CONTENT

PART 1: THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

The Lie that Keeps Us Enslaved 6

Teach Your Children Financial Literacy 11

PART 2: THE UNFORTUNATE REALITY

The Truth Reason 15

Stop Wasting Your Time 18

PART 3: HOW TO BREAK FREE

Choose Your Friends Wisely 22

What is Personal Finance? 25

The Truth about Banks 31

Invest, Invest, Invest 35

Start Now 39

Sources and Resources 46-47

pg. 1
 INTRODUCTION

I wish I was a professional writer so that

I could write an entire book on personal finance;
unfortunately, I’m not. I am just an average
person who was running in the rat race just like
you are and just like you will be, unless you
start to act.
In 1996 at the age of 22, I got the crazy
idea that I was not going to work past the age of
40 unless I chose to. To work towards this
vision, I had to educate myself on how to
become smart with my money so I no longer
had to work after 40. As if the universe agreed
with my resolution, I went to a used bookstore
on Chamber Street in New York City and I
came across a small book called Think and
Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
The only reason why I purchased this
book was because it was small enough to fit in
my back pocket and I didn’t want to walk
around the street with a book in my hand. I
hopped on the train and I started reading the
book that changed my life forever. My way
of thinking completely changed and I got
hungry for more information. I reread the book
several times. This book opened my eyes in
realizing there were other ways to make it in
life. I didn’t have to spend the rest of my life
pg. 2
working for other people, and I didn’t have to
fall into the consumerism trap.
Among other things, this book taught
me how rich people spend their time and
money, and from that day forward I have tried
my best to mimic them. I discovered one of the
problems poor people have is thinking money is
evil, and yet they spend their entire life working
for it. Too many people work in jobs that they
hate and they do nothing to change their
circumstances. This mentality must stop. Money
is an essential part of life. Without it, we are
unable to pay for essential things like rent, food,
or clothing.
Reading about financial freedom has
helped me improve my life and I want to pay it
forward. I liberated myself from the system and
I want to help you do the same.
I know that if you are older than 30
years of age it is not going to be easy for you to
accept this information at face value and that is
exactly what I don’t want you to do. I want you
to do your own research and come to your own
conclusions as to why you are where you are
right now, because if you need to use your
credit cards or take loans and withdraw from
your pension fund to survive financially, then
you are broke! To everyone else, I hope that I
can inspire you to do more for yourself so you
never have to ask: Why am I still broke?
pg. 3
 “There are events in our lives that forever shape our
view of the world. And what we choose to allow those
events to mean to us will rip through our behavior
and decision making for the rest of our lives”
Sun Tzu

pg. 4
 PART 1
THE
EDUCATION
SYSTEM

pg. 5
 The Lie that Keeps Us Enslaved
This book is not an invitation for you to
quit school. It is an invitation to learn more than
what the traditional schools are teaching,
because the job of traditional public schools is
to provide you with the necessary tools to
become an employee. This is the time when
your mind start to get train to run the rat race. It
is your responsibility to want more and to break
free.

The education system was created to

keep people obedient and produce employees
who could perform low level jobs. At one
point, the education system was referred to as
the factory model education, and school
facilities were designed to resemble factory
buildings. Their main goal was and still is, to
educate you enough to meet employment needs
in society. It was not intended to explore your
mind or creativity. It was designed to create
submissive people and factory workers. In this
system, the most obedient are rewarded with the
best paying jobs and a place in society to help
keep the system going. The remainder of you
will work for the rest of your lives just to make
ends meet.
There was also a time up until 1945, in
many parts of the United States where education
pg. 6
ended at the 8th grade level. It was only
expanded after new employees were needed to
perform additional low level intellectual jobs.
At some point, the wealthy did not
support public schools. Instead, they hired tutors
for their children and sent them to private
schools and colleges so they could keep
expanding their wealth. This is something the
wealthy still does today to separate your
children’s education from theirs.

In order to keep this deceitful system

going, government officials created long school
hours and time-consuming homework to keep
your children under the control of the education
system. The less time children spend at home,
the less time they have to be influenced by their
parents. It takes away the time parents can use
to teach their kids the life lessons they should be
learning. The school system wants total control
of your children’s time to teach them the skills
necessary to become an employee in this
ongoing system.

