Educating Family About Money : Part 1 – Gold and Silver

Most people think money is that paper fiat currency you’re carrying around in your wallet. It is what we have grown accustomed to and it is a commonly accepted societal norm that we rely on this paper because our government says it’s ok.

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As you go down the rabbit hole and investigate the history of money it becomes pretty clear that this paper stuff isn’t really worth holding. The smart and rich people put their wealth into assets and they only use currency for transactions and cash flow. But the majority of people are clueless about the way the financial system and central banks are working and in many cases they don’t want to know. For the Sheeple “Ignorance is Bliss” and many people of my generation are just too busy with their heads-down-bums-up just trying to make ends meet so they can make their mortgage payments. They don’t have time to look into this stuff themselves. They just want to trust that the governments and banks will do the right thing….and we know where that leaves us…..

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So when I figured some of this money stuff out, the first thing I wanted to do was share some of the knowledge I had gained. At first I was just blurting and ranting about things and my arguments might have seemed barely coherent as it can be such a complex subject. Trying to explain it and doing a bad job usually just results in the “Thousand yard stare” and you can see your audiences eye’s glaze over – you’ve lost them.

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I’ve come to appreciate that getting past the mainstream brainwashing about money is actually a bit of an art form. Now I am no expert as I’m still struggling to convince even my own parents about this subject. They want to just trust their mainstream financial adviser, who has them chasing yield in the typical crowded trades that will continue to pay them 5-6% a year until we hit the next financial crisis and it takes a big dump. They already lost something like 50% of their retirement savings in the last GFC and they still haven’t got it back. But that’s the thing with old people – they have a bad short term memory.

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So I’ve come around to thinking that the best way to teach family about money is to actually get someone else to do it. You can focus on facts as there are a lot of good documentaries about the history of money, which was in fact Gold and Silver for centuries. Since I’ve changed tact I am very close to making a breakthrough. I actually got my father to watch this recent video “Bitcoin : Beyond the Bubble” which runs for only 35 mins but it has an excellent opening 10 minutes or so where it summarises the history of money. My dad actually shared the video with his Probus group, and believe me – That is a big deal!

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Mike Maloney appears in that video and while I have followed him for a couple of years now it’s only recently that I have come to appreciate that he is very focused on Investor Education. He speaks very well and explains complicated subjects in easy to understand language. He has also done an excellent series called “Hidden Secrets of Money” and I am confident that if I can get my parents to sit through that then I’ll be half way there.

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My realisation is that it is quite difficult to explain the Cryptocurrency phenomenon without a basic understanding of money and currency because it is important to understand what problem Cryptocurrency is actually trying to solve. I think it is wise to start by looking back through history and understanding the important role Gold and Silver has played (and still plays) in our financial systems before looking forward to Cryptos. In Part 2 I will talk about that next step.

Do you use any material that helps you educate family about money?

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Images and Credits
http://educateinspirechange.org
http://themillenniumreport.com
https://www.pixoto.com
https://au.finance.yahoo.com
https://vimeo.com
https://goldsilver.com