Liberated Minds

Want to Save Your Kids from the Rat Race? Raise Their Financial IQ

You've read the news. It's not pretty. Too many Americans are mortgaging their futures. They are on the road to financial serfdom. Consider some stats:

• It is estimated that, on average, 20% of Americans have “maxed out” their credit cards. About 25% of adults in the United States have a history of credit problems. Americans’ average credit card debt is $8,400 per household.
• Among former college students, every type of debt — from credit cards to college to personal loans — has risen. Over the last five years, student-loan balances rose 16% to an average of $14,379 (revolving debt, including credit cards, surged 24% to $5,781; and total installment debt, including student and personal loans, rose 4% to $17,208).
• Meanwhile, we are now in the midst of a national credit crisis tied to $1.3 trillion in sub-prime mortgages. Approximately 16% of such loans are now 90-days into default or in foreclosure proceedings, roughly triple the rate of 2005. Nearly 447,000 U.S. homes were targeted by some sort of foreclosure activity from July to September 2007.

When you think of a father and mother staring at a foreclosure notice, you think of people who’ve had a poor financial education. Maybe they had a dream once, but it’s eluded them now. How free must they feel as they are kicked out of their homes or threatened with bankruptcy? 

But the situation is not always so dramatic. More typically, the tragedy is one of unmet potential and a life of continuing disappointments. That's the situation for people trapped in what author Robert Kiyosaki calls "the Rat Race." As he explains:

The rules have changed today but many of us, as parents, keep giving the same advice to our children "Go to school, get good grades so you can get into a good college and get a good job with a good company that offers good benefits." This advice was good during the Industrial Age but is no longer applicable for the Information Age.

Young people graduate from college and get good jobs. They begin to make money, credit cards arrive in mass and the spending begins. They meet other young people, date, fall in love and get married. Life is wonderful because now they have two incomes.  As a successful couple they decide to buy a house and two cars, and have children. A pay raise comes in and they decide to buy a bigger house, because someone told them they can get a tax break from the interest. They realize they need to start saving for their children's college education so they work harder to make even more money.

This happy couple is now trapped in the Rat Race for the rest of their working days. They work for the owners of their company, for the government paying taxes, and for the bank paying off a mortgage, car loan and credit cards. They learn nothing about money along the way. Then they advise their own children to "study hard, get good grades so they can find a good job." The process repeats itself creating another hard-working generation. The only way to get out of the "Rat Race" is through financial education. You must learn about money, accounting and investing.

So what will it be: The road to financial serfdom? Or the road to financial and personal independence? That's the question we are now challenged to answer.

Attention Deficit? Or Justifiable Boredom?

Richness. That's the word Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates uses to describe why kids are so engaged by today's video games and so stultifyingly bored by today's school curricula.

Check out this YouTube video for an interesting perspective on what's happening (and what's not happening ) in the minds of kids today.

Interestingly, my kid tells me that many of these YouTube videos I've shown him sound preachy and redundant. "They say the same things over and over again," he says, two minutes into the thing.

Yeah, that's what we are up against.  It's a kind of stand-off. We grew up on books and 3-channel television and learned to live with classroom lectures. We consider the kids impatient.

But the kids are alright. They just grew up in a different era. They know massive multiplayer video games and instant messaging and a million cable channels (which they can digitally record and watch without commercials). They consider us slow and, well, pedantic.

So I have to ask: What will it take to bring richness to our kids' learning experiences? Somehow, I think richness will make them rich -- however they define that word.

Mythologizing the Middle Class

It's an election year. So we seem to be hearing a lot about the hardships facing the middle class. Hard working folks are getting "squeezed." They're finding it difficult to "make ends meet."  Or so we're told.

Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs blame immigrants and globalization. Nicholas Carr's new book, The Big Switch, even suggests the Internet will wipe out middle class jobs. But is this empirically true? At Reason.TV, host Drew Carey offers a different perspective. 

If you measure the amount of time it takes to accumulate most of today's amenities and necessities, you find that we are all doing much better than ever. We live like rich people a generation past. While Gordan Gekko walked around with a ludicrously large fat phone in Wall Street, just about everyone you know has a wafer thin one that gets much better reception. Can you hear me now?