The education system was designed by

the rich and powerful and it is managed by
government officials. The responsibility of
government officials is to keep the education
machine producing more employees as it was
originally intended.
pg. 7
 Public schools are not preparing our kids
for real life success. They are only training
them to go to college so they can become
another product of a consumer society. It is
important to the system that kids go to college
because this is where our kids get introduced to
debt; whether it is credit card or student loan
debt.
Many private colleges offer partial
scholarships to reel students in. What students
don’t know is that scholarships only apply
towards a portion of the tuition, and the
difference must be paid for either out of pocket
or through student loans. Student loans are now
amounting to a $1.4 trillion-dollar business, so
of course the system wants us to go to college
without any financial education. This is where
the rat race begins and it will never end unless
you decide to create your own future.
Remember college is a business and just like
any business they are only concern with profit.
The longer it takes you to get your degree, the
more profitable it is for them.
Schools are not preparing children to
excel in the real world; they are just teaching
them how to live an ordinary life. They are
creating workers that are trained to follow
orders and schedules. Can you see the similarity
between how you spent time in school and how
you spend time at your job now? During grade
pg. 8
school, we sat in rows and obediently listened to
our teachers’ instructions and performed our
work. At our jobs, we sit where we are told,
whether it’s at a row of desks or in small
cubicles. We perform our work for 8 hours
while staring at the time, waiting for the clock to
reach the end of our shift.
In school, we were sometimes afraid to
ask questions because we did not want to be
labeled as ignorant or trouble makers. At work,
we try to refrain from asking questions or
proposing new ideas because we don’t want to
seem smarter than our superiors. We continue to
do our work as we are told because that is how
we were taught to perform since grade school.
During school our intelligence was
measured by standardized tests designed by the
system. These test scores are only used to
allocate Federal funding based on academic
needs. They do not serve any real academic
purpose. In the workplace, our managers and
supervisors measure our work performance with
evaluation reports based on how well we do
what we are assigned to do.
Do you see the similarities? The system
trains us to follow instructions and perform at a
marginal level, and we are becoming very good
at it. The purpose of the educational system
should be to help students realize their full

pg. 9
potential and the ability to use those skills for
the greater good.

“An educational system isn’t worth a great deal if

it teaches young people how to make a living but
doesn’t teach them how to make a life”
Unknown Source

pg. 10
 Teach Your Children
Financial Literacy
“An investment in knowledge pays the best
interest”
Benjamin Franklyn

It is my belief that the education system

should not be completely regulated by
bureaucrats with a hidden agenda. Teachers and
parents should have a voice in deciding what
children are taught in school.

Parents need to start getting involved in

their children’s education. They must not limit
their education to the lessons they are taught in
school. In order to continue expanding their
children’s mind, parents should take their kids
to libraries and museums. They should make
sure their kids learn something new every day
aside from what they are learning in school.
Most importantly, parents should be teaching
their children what they are not being taught in
school: financial education.
Financial literacy is the key to survival
and the main tool we need to reach financial
freedom. If you don’t take charge of your
children’s education, the school system will kill
pg. 11
your child’s dream and they will become part of
the 97% of people who work for the rest of their
lives. They will not learn to use the skills they
learned in college to improve their own life.
Instead, your child will get paid a salary to make
someone else’s life better. All of this takes me
to my next question: why don’t public schools
teach children about money?
According to the educational system,
learning about finance is the responsibility of
the parents. However, how can I learn about
finance if my grandparents never taught my
parents and my parents never taught me? If I
was never taught, how am I supposed to teach
my own children? Another excuse given by the
system is that the topic of finance is
uninteresting and students are too young to
utilize the information. If our children are too
young, why are elite private schools like
Concord Academy ($43,775 per year), Ken
School ($43,000 per year) and The Hotchkiss
School ($48,000 per year) already teaching
young students about finance, money
management, economics, and even the stock
market?

It appears that public schools can already

predict their students will survive off a low-
paying job without much money to manage,
preserve, or invest. In public school, students
pg. 12
are offered elective courses like sewing and
cooking, instead of finance.

The educational system has remained the

same for hundreds of years, and it will continue
to deter our future generations. We will remain
a society deep in debt, low-paying jobs, and
poverty. We cannot leave our fate to a system
that was designed to keep us all at the same
level; a system that does not promote creativity,
confidence, or entrepreneurship; a system that
exists only to train us to become employees.
As a parent, you must get involved in
your child’s education; do not leave it
completely up to the school system. The blame
cannot be placed on the teachers because they
are hired to do as they are told; nothing more.
Teachers cannot change the curriculum or
decide to teach finance to their students because
they are also a product of the same system. They
are also running in the rat race!

