$300/hour for reading!

There are a lot of whiners walking around today, wringing their hands, complaining about the lack of good jobs.  There are many arguing for a large increase in the minimum wage.  Concern about the expanding wealth gap and income gap between the middle class and the top 1% has turned into a national pastime.
  
Well, I'm here to tell you that many of these people could put big bucks on the table by just spending a few hours reading some of the books I've mentioned here on an ongoing basis.  The books spell out the basics of how to avoid getting ripped off in retirement accounts, how to ensure you are on the right path to retirement, when and how you need to budget, and how to ensure you've taken the right steps to protect yourself and your family against catastrophe.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm getting geared up to present a seminar on indexed investing and dividend investing on November 13 at 7 pm at the Miller Library in Howard County, Maryland.  As I've mentioned before, although  attendees get a lot out of the seminars as indicated by feedback comments, it is those non-attendees wandering throughout the library who would likely get the biggest "bang per buck" for attending.  But personal financial literacy is just something most don't want to be bothered with.

You can read Millionaire Teacher by Andrew Hallam or Your Money Ratios by Charles Farrell or I'll Make You Rich by Ramit Sethi in a few hours.  Any one of these books will put thousands of dollars on the table for most people for just a few hours' commitment.  All it takes is for the light bulb to go off and that little voice saying "Aha, I get it."

I'm an economist.  I've taught Intro to Microeconomics for more years than I want to admit.  One of my complaints about how the price theory portion of the course is taught is that it emphasizes immediate payment.  In fact, in many areas of life, the payment for an act is well into the future and may even not be in dollar terms.  When you sat on the porch and learned from your grandfather how to whittle a flute out of a simple branch, the payoff wasn't just immediate - part of it came years down the road when you passed the knowledge on.

Reading these books will produce a much greater payoff than the $300/hour  headline above, and it will happen over many years.