Diana Ministry Financial Literacy

Financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works in the world: how someone manages to earn or make it, how that person manages it, how he/she invests it (turn it into more) and how that person donates it to help others. More specifically, it refers to the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions with all of their financial resources. Raising interest in personal financeis now a focus of state-run programs in countries including Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States and the UK.

In America, much of the nation's financial education resources are run through a national nonprofit organization called Jumpstart Coalition Jumpstart Coalition. Each state, in turn, has its own chapter organization that holds events and helps members promote financial education to our youth.

Financial stewardship is the assumption of responsibility of the financial well being of another or a group. The expectation being that this responsibility will be carried out with great care, keeping in mind the good of the individual or group being served.
Financial stewards have been entrusted with the financial resources of another. There is an expectation of care to be followed when acting as a steward. A financial steward would be expected to make those decisions which would best benefit the individual or group whose financial assets are being cared for; managing expenses, responsible investing, and accountability.

In contrast to young White adults, African-Americans of the same age are more likely to use credit and debit cards, are less likely to have a bank account or other types of savings and are less likely to work part-time or summers while they are still in high school. This orientation toward consumption and away from saving may help explain higher relative scores of African-Americans on spending rather than saving questions.

Perhaps as a reflection of their lower financial literacy scores, young African-Americans are less sure of their money management skills than are young Whites. They are also less likely to have learned what they know of money management either at home or at school. In fact only 44.4 percent of young African-Americans had a full or partial course in money management at school as compared to 52.5 percent of White students.

In addition, just a quarter of African-American students have had the opportunity to play a stock market game, an experience which results in significantly higher literacy scores, than White stu-dents, 31.8 percent of whom have played such a game in school. More than twice as many African-Americans as Whites receive a regular allowance from their parents that is not dependent upon completing chores. While receipt of a regular allowance was formerly thought to promote financial literacy through forced budgeting, consistent results from the Jump$ tart surveys have shown that it detracts from financial literacy, serving instead as an "entitlement" which may discourage self-reliance. Finally, students were asked to evaluate themselves in terms of their level of orientation toward spending rather than thrift. Among African-Americans, 27.7 percent evaluated themselves as "spending-oriented" in contrast to 22.7 percent of Whites. A roughly equivalent percentage of both groups felt that they were less thrifty than their parents.

Leverage - A Key to Success and Wealth

Leverage is one of the most incredible tools you have at your disposal to help you develop true wealth and financial independence. Unfortunately, very little information has been published to explain, in easy to understand terms, this absolutely essential bedrock principle in the development of substantial financial reserves. In this article, we'll discuss this principle as it relates to wealth development and will cover critical types of leverage you must employ if you are to achieve maximum success in the shortest possible time. If you're serious about developing wealth and financial independence, you must make it a point to study and learn how to implement leverage in your life and work.

If you carefully study the actions of people that have achieved significant wealth, you will find that one of the key differentiators between them and the average individual is their use of leverage, usually in a variety of ways, while the majority of people tend to conduct themselves in most or all areas of life in generally non-leveraged fashion. Interestingly, the more a person learns to employ leverage successfully, the faster his or her financial growth tends to accelerate. Since people who successfully employ leverage accomplish exponentially more in the same amount of time then people who do not take advantage of this powerful tool, they tend to have more free time and not only greater financial resources, but more balanced and fulfilling lives.

The argument has been made by many that continue to lead very modest lives, often in quiet desperation, that implementation of high leverage activities is risky. Sadly it very well may be the avoidance of leverage that often results in the highest risk over time, since the intentional avoidance of risk often results in avoidance of opportunity of even greater measure.

Understand that the use of leverage for success and wealth accumulation requires time to learn. It essentially requires stepping out of your comfort zone, and through practice and experience finding the interrelated methods of leverage implantation that fits your personality and talents. It also requires patience and a often the discipline of delayed gratification. When you first start changing your view of the world and how you approach opportunities, you will make mistakes and you may very well invest time, energy, and money with little in the way of short term rewards. But once you have identified and successfully developed your leverage systems, and have primed the leverage pumps that will produce your financial fortress, your future will never be the same.

