On Wednesday, February 22, 2012,there was a story in my local newspaper, THE LIMA NEWS, entitled “Wapakoneta Students Play Stock Game for Congressman“.
Turns out that Congressman Jim Jordan, a Republican from Urbana, Ohio, visited a high school in Wapakoneta where the senior economics class students have been participating in the “Capitol Hill Challenge”, a stock market game in which teams from over 400 schools around the nation are competing to achieve the highest returns over a 14-week period in the stock market. In this event, which is sponsored by the Securities Industry and the Financial Markets Association Foundation, each of the teams starts out with $100,000 to invest, and the winners get to take a trip to Washington to spend time with the members of Congress.
“It seems to me that we could use a lot more young people learning about economics, budgets, and managing money,” Jordan said. When I read this I was excited. It is good to hear that our youth are being taught the fundamentals of money, investing and economics. And as I read on I began to think about the possibilities of this kind of education going main stream.
If you’ve been following me on YouTube and my blog, then I don’t need to tell you that I’m not a fan of investing in the stock market. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t met many people for whom the stock market has turned out to be a viable mechanism by which to accumulate financial wealth over the past few years.
I believe that as investors we are meant to deliver value, and this should be taught first and foremost to anyone who is willing to listen. The idea is simple enough: you set up a business to manufacture widgets and if your widgets are good, and you are able to sell enough of them, both you and the investors whose capital financed your system become rich. Here’s another example. I buy an apartment building and if people agree with me that it is a nice place to live, they will pay me money to live there. I’ll make a profit and the bank that gave me a loan will make good return as well. In both cases, the riches that come to the investor are driven by value.
It would be wonderful if programs like this could span the length of high-school education (4 years); if the students could learn how to start a business, where to get the money for it, and how to build and manage systems. Then we would be raising individuals who are able to create value in our society; individuals who would learn to get rich by providing jobs for their neighbors. If any of this sounds intriguing to you, you should check out my Cash Flow Freedom Builders at www.JustAskBenWhy.com!
© Copyright 2012 Ben Leybovich and Just Ask Ben Why. All Rights Reserved.