[Music]
my daughter just started kindergarten so
this is a really exciting time it marks
a time when me as a parent it’s gonna
hand my child over to this education
system and hope that she learns the
skills she needs to be successful in
life now I know I’ve only dropped her
off at kindergarten and I’m already
starting to think about high school but
really when we drop off our kids at
school it kind of evokes a lot of deep
philosophical reflections about what do
we need in order to be happy or to be
successful in life and what will our
children need now one of these topics is
something that I know that she’s really
not gonna learn in school as much as I
wish she would and oftentimes this
conversation doesn’t actually happen at
home the topic that I want to talk to
you about today is this and specifically
how do you make more of this now my
experience with money started very
differently than most I was in education
I was an educational consultant worked
in there for about ten years
and at the time I was doing my masters
of Education and I had this hobby called
trading in the market and as you can
imagine when I first started I didn’t
make a lot of this stuff and what I
decided to do when I did my Master’s
event was apply the things I was
learning about how we learn best with
the skills of making money now it ended
up working out really well I left that
full-time job and now I do this for a
living and it’s pretty fantastic but
it’s with this perspective of both
education and investing that I want to
talk to you about today when we think
about money many of us are very familiar
with the skills save more spend less
budget those are terms we use all of the
time we throw them around we know there
are things that we should do and they’re
really focused on preserving what we
have then on the other side of the coin
we have this idea of what it would be
like to make a ton of money
we have these ideas and notions in our
head when it comes to the market that we
think we need to risk it all to make
millions of dollars
this is Gordon Gekko a very familiar
character when it comes to making money
we’ve probably all seen the movie Wall
Street we might watch shows called
billions this is the typical depiction
of what we normally think about when it
comes to trading this is me trading in a
coffee shop while my baby is sleeping on
me what we see and hear when it comes to
money making is so far removed from what
it’s really like so if you have a bit of
money saved and we’ve done what we’re
supposed to do and we want to actually
grow some wealth many of us are trying
to hit that other very traditional
notion of what it’s like to be in the
market the notion that’s actually more
appropriate for institutional investing
or people who already have millions of
dollars trying to make more depictions
of average people are few and far
between if we actually want to do
something with our money we kind of are
somewhere here in the middle and there’s
a big knowledge gap and so no wonder
it’s pretty confusing for all of us
I mean 76% of millennial women find
investing confusing 71% of Americans
find talking to their financial planners
scary and get this 44 percent of
americans find the most challenging
conversation you can have is about money
even the topic of death comes in second
at 38% so this is a real problem we all
work really hard for our money we are
all told to save our money but what do
we do if we want to make a little bit
more what do we do if we’re somewhere
here in the middle most of us are
probably handing our money over to
financial institutions because this is
often what we’re told to do and when we
do that that’s fine for some but
unfortunately we don’t really get to see
what they do we don’t get to definitely
don’t get to learn
to do it and many of us don’t even know
the questions we should be asking about
why are they making the decisions that
they are and I don’t think that this is
really right many of us don’t even
realize that we actually have the
technology to be able to log into your
cell phone or your laptop and to be able
to trade at any point in time during the
day unfortunately though the skillset
that’s gone along with this hasn’t
really kept up so many of us don’t
really know so what if we turned then to
the formal education system this is
where we would think about we need to
learn to make money so the latest term
that we have here is called financial
literacy now this is supposed to help
all of our money woes but if you look at
the narrative about what is still being
discussed when it comes to financial
literacy we still are talking about the
same old same old save more spend less
budget your money and I want you to
think about it for a second if we
actually took this idea and started
helping people to know how to make money
and then they started spending money
based on the profits that they actually
made from money they earned how would
that change the conversation about money
we need to help our students realize
that when it comes to the markets or the
ability to make more money this can be
actually very achievable for most of us
but we need to stop trying to make the
millions of dollars and risk it all and
start realizing that this is a skill
that any of us can do at any point in
time we need to take some of the skill
sets that kids already learn so think
about something like compare and
contrast or sorting for that matter
kindergarten they’re starting to learn
how to sort things and build patterns
those are skills that are actually I use