The one thing that needs to be considered here is the tendency of the "squeezed " middle class to squeeze itself. There's seems to be far too little spending and budgeting discipline; far too much social encouragement to blow one's wages on toys -- running up bad debts in the process. (Not knocking consumerism, per se. Nothing "crass" about buying nice things that make you happy. But it is crass to senselessly run up debts in the present that will severely diminish your quality of life later on.)

Revolving credit card debt, which averages slightly over $8,400 per household in the United States, is arguably a symptom of lost personal control -- a step on the road to financial serfdom.

But we can't blame this absence of fiscal discipline and financial literacy on globalization. We can't blame the Internet. We can't even decry lost jobs when unemployment  remains remarkably low by the standards of the developed world. One can't even buy the case that the Internet will wipe out jobs when  executives speak up every day about their unmet demand for skilled and creative talent.

Those who lack discipline and initiative will almost certainly fall behind in the coming years as the next economy plays out. But we can't blame impersonal, external forces for our inability to seize the seizable opportunities all around us. (Please see Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind for relevant examples of the empathic and creative roles that are now emerging -- lucrative opportunities that, contrary to another popular myth, won't revolve around extensive academic experience.)

Bottom line: The middle class is doing just fine. Maybe too fine, in fact.  It may be hard for a nation to reach the next level of economic dynamism if the natural forces of capitalism keep delivering the goods -- the boats, cars and HDTVs. People may just decide to buy toys now, absorb the debt, retire later (or never), and enter their elder years in a precariously uncertain state.

Many people will settle for unsatisfying, yet secure jobs. They will fail to realize their own personal potential in an economy that would surely welcome their hidden aspirations. We're not talking quiet lives of desperation here; just unimaginative, unfulfilled ones. Ironically, the bountifulness of capitalism may be the enemy of excellence and true personal fulfillment.    

Indolent Heirs

What does it mean to be born rich?

It's not uncommon to wish for this. When you are struggling to make it, you are naturally gripped by the fantasy of having been gifted great riches for you to capitalize on. If only...

Watching Jamie Johnson's documentary, Born Rich, one must think twice. Johnson is an heir to the fortune surrounding the well known medical and consumer health firm Johnson and Johnson. The problem is that his supposed "friends" -- or at least the "friends" that allow him to film them for his documentary -- are essentially unbearable.

There are some exceptions. Ivanka Trump -- the Donald's daughter -- is actually quite impressive. In one vignette, she explains how her father pointed to a beggar at the step of the Trump Tower and said, "That man is 8 million dollars richer than we are." Given the extraordinary debts that the senior Trump was experiencing at the time, the statement had some validity. Ivanka explains that this was a moment that drew her closer to her father and encouraged her to follow in his footsteps.

Other characters in the documentary are far less sympathetic. S.I, Newhouse IV, heir to the Conde Naste fortune, and Josiah Hornblower, heir to the Vanderbilt/Whitney fortune, come off as sad, lost and pathetic figures -- incapable of capitalizing on their wealth, unable to communicate with their families.

What bothered me about this film was its predictability. Doesn't it make those of us who are not born rich feel better to find that wealthy heirs are actually more screwed up than we are? The Germans have a name for this dark impulse: schadenfreude. 

Indeed, the filmmaker is apparently sued by one of his "friends" -- Luke Weil, heir to a gaming empire. This nutcase cops to massive drug use, misuse of women and even posing as an inner city "gangsta" back when that was the cool thing to do. The lawsuit -- an afterthought to his camera preening -- is apparently an effort to ensure his inheritance is not taken away as a result of embarrassing footage.

And this is a dark shadow that seems to hang over those who are born rich. Their riches, in many cases, can be taken away by elders who find their behavior reprehensible -- or inappropriate in some fashion. They are not as free as one might think.

Which left me to wonder. How representative was this movie of those born rich? I suspect they are not -- on balance and on average -- much different than those of us not born rich.

Johnson admits that he found it very difficult to find members of his social set to go on camera. Perhaps the ones that did were not representative of the whole. Perhaps the ones who did were more hungry for attention -- more damaged than the rest. Johnson, arguably, made his participants look pretty bad (all except Ivanka, that is). He played the typical confidence game of a documentary filmmaker.   