“Investing in yourself is the best investment you

will ever make. It will not only improve your life
but it will improve the lives of all those around
you”
Robin S. Sharma

pg. 13
 PART 2
THE
UNFORTUNATE
REALITY

pg. 14
The real reason why schools
don’t teach finance
I will tell you the real reason why
personal finance is not taught in school. It is
because the system wants us to remain in debt.
It is because 70 percent of this country’s GDP
(Gross Domestic Production) comes from
consumerism. Yes, you read that correctly! If
we don’t spend, the economy of the United
States will collapse. This is why the average
American has an average of $15,675 in credit
card debt, $30,000 in student loans and $27,865
in car loans. The total debt owed by consumers
in the United States is more than 10 trillion
dollars. You are being trained to work until you
die, to spend every penny you make, and to get
into debt. While 97 percent of the population is
running in this rat race, the remaining 3 percent
are getting wealthier by the minute.

Visa, American Express, MasterCard,

Walmart, Macy’s, Kmart, Apple, Sony, JC
Penney, T.J. Maxx, and Best Buy to name a
few, are not interested in donating money to
implement financial education programs in
schools. They stand to lose an exorbitant
amount of revenue if people become smarter
pg. 15
with their money. Why does no one care? The
government doesn’t care because spending
boosts the economy. Companies don’t care
because consumerism boosts their profit. The
more you spend, the better they do. Consumers
continue to become poorer while the wealthy
continues to get richer.

The saddest truth about all of this is that

you are alone, and no one is going to help you.
You must learn for yourself how to be smart
with your money or your kids will grow to
become as broke as you are today. Keep in mind
that financial freedom is not about being rich;
it’s about living an enriched life. It’s about
doing what you love and working past 45 years
old because you want to, and not because you
have to. It’s about living within your means and
enjoying the lifestyle your current income can
provide. If you want more, then make more
money and keep living!!!!!!

Do not get trapped in the American

dream of owning a house, a vacation home, and
changing cars every 3 years. This dream is what
the 3 percent is selling to you to keep you
enslaved for the rest of your life. My
recommendation is to buy that house and that
car but only if you can afford it. Do not go into
debt to live a life that is not going to actually let
pg. 16
you live. How can you truly enjoy what you
have if you are a paycheck away from losing it?
Ask Mike Tyson, Kim Basinger, Willie Nelson,
Dennis Rodman, MC Hammer, and Floyd
Mayweather how they went from millionaires to
bankruptcy. They were spending more than they
had and debt drove them to a financial crisis.

The average American is not saving or

investing for their retirement or for their
children’s college education. The majority of us
are running in the rat race and in the process, we
are teaching our kids to do the same. There are
three ways to put an end to this.

 First, we need to start demanding that

our schools implement money
management classes
 Second, we need to learn to be smart
consumers
 Third, we must learn how to save and
invest so that we can become financially
free

The 97 percent rely on the government

or they work hard for money. The 3 percent rely
on people and money to work for them. Do you
really want to spend the rest of your life making
someone else richer?

pg. 17
 Stop Wasting Your Time
“Time is what we want most
But what we use worse”
William Penn

One of the key factors to reaching

financial freedom is mastering time
management. You need to learn to use your time
wisely. Do you know that people who make
poor financial decisions have more televisions
in their home than rich people? Do you know
the reason why? It is because poor people do not
know what to do with their spare time.
Impoverished people watch too much television.
They absorb too many advertisements. They do
not read. They do not play educational activities
with their kids. Poor people think excessively
about entertainment and their primary source of
conversations are about people, gossip and
celebrities. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said,
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds
discuss events; small minds discuss people.” The
average person does not invest in their mind and
this hurts them in the long-run.

If you have time to sit down and watch

hours of Netflix, then you have time to read a
book. Writers spend years researching and
pg. 18
writing educational books that you can read in a
few hours and purchase for less than $20. Some
of these books are even offered online for free.

As parents, you must make sure that

your kids learn to use their time wisely, too.
Have them take 30 minutes out of their day to
learn something new, aside from what they are
being taught in school. Limit the time they
spend watching television, playing video games
and using social media. These sources of
entertainment are there to rob people of their
creativity and valuable time. If you continue to
run in the rat race, the only thing your kids will
inherit from you will be your circumstances.

Talk to your kids about Warren Buffett,

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Ray
Dalio, Lori Greiner, Elon Musk, Carl Icahn, and
Bill Ackman instead of Lady Gaga, Kim
Kardashian, Brad Pitt, Chris Brown, Alex
Rodriguez, or Tom Brady. You will learn a lot
from the first group and almost nothing from the
second. It is not that the second group is not
successful, but the second group is what keeps
you hooked to the television. The more
television you watch, the more advertisements
you consume and the more you spend. If you
want to be a part of the 3 percent, get rid of

pg. 19
some of your televisions, cut the time you spend
on social media, and invest in your mind.

