Houston (and the rest of the country), we have a problem. A big one that is completely fixable and yet looms on the horizon as we all get closer and closer by the day. Here’s the problem: most of us are broke. Many of us are one or two paychecks from being out on the streets. Seventy Four Percent of Americans over 65 live below the poverty line. That’s currently the grand sum of $23,400 A YEAR! Wi
th an aging population overall, and the lack of funds available to live on, there is bound to be a huge collision. But, says Cash Matthews, author of MONEY UNIVERSITY (2015) we CAN fix it. But doing so will require some shifts in how we do business today in the world of personal wealth management. “It’s going to require a more democratic approach to investing and wealth management,” says Matthews. “The system is currently set up to cater to the extremely wealthy, but what about the person who wants to invest smaller amounts, say 20-50 dollars a month? And, that has to change.”
MONEY UNIVERSITY is packed with practical, and easy to follow financial help for anyone who is tired of living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about their future. Best of all, Matthews does a terrific job of not talking down to the reader. Rather, he writes with a caring tone, and a self-deprecating demeanor that makes all of the advice and wake up calls go down easier. And, most of the information and advice will be brand new to most readers, and some of it will even seem counterintuitive, given all of the bad advice we have been fed from experts down through the years. For example, Matthews would encourage every parent to start a retirement account for their babies when they are born. A radical idea, but one that takes full advantage of perhaps the most important aspect of investing: time. Think what your retirement account would be worth today if your parents had invested just 20-50 dollars a month in an account that earned, say, four percent interest. He also suggests NOT paying off your mortgage early. And, he spends the kind of time that most of us need but cannot afford explaining how to cut our monthly expenses in a sane and judicious manner that seems doable, and even fun. MONEY UNIVERSITY is not another dry treatise about financial health and well-being. Rather, it is a joyful textbook filled with stories and encouragement about what can be done. And, it’s about time that the average person had a financial advisor, according to Matthews. ”Most financial advisors require hundreds of thousands of dollars before they’ll work with you,” he says. “In fact, one time I asked a broker for one of the largest firms if she had enough money to get financial advice and wealth management from her own firm. Sadly, she said no. So, what does the average person do to build wealth?”
09/30/2019
