Giving back to your community can happen in many ways. Rashad Bilal and his partner Troy Millings have done so by helping people be more financially literate and aware of how they spend their money. Bilal is a financial advisor, and Millings is a teacher, and together they make a dynamic duo. But Bilal is so much more than other financial literacy advocates.
The Value of Money
Millings wanted to teach youths in his community the value of money, and Bilal was just getting his start in financial advising. So together, 11 years ago, they embarked on a plan to teach as many people as they could about the value of money.
Things really took off after Bilal got his first 40,000 followers. Everyone was after him to start a podcast because he had such good ideas to share with the world. Eventually, he did, and the Earn Your Leisure podcast he’s famous for now was born.
People Make Mistakes With Their Money
Early in his career, Bilal realized that people tended to make mistakes with their money. It was not about counting it or knowing how much was there, but learning what it stood for. Most people saw a dollar as a dollar.
Bilal teaches people that investing is not just a thing for the financially well-off. Nowadays, investing is for everyone, and using it to achieve financial freedom should be obvious. He even advises people to start with smaller balances and work their way up.
Make Money Work for You
Another thing that Bilal noted is that people think about money in terms of salary. They see earning money as exchanging time for that money, but that’s not how financial freedom happens. It happens when money works for you instead.
Most people he knows have bank accounts, but bank accounts are stagnant, and most times, the interest you get from one is negligible. Investing helps to grow that initial money multiple times over, essentially making money for you while you sleep.
Find Pathways to Make Money With Your Money
For example, Bilal usually asks people if they have retirement accounts or 401ks. If they do, they already understand how investing can help someone save and generate money. However, most people fail to recognize that without him pointing that out.
He contends that the only pathway anyone has not to work forever is to constantly find ways to make money work for them. That requires using the money you already have, investing in the right things, and making that money work for you.
What Does Someone Have To Do To Get Financial Freedom?
Bilal always states that he thinks anyone can have financial freedom, but he quickly underlines that this term means something different for different people. Depending on where a person lives, and their lifestyle, the money they need will differ.
For example, someone living in a rural area of the US will likely have a much lower cost of living and demands on their money than someone who lives in LA or New York. Knowing what lifestyle you have will define your needs as far as financial freedom.
Managing Expectations
While Bilal is a huge proponent of entrepreneurship, he likes to keep it real. While he discusses financial freedom with his group, he says not everyone is likely to achieve it, but aspiring toward it is still beneficial.
He says that having a plan and working towards it may not always end up in success. But the road to the goal is almost as important as the goal itself. In his opinion, it’s far better to fail well than to succeed badly.
Lifetime Achievement Is The Goal
When it comes to financial freedom, your goal might not be the goal you achieve. That’s what Bilal means by failing well. At the end of your journey, you’ll likely be much better off on the path than off it.
He compares this to someone who spent all their working life aiming for that financial freedom. When they’re retiring, they have a nest egg that’s significantly more than someone who didn’t bother with that goal in the first place.
Even The Rich Suffer With Finance
Bilal has talked to and worked with people from all walks of life, backgrounds, and economic situations. Regardless of how rich or how poor someone is, they have the same misguided approach to money.
He cites the fact that many rich people he’s spoken to tell him that having money doesn’t remove problems from their lives; it makes them worse. This, he contends, comes from misunderstanding money and how it works.
Losses Are Bigger With More Money
When you have more money, you’re likely to lose more money. Bilal says that some people he’s known have lost millions of dollars on bad investment decisions simply because they didn’t understand how their money worked.
He states that someone’s economic level is not necessarily a reasonable estimate of their financial literacy. The only difference is that when you’re a celebrity, you have more to lose, and the press is always focused on your losses, so they seem more.
Spending Money Isn’t Necessarily How You Go Broke
A lot of information people get makes them think that spending money leads to being broke. Bilal wants to dispel this idea because it’s unhelpful. As any entrepreneur knows, you can’t make money unless you spend money.
The idea that spending money will make you broke only considers if you’re spending money without that money earning itself back. As Bilal mentions, it’s not about what you spend; it’s about how you spend it that matters in the grand scheme.
A Podcast That Addresses Financial Literacy
Bilal and Millings are trying to transform financial literacy and help people learn the value of their decisions. Money’s worth is not about its dollar value but what it means to someone. Through his focus on financial literacy and freedom, Bilal has developed an education style that appeals to many. The Earn Your Leisure podcast is doing a lot to help people find their way in a world without financial roadsigns.