Social media has become one of the

biggest distractions in our lives. While it has its
advantages such as networking and staying in
contact with loved ones, too much time on
social media can put you in turmoil. Social
networks are part of the system that takes away
valuable time from your life, time that can be
used to learn new things. The more time you
spend using it, the more money these platforms
make by being able to create consumer profiles
and sell your information. Have you ever
wondered why the advertisements that showed
up on your newsfeed are previous searches or
items you would be interested in? Companies
are making a profit by knowing who you are
and tempting you to purchase products you
don’t need. Social media networks and their
affiliates are making money with the time you
spend using them, while you continue to
become more broke.

“Never before has a generation so diligently

recorded themselves accomplishing so little”
-Kleine Schildkröte-

pg. 20
 PART 3
HOW TO BREAK
FREE

pg. 21
Choose Your Friends Wisely
“Respect yourself enough to walk away from
anything that no longer grows you”
Daily Scrolls

The poor associate themselves with

broke people just like them. The rich associate
themselves with people who bring value into
their lives.
Remember, you are the product of the
five people closest to you and your income is
the average of those same five. If you want to
make $100,000 per year, you should be hanging
out with people that are already making that
amount. If you want your financial intelligence
to widen, you must hang out with people who
are as hungry for financial freedom as you are.
Keep your old friends if you want, but
also make new ones. You should surround
yourself with people who have the same
purpose and values as you. If you don’t, those
same people you call friends will drain your
desire to act and be different. People who are
not on the same financial literacy level as you
will not understand why you do the things you
do. They will not be supportive; not because
they don’t want you to succeed, but because
they are a product of the same system. Unless
they wake up, they will unconsciously bring you
pg. 22
down. In other words, choose your friends
wisely.
Don’t be afraid of losing people! Be
afraid of losing yourself by trying to please
everyone else.

It is important to invest in your mind as

well as investing your money. The more
valuable you are, the more people will pay for
your time and service. This extra money can be
used to expand your lifestyle and invest more.
Investing more means your Financial Freedom
Day will come sooner rather than later.
Spending money on things you can’t afford will
make you look rich, but will prevent you from
becoming rich. Those who choose to spend
money, stay poor and those who choose to
invest, get rich.
The rich have at least 3 sources of
income. The poor only has one. The rich are
always investing in their mind. The poor are
always investing in nonproductive activities.
The rich are always looking for the next
business idea. The poor are always looking for
the next form of entertainment.

“At first they will ask you why you’re doing it.
Later they’ll ask how you did it”
-Many successful people
pg. 23
 “When the entirety of your earnings are
exhausted on food and shelter, your labors are
no longer viewed as an opportunity for economic
advancement, but rather as an act of self -
preservation. In the real world, that’s
called….Slavery”
-CND Williams

pg. 24
 What is Personal Finance?
And
Why is important to know?

Personal finance is the science of

handling money. It is the secret to making better
money decisions. It teaches us how to budget,
save, invest and spend our money. Not learning
about it is one of the greatest mistakes people
make.
The entire social economic system
depends on people being financially
irresponsible and ignorant to personal finance. If
you took the time to learn about financial
responsibility, you would realize how unfair the
system is. You wouldn’t put up with late fees,
bank fees, high prices, bank bailouts, and
television program consumption. You would
spend less and invest more. You would make
your money work for you instead of you
working for money.
Allow me share some personal finance
information you can use to shift from consumer
to investor.

“You must gain control of your money or the

lack of it will forever control you”
-Dave Ramsey
pg. 25
I will give you a small glance into personal
finance and discuss:

 Budgeting
 Saving
 Investing
 Banks
 Inflation
 Compound interest

Personal finance will guide you onto a path of

financial freedom which often leads to a more
fulfilling life. It will help you retire at a younger
age, in a better financial position. Learning
about personal finance will help you reject the
idea that the more stuff you have, the more
successful you are.

We are all faced with about six financial

decisions every day. These decisions are made
by people who have no idea what is at stake if
they make the wrong move. One wrong move
may be something as simple as buying a
Starbucks latte for $5 every day for 5 days a
week. It could also be buying lunch 5 days a
week at $10.00 per day. The Starbucks lattes
and the lunches add up to $75 per week or
$3,900 per year. If you invest $3,900 every year
at an 8% interest rate for 15 consecutive years,
you can end up with approximately $114,354.
pg. 26
You could also choose to invest your coffee and
lunch money for 25 years and end up with
$301,295. All it took was you making coffee at
home and bringing lunch to work. Would you
rather enjoy the short-term satisfaction of a latte
and lunch, or would you rather enjoy the long-
term satisfaction of watching your money grow?
The choice is yours.

