I reviewed the book Cold Hard Truth on Men, Woman & Money by Kevin O’ Leary and learnt some really good points to help build a balance sheet and help our kids with very important lessons. Kevin who is a wealthy entrepreneur and appears on Shark Tank goes through lessons that he believes to be money mistakes in life
I learnt the following major points from the book
- Invest in shares that return a high dividend yield(or interest bearing bonds) as dividends generated about 72% of total returns over the last 40 years – he terms this get “paid while you wait” and this is what his mother did
- go to war on your debt – he relates story of a person who built his balance sheet by investing in property and became very rich – he said that instead of meat he ate beans to save money – so eat beans now and steak later
- when buying anything you should ask yourself – is it any good?,Will it last?, Where did it come from?- this teaches kids about cheap flimsy goods that are built to break and to question even junk food – by highlighting this it tells them not to waste money and attach value to the money spent
- create a secret 10- that is save 10% of your income and keep it at your side all through life and watch it grow with you as compound interest takes over – maybe use it for a big payment one day for a down payment on a house – make this as important as brushing your teeth e.g. if you deposit an initial $2 000 at age 17 then contribute $2 000 a year – at a 3% return you will have $223 345.80 at 65 years old or if you earned 6% you would have $576 706.54 at 65
- When kids come to you and say what they want to do one day e.g. want to be a photographer – it is good to have a hobby but you should say “it’s good to know what you want to be , but what do you want to do for a living?”- rather get a business degree and then you can run any business including a photography business
- Grow your money – not your lifestyle – get into this habit early in life and you will be able to achieve financial security