Financial literacy

Money remains one of the most thought-provoking topics, and a lot of emotions and disagreements among people in the world. Dozens of books, articles, blog posts, and speeches have been written about what money is, how to earn and spend it, who has it and who doesn't, and many other topics. However, despite the continuous focus on the subject, there is one word that describes the average person's view of money: confusion. And despite some truly great research published on this topic, there is a lot of misinformation – what we might call financial white noise – about most people relying on chance to make their fortunes, or ignoring the subject altogether. This is not only unfortunate, but tragic, because of the untapped human potential that will never be uncovered when people leave their lives to chance, or worse, when they abandon their dreams. It is also deeply regrettable because the secrets of money, how to earn and invest it, and how to spend it, are known. Truly, there is a “science of money,” similar to the sciences of nutrition, anatomy, astronomy, chemistry, and engineering. This science of money has been tested and proven repeatedly, not only over years or decades, but for a thousand years. And while new theories in the science of money may emerge all the time – just as we have new theories for treating cancer or baldness – the discipline of this science and its rules for testing and verifying results will quickly move these ideas from the theoretical realm into one of two categories: the first is a verifiable fact, which Brian calls a law; and the second is a disproven idea, which Brian calls a myth. In this book, we will cover both categories: the laws of money that have been proven and can be trusted as much as you can trust the sun to rise from the east; and the myths of money. Myths can include ideas that may be unfounded but may still persist as rumors; as well as ideas that were claimed to be true – but when tested, were disproven – or were at best not conclusively proven. In the end, we have one central goal: to definitively end the confusion about this subject, and to present the essential facts about money in one comprehensive crucible, so that if you merely study the ideas presented to you here and apply them to your life and work, you will certainly become financially successful, as certainly as the sun will rise tomorrow.