What is the first step to financial

freedom? The first step is budgeting. A budget
will allow you to see where your money is
going and it will provide you with a better
picture of what you can and cannot afford.
Without a budget, you might end up renting an
apartment, taking a vacation, or buying a car
you cannot afford. Wanting things you cannot
afford will lead you to borrow money from
credit cards or friends. Many people borrow
money without remembering that being laid-off
or fired from a job can happen to anyone. If this
were to happen, it will be difficult to repay your
debts or obligations. Soon after, you’ll be at
your local social service agency applying for
welfare. This is the unfortunate reality of 61
percent of Americans who live paycheck to
paycheck. People who live in this cycle are a
paycheck away from a financial catastrophe. A
budget can prevent that from happening by

pg. 27
teaching you how to distribute your money
properly.
As a guideline, your money should be distributed
as followed:

 55% - Essential Expenses Fund (e.g.

Rent, food, clothing, transportation, etc.)
 15% - Lifestyle Fund (e.g. Vacations,
dining out, etc.)
 15% - Financial Freedom Fund (e.g.
Investing in the stock market, your
business, or real estate)
 15% - Emergency Fund (Backup money
for any unforeseeable event that may
occur)

An emergency fund is crucial to have in

case you lose your job or have an unforeseeable
emergency. This fund should be equal to at least
6 months of your essential expenses. If an
emergency were to occur, the last thing you
want to do is use your credit card or your
investment fund to pay for essential expenses.
My recommendation is to put 15% of your
paycheck into your financial freedom fund and
15% into your emergency fund. Once you have
up to six months worth of your essential
expenses in your emergency fund, you can
invest the entire 30 percent in your financial
freedom fund. I also recommend you put your
pg. 28
emergency fund into a high interest paying bank
account. This should be the only money that is
kept in a bank account and I will explain the
reason why in a later section.

If you want to get out of the rat race, you

must make sure you pay yourself first. If you do
not put money into these funds, you are setting
yourself up for failure and you will continue to
stress about money. Learn to live your life with
only 70 % of your income and invest the
remaining 30%. Here is an example of what a
budget should look like for someone who makes
$3,000 a month:

 Essential Expenses Fund $1,650

 Lifestyle Fund $450
 Financial Freedom Fund $450
 Emergency Fund $450

If you invest $450 per month at an 8%

interest rate, you will have $154,402 in 15
years, or $259,920 in 20 years. If you invest
$600 per month for 15 years, you will have
$205,809 or $346,560 in 20 years. Let’s say you
are 22 years old right now. This means you will
have $346,560 by the time you turn 42 years
old. Do you know anyone in your circle who has
this kind of money? Go ahead; ask all the 42-
year-olds who you know to see how many of
pg. 29
them have this amount of money at their
disposal. Many of them don’t because they are
undereducated in personal finance.

“It is not your salary that makes you rich,

It’s your spending habits”
-Charles A. Jaffe

pg. 30
 TheTruth about Banks
“You can never expect loyalty from an institution that
will do anything for money”
A.C. Pascacio

Do not, do not, do not put your financial

freedom fund into a bank account. Why?
Because banks will never give you an 8%
interest on your money. Banks are in the
business of making money with your money.
They take your hard-earned money and lend it
to someone else for a higher interest rate than
they are paying you. Banks want your money
and this is why most savings accounts are free
and checking accounts are not unless you keep a
minimum balance or perform five or more debit
transactions per month. People with a poor
financial mentality are savers. This is why you
see so many banks in areas of poverty. They
want your money parked in their bank because
for every dollar you deposit, they can loan ten
times that amount. Take a look at this scenario
for a better understanding:

You deposit $10,000 in a bank account.

The bank can loan someone else 10 times that
amount which is equal to $100,000. The bank
only has to keep 10% of your deposit as collateral
for the loan. Banks can loan your money at an
pg. 31
average of a 6% interest rate and in return you
will only receive less than 1% profit. After 15
years, you’ll receive $11,609 while the bank earns
$139,656. If you invest the same $10,000 at an 8%
interest rate compounded for 15 years, you’ll
receive $33,069

In 2008, banks created one of the biggest

economic crises this country has ever seen.
Maybe you remember this period because you
got fired or struggled to find a job, or you might
have been one of the millions of people who lost
their home and their savings. However, this
crisis only affected the financially illiterate. It
did not affect those who know how to protect
and invest their money. Financial crises are
always bound to happen and they create an
opportunity for you to buy more assets at a
cheaper price. Assets are everything you buy
that increases in value.