However, viewers can watch this movie and realize that there really is no great advantage associated with being born into extraordinary wealth -- not in America, anyway.  Here, people are generally judged on what they accomplished on their own. Those who are born on third base in America often feel very guilty about it -- and that guilt can be destructive.

Then again, I suspect there are many good and wealthy kids that were unwilling to take part in this documentary. They had the good sense to stay out of it. Others did not have that good sense.

Nothing wrong with being born rich, of course. Just recognize that if you are, there's a market out there waiting to see you fail on the big screen.    

How to Teach Kids Financial Responsibility

Some tips from Katherine Lee, editor of Working Mother Magazine:

• Halve your child's age as an allowance
• Don't buy them big ticket items when it's not their birthday or X-mas
• Involve the older kids in the family's financial decisions

It's a good idea to start now. One study shows that a third of kids between 13 and 18 already owe someone money. Best to get started right away if you want them to understand the value of a dollar.

How Much is Enough?

In America alone, we now spend $536 billion dollars a year on government-run K-12 education – nearly $9,000 per student. (And if you think that’s not so much money, realize that average private school tuition is about $6,800.)

So we are spending a lot on education in America, but are we liberating young minds? Are we giving our kids the tools they’ll need to thrive in this fast-paced, knowledge-intensive and globally competitive era?

Are we preparing them to achieve financial independence – and, thereby, expand their spheres of personal happiness?

That's the challenge ahead. But it's not likely that we will see great innovation within the bureaucratic boxes of our existing  education system.

Consider these recent comments from Future Shock author Alvin Toffler:

The public school system is designed to produce a workforce for an economy that will not be there. And therefore, with all the best intentions in the world, we're stealing the kids' future. Do I have all the answers for how to replace it? No. But it seems to me that before we can get serious about creating an appropriate education system for the world that's coming and that these kids will have to operate within, we have to ask some really fundamental questions. And some of these questions are scary. For example: Should education be compulsory? And, if so, for who? Why does everybody have to start at age five? Maybe some kids should start at age eight and work fast. Or vice versa. Why is everything massified in the system, rather than individualized in the system? New technologies make possible customization in a way that the old system -- everybody reading the same textbook at the same time -- did not offer.

As he sees it, fundamental change is inevitable. But he is not convinced it will come quietly: "The only question is whether we're going to do it starting now, or whether we're going to wait for catastrophe." 

Liberating Minds to Thrive in a Flat World

In his best-selling book, The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman assessed the impact of globalization on the American economy.

His title, which points to a  “flat” or “level” playing field, suggests that advanced economies are now under severe pressure to remain competitive. Their strengths, as he sees it, are now quietly slipping away.

He was raising a big question for all of us to consider:

• Will our country be able to keep up with the intensifying competition now coming from all corners of the globe?

But he was also asking us a more personal question:

• Are we truly preparing our children to succeed in this new era?

I don’t think so. And I don’t think you do either.

Another best-selling author, Thomas Stanley, conducted a study of millionaires in America. His book is called The Millionaire Next Door. Guess what he discovered in his research?

Surprisingly, American millionaires aren’t all floating around on yachts in the Caribbean, collecting European sports cars or preening for cameras like Donald Trump. No, most affluent people live in our neighborhoods. You might even fit the profile.

Listen to what else Stanley learned:

• 80% of them are first generation rich.

• They live well below their means, driving $30K cars and living in $300K houses (without adjustable rate mortgages I might add).

• They allocate their time, energy and money in ways that are conducive to building wealth.

• They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status.

• Their adult children are economically self-sufficient.

• They are proficient in targeting market opportunities.

• They chose the right occupation.

I wonder: Are these the values and principles that kids are learning in American high schools these days?

Well, if not, then why not?

Given the grand economic challenges we face in the coming years as a nation and the personal challenges of ensuring our kids are prepared to realize their own financial independence, I’m thinking we should be thinking differently.

What I’ve seen is that schools that once were very accessible to parents in the elementary years become opaque as our kids enter middle school and high school. They often become bureaucratic black boxes that we have little power to influence.

If we can influence them, we should. We should take steps to bring financial education into the schools and ensure that our kids are exposed to key principles of money management.

We should encourage school programs that give kids access to core business knowledge and even valuable internships. Organizations such as Junior Achievement have been doing this in public schools for years, but they seem to be a voice in the wilderness – and their impact is relatively minimal. 

