Hey guys, welcome. This is Val Campbell again. Thanks so much for Voting for my posts.
Today I share my opinions and observations on financial literacy, and it's a topic that's near and dear to me. Today: what is financial literacy and why it's important. Just to give you an idea of the background I chose today, I've always kind of liked it. I think it just kind of shows speed, acceleration, all that.
And we live in a world today, guys, with the technological changes happening, it's an ever-increasing complex world. Things are moving faster than they ever have, and that's why I chose this background, especially as we talk about financial literacy. There's so many things coming at us at such a high rate of speed that's getting it faster, that we really need to be aware. So I want to just kind of give you a quick back story on why I'm doing this video and why I picked this topic.
You know, I'm passionate about leadership because I've seen a lack of it in our world, especially in the business world. And leadership is influence, right? So it's my hope that I can influence you to whatever degree, and that you'll be a bit more vote-motivated, hopefully, to become more financially literate as a result of this video. So I'll just say up front, you know, I'm not a financial advisor or planner, but rather someone who's lived through enough life experiences. I've probably had more failures and success. I've had my shared financial struggles, trust me. I'll share a couple here coming up.
So I'm also passionate about finances because of these struggles with money and a lack of financial literacy throughout my life. And I want to be real enough to share, yeah, hey, I drove a car for a winter with no heat and no power steering. Not a fun deal, guys. And it also culminated with uh, eventually, bankruptcy that we went through in 2008. So I've had my struggles, guys, trust me. I know I couldn't buy a 20 pair of shoes at one point, okay? So I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I've had my challenges. I'm in a different position, so I want to share some of the things I've gained through my life and my experiences. Hopefully you can relate to them.
You know, Ron Mahotery is a wealth and business mentor from Australia. I'm reading one of his current books. In fact, he's recently wisely posted, you're either getting paid well for the decisions you made three to five years ago, or you are paying for the decisions three or five years ago. Okay, think about that one. And he continues, he says what happens to you and your finances in three to five years from now will be determined by what you're doing currently. And I agree with him, and I think he's spot on.
So I've been on a 30-year journey, basically, of gaining financial literacy and probably making more mistakes and that, but I've learned from them and I understand it's important. So at this point, I just want to do a quick screen share. I want to share some to do be my uh, due diligence and that, and just tell you that the chan, my channel, obviously is for informational purposes only, right? You should not construe any information I'm providing. It's basically more fun financial opinion than advice. But any material I'm sharing is not financial, legal, tax, investment, or other advice, okay? So please consult a licensed financial advisor and do your own research before making any financial decisions.
Okay, so that said, why is financial literacy so important? So for starters, 65 percent of people are considered financially illiterate. And Robert Kiyosaki said he takes a bit further, he goes, money's a powerful force. Don't you want to have it work against you? If your self-discipline and financial intelligence are low, money's going to run over you. And it kind of did in my life, okay? It will be smarter than you, and it will take over your life, which it did.
He goes on, most people hate to do their finances, right? It's not my bit, bad cup of tea necessarily, but they don't look forward to handling all their bills and doing their taxes each year. The best option is to kind of to ignore it as much as possible and let someone else handle the things that really need to be done. But he says in that case, you don't have a grip on your situation and money will run over you, okay? Yet as I mentioned, few are prepared. I could put myself in this boat too at one point, as financial decision making grows more complex, and hence my background today, guys, right?
Many consumers have a little understanding of how finances, how credit works, the potential hit financial well-being that poor financial decisions can create for so many. And for you know, for many years in fact, we don't learn in our school system. It's a big thing, you know. In fact, the lack of financial understanding has been signals one of the main reasons that Americans struggle with saving and investing. And a recent statistic from June of this year says that 54 of consumers in the United States today live paycheck to paycheck, including 53 percent of those who earn 50 to 100,000 a year.
Now that might sound shocking, but I recall doing a video with a good friend of mine, Val Campbell, oh gosh, probably a year plus ago, and we talked about the number of people making over a hundred thousand a year in cities like where I live near Seattle that can't afford to buy a home. And one of the biggest reasons of this today is because of student debt, guys. Debt has got people in bad situations, are upside down. Again, I've been in that situation. It is not any fun.
But financial literacy is really the ability, you know, to understand the products and concepts that you need to manage your money, okay? There's a wide range of knowledge that's going to allow you to see the potential costs of your decisions. And taking the time to understand banking, saving, investing, and more, may help you achieve economic and financial stability. That's my hope, right? In scripture, prophet Proverbs 4:7 instructs us, the beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom and whatever you get, get insight.