The Money Class Read Online Free PDF

credit unions offer this service for free and I would encourage you to take advantage of it. It’s hard to have the discipline on your own to make sure you are setting aside money every month. By committing to an automatic transfer each month that the bank handles for you, you are making sure the money will in fact make it into your savings account every month. You can set up this service online, or by dropping into a local branch.
    At my website, in the Suze Tools section you will find a free online Compound Interest Forecaster that will show you how your savings will grow over time. Play around with that calculator to get a sense of what you want to save each month to be able to make a sizable down payment for a future goal. Just promise me you will stand in your truth: If that goal is within the next 5–10 years, your money must stay in a super-safe savings account. So set your interest rate at just 1% or 2%. When rates rise, as I expect they will in the coming years, you can come back to the Forecaster and see how that will speed up your savings. But right now, we are standing in the truth that safe savings are growing at just a 1% to 2% rate. Agreed?
    THE TRUTH WILL INDEED SET YOU FREE
    As I said earlier in this chapter, in many ways “Stand in Your Truth” is the most important class I have to teach, for it is only when we turn inward and locate what is right and true for us that we can begin to move forward toward creating our new dreams. From learning to live below your means, to insulating your family from the unexpected major expenses that are a part of all our lives, your new dreams will begin to take shape only once you’ve begun to stand in your truth.
    The challenge is to make this new way of living—this pursuit of genuine happiness—a long-term commitment. I ask you to do it from a place of sincerity and hope for the future, not just because you are afraid of what is happening to you at the moment. It is inevitable that the economy will improve at some point. That is something we are all hoping for. But as grateful as we will all be when those better times come, I hope you hold fast to the lessons in this class. Your future and that of your children and grandchildren, whether they’ve been born yet or not—all of us collectively will benefit from a commitment made to living a life of integrity, from moment to moment, of resisting the ephemeral temptations of immediate gratification, and staying steady with the dreams of your shining future squarely in your sights.
    Trust me, it will not be long before the banks and financial services industry as a whole will be back offering you enticing ways to get you to stray from your path. Credit card limits will be loosened, home loans and home equity lines of credit will become easier to obtain. Get-rich-quick schemes will never die. My hope for you—for all of us—is that you will be able to stand tall in your truth and stay committed to the path that will lead you to peace, financial security, and happiness.
    LESSON RECAP
     
Give a fresh review to all your spending and expenses; learning to live below your means creates the opportunity to fund your long-term dreams.
Make a conscious decision to derive pleasure—yes, pleasure!—from the act of saving. When you value saving as much as spending you are standing in your truth.
An eight-month Life Happens fund is a nonnegotiable necessity if you are to stand in your truth.

CLASS

    FAMILY
    THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER
    Family has always been at the heart of the American Dream. We work, we strive for the sake of our family. We want our children to have endless opportunity, to be free to achieve and create and flourish. We want our parents to enjoy good health, to reap the benefits of a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice on our behalf, to live out their golden years free of financial worry. Sacrifice —that word was so ingrained in a generation of immigrants who came to America to make a better life, not