in the market every single day and in
fact when I learned how to trade and I
trade for a living a lot of the skills
that I use aren’t actually financial
skills they’re skills that I actually
learned in other areas so we need to
help students bridge the gap between
information they’re already learning and
tying that to conversations about money
the other piece that I want to talk to
you about is realistic expectations
and again this is something that could
be very appropriate for students and we
talked about this with them when it
comes to the market it’s not all or
nothing so just for example here about a
week ago I got an email from someone and
he had $5,000 and he wanted to know how
long he thought it would take to go from
$5,000 to $10,000 and that’s the problem
five thousand to ten thousand dollars
that’s a hundred percent return that is
doubling your money gosh if everybody
could do that wouldn’t we all it’s all
about our expectations it would be far
more realistic for him to take his five
thousand dollars trade with it enjoy
that and take his family out for dinner
once a month as opposed to trying to
double his money there is nothing wrong
with taking a small amount of money that
you have and only just focusing on
making some profits and then spending
those profits on all the fun things that
you love rather than trying to double
your money it doesn’t have to be all or
nothing and let me tell you I am NOT an
ex institutional trader and by the way
just because you are an ex institutional
trader doesn’t mean that you actually
know how to make money or that it’s
appropriate for us as average people I
also want you to know that I am NOT a
certified financial planner I do not
have an MBA nor do I have a business
degree I am an average person and when
it comes to making money I am no more
capable at this than you are Home Depot
brought do-it-yourself construction
projects to the masses with the tagline
we can show you how we need something
like this for money making skills – for
average people we need to start seeing
depictions in media and entertainment
that are actually more realistic and
focused on what most of us can do with
all of this we need to stop idealizing
these very fantasized versions of
trading in the market and realizing that
this can be appropriate for all of us so
there are three things that I really
hope that you’ll walk away with today
and now that I do know how to make money
this is what I hope you will write down
and you will continue to tell other
people the first thing is that when it
comes to making money there’s this
language to it and there’s lots of
complicated terms and one term is often
used to define another term so no wonder
it’s confusing for all of us because
none of us are using plain English when
we start talking about making money
skills but particularly in the market so
let’s start asking our financial
planners all of the media outlets to
start talking about all this in plain
language so that we can actually
understand and if you want to continue
to invest with someone else that’s fine
but maybe we’ll have some better
questions to ask about the decisions
that are being made and if you want to
do that yourself it’s even better I also
want you to know that the language
shouldn’t be the barrier for you to do
this you don’t need to know all of the
words to know how to make money and vice
versa
you can make money without knowing all
of the words in this industry the second
piece is that when it comes to investing
or trading or making money it doesn’t
have to be a full-time job now I love
this and I have to say I’ve done this
part-time full-time and I started
trading for days after my second baby
was born you can do this as a hobby too
the best part about trading and making
money that’s more realistic is when you
go to Starbucks and you order a latte
and it’s free and you know why it’s free
because I’m spending the profits that I
made on a trade in Starbucks the stock
about a week earlier that feeling is
something everybody can feel if you have
a little bit of money saved and you
focus on spending it on your indulgences
how does that change your perception
about money the third thing that I want
you to know when it comes to making
money is that it’s a skill unfortunately
there are a lot of people that come to
the market and think that there are
Olympic mountain bikers before they’re
really ready to take the training wheels
off so I want you to remember that when
you first started to learn to ride a
bike
you probably
we started with training wheels and you
may have even fallen a couple times when
you first took those off but you got up
and now some of you might be Olympic
mountain bikers but others might just
enjoy a Sunday afternoon ride and the
same experience can be true in the
market just make sure that if you do
fall down you can still get back up
again because it does get to a place
where it’s actually really fun to do I’d
like everybody to think about Gordon
Gekko what Gordon Gekko is risky but it
doesn’t have to be that way and honestly
not knowing about money making skills is
risky too if we all ask more see more
and hear more we can learn to make more
and so this brings me back to the
beginning of our conversation when I
dropped my child off at school this
morning as many of you have as well are
they really learning the skills they
need to be successful in life and have
the skills that you learned about money
helped you to get you where you want to
go thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
my daughter just started kindergarten so
