Outlaw 1 Money Basics

The problem of poor financial decision making on a national level is rooted in the lack of financial knowledge at the individual level. One problem is that the field of personal finance is not sufficiently taught in schools and most parents pass down poor habits to their children because they received no background in financial matters themselves. Combine that with the images created by advertisers to drive our spending ensuring we always have the latest and greatest and it is a recipe for disaster in terms of our financial affairs.
The fact is that the average person does not have the benefit of protection against the fragile nature of money. Money is a limited resource that is hard to acquire for most people and easily disappears. There is always someone waiting to take it away from you– even legitimate sellers of products and services. These legitimate sellers do not always have the best interest of their customers or clients when selling a product, particularly if their compensation is directly tied to the sale. This is not to say that all salespeople are dishonest. There are many reputable financial professionals out there, but how smart are they about money? If they are real financial wizards, you have to ask yourself, why are they still working?
While there are laws to protect people from outward theft of their money or assets, such as armed robbery, the public is largely unprotected from a misinformed decision. And since general education for the majority of people appears to be inadequate to prepare for such decisions, by definition, most people are financial outlaws, or excluded from the benefit of protection. Therefore, this book and the books of the Outlaw series are designed to help the average person to educate and protect themselves.