For this reason, the rich never keeps

their money in the bank. They invest in real
estate, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, ETF, and
more. Some people will try to convince you that
investing is risky. The reality is that investing
your money for the short-term does have some
risks, but in the long-term your money will
always grow. Do not be afraid. If investing
works for the rich, it will work for you too.

pg. 32
 Moreover, keeping your money in the
bank will affect its value due to inflation.
Inflation simply means that as prices increase,
the value of your money decreases. Today,
$10,000 will only be worth $6,000 15 years
from now. Food, rent, phone bills, and gas will
go up and investing is the only way to keep the
value of your money. If you keep your money in
the bank for 15 years, the bank will still give
you $10,000 but that money will only be worth
about $6,000 in the future. You must always
find a way to beat inflation which usually goes
up about 3% each year. The things you purchase
today will cost 3% more a year from now.

The only money that should be in a bank

account is the money you need to pay for your
daily, weekly, or monthly expenses; as well as
your emergency fund contributions. Make sure
these accounts do not require a minimum
balance to stay open.

Banks also make money by charging

monthly fees on these accounts. These fees can
range from $10 to $25 per month. Instead of
paying these monthly fees, invest it over 20
years at a 6% interest rate and this saving will
grow to $14,440. Do you see how every penny
saved and invested can impact your future?

pg. 33
“Do not save what is left after spending,
But spend what is left after SAVING”
-Warren Buffett

pg. 34
 Invest, Invest, Invest
As I mentioned before, your financial
freedom fund should be invested, and only used
to buy things that increase in value. It should not
be used to buy a car, boat, or anything else that
decreases in value over time. This fund should
only to be used to create financial wealth. You
can use it to buy real estate, a business, stocks,
mutual funds, corporate or government bonds,
and any other investment that has the potential
to increase in value. Remember, not
contributing to your financial freedom fund is a
mistake you cannot afford to make.

As Warren Buffet said “Live like you are

going to die tomorrow but invest like you are
going to live forever.” People have a hard time
saving because we are wired to choose today
over tomorrow. We have a little voice inside our
head that tells us we deserve everything right
now! That voice will tell you to buy the car you
cannot afford because you work hard and you
deserve it. You will face this voice every day
and you must learn not to listen to it. We have
this voice because as humans we want instant
gratification. We don’t want to wait; we want to
get what we want right now. This instant
gratification mentality is caused by persuasive
pg. 35
advertisements, social peer pressure, and having
the “You Only Live Once” attitude. However, if
you keep doing what everyone else is doing,
you will end up in the same predicament that
97% of the population is in. You will be in debt,
broke, working a job you hate, and waiting to
retire at age 67 on a Social Security check or a
government pension.

Another useful account for people who

plan to have children is a 529 Plan. A 529 Plan
is a tax advantaged investment vehicle your
children can use for future college expenses.
Do not worry, there are many ways you can
withdraw the money if your children decide
they don’t want to go college

Since I know how difficult it may be for

you to set aside money for your future, you
should have the money automatically taken
from your paycheck or bank account and
transferred into your investment accounts.
Companies like Fidelity or Ameritrade have
investment accounts that are tailored to your
needs. The financial advisors at these
institutions will help develop an investment
strategy that works for you. You can choose any
investment company you want, but do not use
your local bank unless you really know what
you are doing. You should be careful since these
pg. 36
banks make money with your money. Opening
an investment account for you is not in their
best interest unless they find a way to make
money from these accounts. Learn to be
financially aware and make the best possible
decision.

It’s important to start investing as soon

as you get a job. Every year you put off
investing, is a year you lose out on the powerful
force of compound interest. Compound
interest is the force that makes your money
grow over time by earning money on your
accumulated interest. In other words, not only
are you making money on your investment but
also on the interest you already earned. This is
one of the most powerful concepts in finance
and is the reason why your money keeps
growing every year. It is the reason why the rich
never run out of money. Their money keeps
making money even while they sleep. As Albert
Einstein eloquently putted it,”Compound
interest is the eighth wonder of the world.
[S]he who understand it, earns it…..[s]he
who doesn’t…pays it”.

I will give you an example on how

compound interest works:

pg. 37
Let say you invest $1,000 at a 10% annual
interest rate for 5 years, after year one, you
will have $1,000 plus $100 interest. Your total
will be $1,100. What compound interest will
do in the second year is pay you interest not
only on the initial $1,000, but on the $1,100
you now have. In year two, you will have
$1,100 X 10%= $110. The $100 interest you
got paid in year one has now earned you an
extra $10.

So, as long as you don’t take out the

interest earned, it will continue making money
for you. This is the hidden secret of the rich.
The next time you want to park your hard-
earned money in a bank account, ask yourself
this question “Do I want my money to lose
value to inflation or do I want it to increase in
value with compound interest?” The choice is
yours.