this is a really exciting time it marks
a time when me as a parent it’s gonna
hand my child over to this education
system and hope that she learns the
skills she needs to be successful in
life now I know I’ve only dropped her
off at kindergarten and I’m already
starting to think about high school but
really when we drop off our kids at
school it kind of evokes a lot of deep
philosophical reflections about what do
we need in order to be happy or to be
successful in life and what will our
children need now one of these topics is
something that I know that she’s really
not gonna learn in school as much as I
wish she would and oftentimes this
conversation doesn’t actually happen at
home the topic that I want to talk to
you about today is this and specifically
how do you make more of this now my
experience with money started very
differently than most I was in education
I was an educational consultant worked
in there for about ten years
and at the time I was doing my masters
of Education and I had this hobby called
trading in the market and as you can
imagine when I first started I didn’t
make a lot of this stuff and what I
decided to do when I did my Master’s
event was apply the things I was
learning about how we learn best with
the skills of making money now it ended
up working out really well I left that
full-time job and now I do this for a
living and it’s pretty fantastic but
it’s with this perspective of both
education and investing that I want to
talk to you about today when we think
about money many of us are very familiar
with the skills save more spend less
budget those are terms we use all of the
time we throw them around we know there
are things that we should do and they’re
really focused on preserving what we
have then on the other side of the coin
we have this idea of what it would be
like to make a ton of money
we have these ideas and notions in our
head when it comes to the market that we
think we need to risk it all to make
millions of dollars
this is Gordon Gekko a very familiar
character when it comes to making money
we’ve probably all seen the movie Wall
Street we might watch shows called
billions this is the typical depiction
of what we normally think about when it
comes to trading this is me trading in a
coffee shop while my baby is sleeping on
me what we see and hear when it comes to
money making is so far removed from what
it’s really like so if you have a bit of
money saved and we’ve done what we’re
supposed to do and we want to actually
grow some wealth many of us are trying
to hit that other very traditional
notion of what it’s like to be in the
market the notion that’s actually more
appropriate for institutional investing
or people who already have millions of
dollars trying to make more depictions
of average people are few and far
between if we actually want to do
something with our money we kind of are
somewhere here in the middle and there’s
a big knowledge gap and so no wonder
it’s pretty confusing for all of us
I mean 76% of millennial women find
investing confusing 71% of Americans
find talking to their financial planners
scary and get this 44 percent of
americans find the most challenging
conversation you can have is about money
even the topic of death comes in second
at 38% so this is a real problem we all
work really hard for our money we are
all told to save our money but what do
we do if we want to make a little bit
more what do we do if we’re somewhere
here in the middle most of us are
probably handing our money over to
financial institutions because this is
often what we’re told to do and when we
do that that’s fine for some but
unfortunately we don’t really get to see
what they do we don’t get to definitely
don’t get to learn
to do it and many of us don’t even know
the questions we should be asking about
why are they making the decisions that
they are and I don’t think that this is
really right many of us don’t even
realize that we actually have the
technology to be able to log into your
cell phone or your laptop and to be able
to trade at any point in time during the
day unfortunately though the skillset
that’s gone along with this hasn’t
really kept up so many of us don’t
really know so what if we turned then to
the formal education system this is
where we would think about we need to
learn to make money so the latest term
that we have here is called financial
literacy now this is supposed to help
all of our money woes but if you look at
the narrative about what is still being
discussed when it comes to financial
literacy we still are talking about the
same old same old save more spend less
budget your money and I want you to
think about it for a second if we
actually took this idea and started
helping people to know how to make money
and then they started spending money
based on the profits that they actually
made from money they earned how would
that change the conversation about money
we need to help our students realize
that when it comes to the markets or the
ability to make more money this can be
actually very achievable for most of us
but we need to stop trying to make the
millions of dollars and risk it all and
start realizing that this is a skill
that any of us can do at any point in
time we need to take some of the skill
sets that kids already learn so think
about something like compare and
contrast or sorting for that matter
kindergarten they’re starting to learn
how to sort things and build patterns
those are skills that are actually I use
in the market every single day and in