Just don't expect too much. How, after all, does one change a monopolistic system? Ma Bell was pretty unresponsive until she was broken up in the early 1980s. And the protected U.S. Postal Service remains slow and sclerotic – though increasing competition from UPS, DHL and FedEx have certainly led to improved service levels in recent years.

But we aren’t powerless in this situation. That isn’t my point at all.

Rather, we may have to take this challenge into our own hands.We need to teach our own – just as we do every day that we spend time with them. We need to seek out the resources and identify the opportunities necessary to give our kids a proper financial education.

How might we do that? There are, quite literally, 3.5 millionaires in America -– and, as I pointed out, many of them live right next door. Maybe we could seek them out and encourage them to share what they’ve learned.

Do you think they would? I’m anxious to find out. How about you?

See, I think we all want our children and grandchildren to thrive in a flat world. I believe that’s something we want for everyone’s children and grandchildren.

But if we want them to experience the supreme confidence that comes with financial freedom, we have to provide new options and opportunities. If we want them to breathe free and fearlessly pursue happiness, then we – you and I – will have to be the catalysts of change. 

Get in the Game

What do your kids (and grandkids) like to do in their free time?  There's a good chance they like to play video games.  In fact, one  school  has discovered that  video game design -- not merely play --  represents a powerful way to engage and educate at-risk teens.

The Institute of Urban Game Design (IUGD) was launched at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C. to introduce kids to the possibility of careers in information technology.

The game development curriculum covers programming, 2D and 3D animation, game history,  educational gaming, the business of gaming, and math and physics.

By the summer of 2007, more than 500 students ages 8 to 18 had received training from the program in the greater DC area.

The Institute uses the latest industry software tools to help teens realize that there are real-world applications  for the skills they are developing. Partnerships with organizations such the American Cancer Society have enabled the kids in the program to produce educational games and programs that have an impact. In one case, they are creating avatars in Second Life that raise money for the ACS. The program also has led to internships with organizations such as the FBI.

Too often, kids fail in school because they  are exceedingly bored. That was my experience. But this organization has shown it doesn't have to be that way. We can use the tools that parents often consider a misuse of time to electrify minds and reveal new horizons. 

So here's a question: How might we take this successful model and scale it up?  I think there's an opportunity here just waiting to be seized. What do you think? 

Dumbed Down?

In his 1990 acceptance speech as Teacher of the Year in the New York City public schools, John Taylor Gatto touched a raw nerve:

This is a time of great school crisis and that crisis is interlinked with a greater social crisis in the general community. We seem to have lost our identity. Children and old people are penned up and locked away from the business of the world to a degree without precedent — nobody talks to them anymore and without children and old people mixing in daily life a community has no future and no past, only a continuous present. In fact, the name “community” hardly applies to the way we interact with each other. We live in networks, not communities, and everyone I know is lonely because of that. In some strange way school is a major actor in this tragedy just as it is a major actor in the widening guilt among social classes. Using school as a sorting mechanism we appear to be on the way to creating a caste system, complete with untouchables who wander through subway trains begging and sleep on the streets.

Gatto is a man of uncommon vision. In a brief news segment from years ago called Classrooms of the Heart, he demonstrated how he could reach children that no one else could.

His 1990 speech to the assembled teachers, administrators and political officials wasn't soft stuff. It sounded pretty radical. It still does -- nearly 18 years later. And yet what has changed? We still seem to be failing to provide a learning experience that is consonant with the real world. As Gatto continued:

I’ve noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my 25 years of teaching — that schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aids and administrators but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers do care and do work very hard the institution is psychopathic, it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to different cell where he must memorize that man and monkeys derive from a common ancestor.

Some schools are better than others, of course. Nothing too terrible about the schools in my neighborhood. But I can't help but sense that we now merely judge our schools in relative terms. As long as our kids can get into "good" colleges, we worry very little. We don't measure outcomes in relation to the potential of our children -- merely in relation to the outcomes of other children (like those "across the tracks"). We are in a better position, but we are nevertheless content to marinate in mediocrity.

I don't think that's inevitable. Not for those who can hear Gatto's message. But who's listening? Are you? Let us know what you think.