If you look at the population in general, very few people understand the concept of leverage, and as a result, continue to work harder than ever to just make ends meet, wondering, "What is the secret that the super successful know that allows them to gain such wealth and success?" If there is any so called "secret" that the wealthy know that the average population does not, this would most likely be it. It is easy to find people that can cite specific isolated examples of leverage, but they seldom have a thorough understanding of the principle as it relates to the creation of powerful wealth development vehicles.

In this article, we're going to explore this powerful concept, and see how it relates not only to real estate and the realization of financial independence, but how you need to reprogram your thinking in all areas of life if you are to truly realize all that you are capable of achieving. We'll go through each of the four most critical forms of leverage one at a time and will give you some important insights that will hopefully help you increase your understanding and use thereof for success.

First you must understand and employ financial leverage. Financial leverage involves employing the financial assets of others to increase significantly the yields you can achieve on a given amount of assets which you invest.  See Example below:
Interestingly, many financial planners, especially those that represent particular products or companies, tend to steer people away from highly leveraged opportunities. It is understandable that the use of great amounts of leverage without proper knowledge and without proper risk management steps in place can be cause for concern. The reason however that many financial planners do not include leverage concerns in their advice portfolio is often because they themselves have no working knowledge of the principles of rapid wealth generation through leverage implementation. The best source of specific knowledge on successful leverage implementation for wealth generation is the wealthy that have reached or that are well on their way to the financial success you desire to achieve.

The use of financial leverage is not enough, however, if you wish to accelerate your financial growth to the maximum extent possible. In order to truly reach your dreams as quickly as possible, you absolutely must leverage the time of others. Just as the majority of the population, they fail to grasp the importance of implementing multiple leverage strategies, and thus when they think of making more money they think in terms of working more hours. This type of linear thinking is absolutely contrary to the way most wealthy individuals view their world.

In addition to time and financial leverage, it is also essential to employ the knowledge of others. This is not only through study of others' knowledge through books, tapes, and seminars but is also through the use of others' talents to achieve greater output that you can personally generate. Find a great team of people with whom to surround yourself with in order to take maximum advantage of the knowledge of others.

There is an interesting story regarding Henry Ford, an entrepreneur that few would deny understood how to develop significant wealth. During an interview, a reporter trying to show that Mr. Ford was not very intelligent kept asking him technical questions. When Mr. Ford couldn't answer the questions the reporter started to heckle him about his lack of knowledge. Mr. Ford responded by picking up the phone and asking one of his employees the question. After another question he did the very same thing. Then he turned to the reporter and said. "I don't need to know all of the answers to run a successful company. I have hired people to answer these questions for me so I can concentrate on steering the ship."

If you're going to achieve maximum wealth and success, begin carefully looking out for those people with whom you need to surround yourself in order to leverage their knowledge for greater growth.

Finally, in order to achieve true financial independence, it is absolutely essential that you take advantage of the incredible leverage opportunities presented by modern technology, especially the Internet. Technology allows you to operate much more efficiently that you could otherwise operate and it vastly increases your ability to network with others. And, if you are familiar with business, networking is one of the most important aspects of growth and survival. Without leveraging the power of technology to assist you in this regard, you are placing yourself at a distinct disadvantage. Interestingly, the leverage opportunities presented by technology depend on your ability to effectively use technology for your advantage, which in turn requires understanding, which unfortunately takes time to develop. If you are not making efforts to increase your understanding and ability to leverage the power of technology then you must make conscious efforts to do so right away.

Likely you're aware of the young billionaires, individuals that have achieved incredible states of wealth even before they've reached the age of thirty. Interestingly, many of these individuals have achieved this state of wealth through technology related activities. This is in part due to the power of the shift occurring in our society. Look through history and you'll find that whenever major trends occurred, such as the shift from an industrial based society to an information based society, those who realized the trends and took advantage of the trends, realized far greater success than those who remained oblivious. In fact, the trend can push you towards success more than you might realize, and if you employ leverage successfully, in tandem with a powerful trend, the results might indeed surprise you.

It is impossible in a short discussion of this powerful topic to truly raise your awareness. Let this article cause you to imagine, seek, and find ways you can employ leverage, in all its many forms. Find ways to combine leverage strategies. Usually the majority of highly successful people employ leverage in almost all of their work or career related activities.

If you wish to achieve great wealth and success, leverage needs to be the number one tool in your wealth toolkit! http://dianaministry.org