fact when I learned how to trade and I
trade for a living a lot of the skills
that I use aren’t actually financial
skills they’re skills that I actually
learned in other areas so we need to
help students bridge the gap between
information they’re already learning and
tying that to conversations about money
the other piece that I want to talk to
you about is realistic expectations
and again this is something that could
be very appropriate for students and we
talked about this with them when it
comes to the market it’s not all or
nothing so just for example here about a
week ago I got an email from someone and
he had $5,000 and he wanted to know how
long he thought it would take to go from
$5,000 to $10,000 and that’s the problem
five thousand to ten thousand dollars
that’s a hundred percent return that is
doubling your money gosh if everybody
could do that wouldn’t we all it’s all
about our expectations it would be far
more realistic for him to take his five
thousand dollars trade with it enjoy
that and take his family out for dinner
once a month as opposed to trying to
double his money there is nothing wrong
with taking a small amount of money that
you have and only just focusing on
making some profits and then spending
those profits on all the fun things that
you love rather than trying to double
your money it doesn’t have to be all or
nothing and let me tell you I am NOT an
ex institutional trader and by the way
just because you are an ex institutional
trader doesn’t mean that you actually
know how to make money or that it’s
appropriate for us as average people I
also want you to know that I am NOT a
certified financial planner I do not
have an MBA nor do I have a business
degree I am an average person and when
it comes to making money I am no more
capable at this than you are Home Depot
brought do-it-yourself construction
projects to the masses with the tagline
we can show you how we need something
like this for money making skills – for
average people we need to start seeing
depictions in media and entertainment
that are actually more realistic and
focused on what most of us can do with
all of this we need to stop idealizing
these very fantasized versions of
trading in the market and realizing that
this can be appropriate for all of us so
there are three things that I really
hope that you’ll walk away with today
and now that I do know how to make money
this is what I hope you will write down
and you will continue to tell other
people the first thing is that when it
comes to making money there’s this
language to it and there’s lots of
complicated terms and one term is often
used to define another term so no wonder
it’s confusing for all of us because
none of us are using plain English when
we start talking about making money
skills but particularly in the market so
let’s start asking our financial
planners all of the media outlets to
start talking about all this in plain
language so that we can actually
understand and if you want to continue
to invest with someone else that’s fine
but maybe we’ll have some better
questions to ask about the decisions
that are being made and if you want to
do that yourself it’s even better I also
want you to know that the language
shouldn’t be the barrier for you to do
this you don’t need to know all of the
words to know how to make money and vice
versa
you can make money without knowing all
of the words in this industry the second
piece is that when it comes to investing
or trading or making money it doesn’t
have to be a full-time job now I love
this and I have to say I’ve done this
part-time full-time and I started
trading for days after my second baby
was born you can do this as a hobby too
the best part about trading and making
money that’s more realistic is when you
go to Starbucks and you order a latte
and it’s free and you know why it’s free
because I’m spending the profits that I
made on a trade in Starbucks the stock
about a week earlier that feeling is
something everybody can feel if you have
a little bit of money saved and you
focus on spending it on your indulgences
how does that change your perception
about money the third thing that I want
you to know when it comes to making
money is that it’s a skill unfortunately
there are a lot of people that come to
the market and think that there are
Olympic mountain bikers before they’re
really ready to take the training wheels
off so I want you to remember that when
you first started to learn to ride a
bike
you probably
we started with training wheels and you
may have even fallen a couple times when
you first took those off but you got up
and now some of you might be Olympic
mountain bikers but others might just
enjoy a Sunday afternoon ride and the
same experience can be true in the
market just make sure that if you do
fall down you can still get back up
again because it does get to a place
where it’s actually really fun to do I’d
like everybody to think about Gordon
Gekko what Gordon Gekko is risky but it
doesn’t have to be that way and honestly
not knowing about money making skills is
risky too if we all ask more see more
and hear more we can learn to make more
and so this brings me back to the
beginning of our conversation when I
dropped my child off at school this
morning as many of you have as well are
they really learning the skills they
need to be successful in life and have
the skills that you learned about money
helped you to get you where you want to
go thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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