“Compound interest will make you wealthy, the

key is to start…… NOW”
-Wealth Quest
pg. 38
 Start Now
After you finish reading this, here is what I
want you to do:

1) Create a budget and find all the expenses you

can live without. Invest that money in stocks or
mutual funds. A $125 expense cut invested
every month at a 10% interest rate over 20 years
will turn into $91,407.

2) Enroll in your company’s pension plan like a

401K, 403b, Roth IRA, or IRA and contribute at
least 7% of your income. Increase that amount
by 2% every year until you hit 15%. If you
happen to leave the job, do not take the money
out. Transfer the money to your new job’s
account or roll it over into a similar retirement
account. Being financially smart with your
retirement funds will decide whether you retire
at the age of 40 or at the age of 70.

3) Open an investment account with Fidelity,

Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, or any other
financial institution and set up an index fund or
a target fund. An index fund is a mutual fund
that tracks the components of a market index
such as the S&P 500. A target fund is based on
your age and the future date in which you will
pg. 39
want to use the money. As you become more
knowledgeable, you can choose your own
mutual funds and stocks to buy them yourself.
Make sure to set up an automatic investment so
the financial institution takes the money from
your bank account monthly and invest it for you
in the funds of your choice. This service is free
of charge if you hold the funds for more than six
months.

One important thing you must know is

that your investment account will go up and
down in value, but do not let this scare you. Do
not withdraw your money or stop your
automatic investment. This is just how these
investment accounts work and I promise you
that in the long-run your money will continue to
grow. I tell you this based on experience and
because I have seen people put a hold on
their contribution or withdraw their money
too early. These people ended up missing out
on potential growth just because they became
scared when they saw their account
momentarily losing value. Do not make that
mistake. Do not stop your monthly contribution
under any circumstance because long-term
investing in the stock market always
outperforms any other form of investing.

pg. 40
4) Keep negotiating your salary, bills, and the
things you buy. Always look for ways to
increase your income and lower your expenses.
If your employer does not give you a raise that
you believe you deserve, find another job. You
know your worth and companies should pay you
accordingly. Do not feel obligated to stay in any
job out of guilt because when a company isn’t
performing well and budget cuts come around,
you might be the first one they let go. Your
company does not care about you or your
family; it only exists to make money.

The amount of money you earn will always

be an exact ratio to….
 The need for what you do
 Your ability to do it
 How difficult will it be to replace you

Get into the habit of renegotiating your

bills every 6 months or every year. Cut some of
your services like HBO or Showtime by calling
the company and negotiating your terms. If you
don’t get what you want from them, take your
business someplace else. You don’t have to
remain loyal to a service that’s only out to get
your money.

pg. 41
 Here’s another rule of thumb: Don’t ever
pay for anything at full price. Buy the items
you need at discounted prices, whether it’s
groceries, clothing, car, etc. Never be
embarrassed about not wanting to pay full price
because the rich do it all the time. The rich hire
personal assistants to find them everything at
the best possible price from hotel reservations to
dinner reservations. They use their financial
intelligence to negotiate prices, and here we are,
paying full price just because we are ashamed to
pull out a coupon.

#5) Continue to learn about finance. Learn about

mortgages, credit cards, credit rating, insurance,
retirement account, stocks, mutual funds, the
stock market, and the rule of 72. The rule of 72
is a way to estimate the number of years
required to double your money at a given
annual interest rate by dividing the interest
rate by 72. For example, if you invest $1,000
at an interest rate of 8%, it will take your
money 9 years to double to $2,000 (72/8=9). If
you keep that $1,000 in a savings account, it
will only amount to $1,093 in 9 years.

You must keep equipping yourself with

financial knowledge so next time you have to
make a financial decision it will be based on
fact and not fiction. Several resources to learn
pg. 42
more financial information are Learnvest.com,
Investopedia.com, Money Magazine, and Yahoo
Finance, among many others.

If you follow these simple steps, I can

assure you that you will create a better life not
only for yourself, but for your children and your
children’s children. I was in the same
circumstance as you, but I changed my financial
situation. It is not too late to change yours too!
Lets break this vicious cycle that has enslaved
us for so long. I don’t want you to read this and
wake up tomorrow and do nothing that creates
value for yourself. Life is by no means easy, but
the advice I’m sharing will give you a way out
of this misery.

Learn to see things for what they really

are, but not worse than they are. Surround
yourself with family and friends that support
you and will hold you accountable for what you
do; people who are going to support you in this
new stage of your life.

