Financial Ignorance is not Bliss
One of the reasons why so many people end up being incompetent about money is the fact that they are ignorant about it. No, this is not meant to be insulting but is a statement of fact. Although the word “ignorant” is usually taken as a derogatory term to mean someone who is uneducated, it also describes someone who lacks knowledge of the fundamentals of a given field. In this case, financial ignorance refers to anyone who does not possess the know-how of such basic concepts as budgeting and handling money.
Take note, just because you are financially ignorant does not mean that you are dumb in everything else. You only do not know how to make wise financial decisions. Being financially ignorant does not mean that you are not good in your work as a professional athlete, cook, or actor. Seriously, how many times have we heard of stars in their own field—basketball players, for example, who can shoot and dunk while seemingly able to defy gravity—who have gone broke and filed for bankruptcy? The names of individuals who have excelled in their lines of work but have failed miserably as far as money goes are long and unless we are all educated about money matters, this list will continue to grow longer.
If financial ignorance does not affect our work, then why do we make such a big deal about it? Unfortunately, this kind of ignorance— when not reversed— can have serious repercussions in other areas of your life. Unwise decisions about money, unpaid debts, and the threat of foreclosures and bankruptcies can spiral into broken relationships and despair that can ruin lives. When you are burdened with debt, you tend to become less effective at work which can lead your employer to fire you. And that adds to your already mounting problems.
If you want to prevent this from happening, you need to stop being financially ignorant and need to start being financially wise. If you are already experiencing all these because of your ignorance, don’t despair. There is still time to change even if the road is going to be more challenging.
The problem with our society and our educational system today is that we are not taught about such subjects as how to handle money in high school or even earlier. Most of our parents who were also struggling with the burden of debt and the challenges of budgeting did not know how to make us, their kids, financially savvy. In essence, we were left to our own devices as far as money is concerned and as a result, we derive our knowledge of it through mainstream media and television.
Since plastic money is glorified in all advertisements, we think that it’s normal to own a lot of credit cards and worse, max them out. We think it’s all right to keep on changing their cars every three to five years and perpetually paying for a brand new vehicle month after month. Most of the modeling that we got were wrong, leaving us bereft of financial knowledge that are now the cause of all our troubles.
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