Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Fox, Chicago Weekly News, New York Finance, interviewed on 100+ podcasts with world renowned experts, earning endorsements and affiliations throughout his career with names like Kevin O’Leary, Grant Cardone, Dave Ramsey, and Pamela Yellen.

Jerry’s mission in life is to help create millions of financially educated and solvent families achieving greater financial freedom and sharing the truth about money with those around them.

Learn more at www.WealthDynamX.com

(DISCLAIMER: The information in this content should not be considered tax, financial, investment, or any kind of professional advice. Only a professional diagnosis of your specific situation can determine which strategies are appropriate for your needs. Wealth DynamX can and does not provide advice unless/until engaged by you.)