I hope today will be the beginning of a

new way of life for you and for those around
you. Starting today, I want you to take charge of
your financial literacy. I want you to get into the
habit of learning something new every day. In
the beginning, it might be difficult to find time
pg. 43
to do so, but doing nothing will not help you in
any way. You will be faced with these financial
decisions every day, but now you will be better
equipped to handle them. This is the time to
make it right because the wrong move can take
you to a path of constant struggle. I know this
because I was there. I made many costly
mistakes but I kept standing up to the system
and I won. I succeeded and so can you. You
must work on yourself and be persistent. You
need to have a goal and believe in it. You must
be patient and brave. And most importantly, you
need to be disciplined and always do your best.
These are all characteristics of successful
people.

There are six ways you can become rich:

1. Marry someone rich

2. Exploit a unique talent (e.g. singing,
sports)
3. Get lucky (hitting the lotto)
4. Own a successful business
5. Inherit money
6. Spend less than you make and invest
your savings wisely over a long period of
time

You can spend your whole life trying to

accomplish the first five, or you can start
pg. 44
becoming financially free now by working
towards #6. Make the decision today because
today will be the defining moment for the rest of
your life. You don’t need to wait to have a lot of
money to do it. Just do what you can with what
you have. Today is always a good day to start
living a healthy and enriching life.

My only hope is to enrich your curiosity in

personal finance. This is just a glance. It is your
responsibility to keep learning, to educate
yourself and your kids, and to pass it forward to
others. You can predict your future if you take
part in creating it.

I want to thank you for taking the time to

read my book. If this information helped you in
any way, please share what you have learned
with others. Life will reward your kindness.

“Together, lets create leverage for all”.

“Winners are not people who never fail, but

people who never quit”
-Ted Turner-

pg. 45
 SOURCES

Websites

 Raceforward.org
 Hackeducation.com “Factory model of
education”
 Hoffingtonpost.com
 CNN
 Google Finance
 Yahoo Finance
 Investopidia.com
 Nerdwallet.com
 Wallethub.com
 CNBC
 USA Today
 Bloomberg News
 Time Business Magazine

Books-

 Unshakeable by Tony Robbins

 MONEY- Master the Game by Tony Robbins.
 Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Videos

 The Law of Compensation- Bob Proctor

pg. 46
 RESOURCES/HELPFUL SITES

 Strongholdfinancial.com
 To link all of your investment accounts and get them
analyzed for every fee and risk you are taking

 Fidelity.com, Charles Schwab.com, and

Ameritrade.com
 To open investment accounts: Mutual Funds, Bonds,
Stocks, ETF, and others

 Personalfund.com
 Fund cost calculator- To check the fees that an
investment company is actually charging you

 Cic Lite
 Compound calculator

 Moneychimp.com/calculator/discount_r
ate_calculat

 Hightower--R.I.A. = Independent
Registered Investment Advisor
 Look for investment advisors whom fiduciary duties
are to the clients and not to the investment
companies.

 F.I.N.R.A. Financial Industry Regulatory

Authority
 Oversees how investments are pitched to investors
pg. 47
 RICH PEOPLE’S NET WORTH
Net worth is what you own minus what you owed
(Assets-Liabilities)

Business

 JEFF BEZOS $94 BILLION

 BILL GATES $87 BILLION
 WARREN BUFFETT $80 BILLION
 AMANCIO ORTEGA $77 BILLION
 ELON MUSK $22.4 BILLION
 RAY DALIO $14.3 BILLION
 CARL ICAHN $18.7 BILLION
 RICHARD BRANSON $5.6 BILLION
 MEG WHITMAN $2 BILLION
 BILL ACKMAN $1.2 BILLION

pg. 48
 ENTERTAINMENT
 LADY GAGA $227 MILLION
 BRAD PITT $240 MILLION
 KIM KARDASHIAN $150 MILLION
 TOM BRADY $131 MILLION
 CURTIS JACKSON III $50 MILLION
 MATTHEN STAFFORD $50 MILLION
 KIM BASINGER $39 MILLION
 CRIS BROWN $30 MILLION

---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
A single person from the first list has more
money than all the people on the second list
combined. So why do we not know anything
about the first list and we know so much about
the second?
Source: TheRichest.com

pg. 49
 FINAL NOTE
As I mentioned earlier in my book, my purpose
for this book is to pay it forward with the
information that I’ve learned over the years. I
want you to also break free. If this book has
help you in any way, please sign below and pass
it forward to someone else:-

 ____________________
 ____________________
 ____________________
 ____________________
 ____________________
 ____________________
 ____________________
 ____________________
 ____________________

I want to say thank you to Esther, Naihomy,

and Sam for making this book possible. I
couldn’t have done it without you guys; thank
you so much.

pg. 50
 I take full responsibility for all errors in this
book, please let me know if you find any, so I
can make changes in future copies.
A_C_PASCACIO@yahoo.com
Thank You!

pg. 51