Financial Intelligence is the most important type of intelligence to have in the modern world. But the truth is, not many people are financially intelligent. Especially younger people.
The problem is that schools don’t provide a financial education. They’d rather teach you something that 100’s of years ago which bears no relevance in todays world. So what do you need to do to become financially intelligent.
- Read books about personal finance and investing
There are plenty of books to help increase your financial intelligence, some of my favourites are “The Richest Man In Babylon”, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, “The intelligent investor”, “Unshakeable”. These 4 books have helped me become financially intelligent as they all teach different aspects of personal finance and investing.
For example, “The Richest Man In Babylon” talks about how to manage money on a low income and how to start making your money work for you. This is a short book and is very easy to read. I always recommend this book first to all my friends because its so easy to read yet it contains such much simple and understandable information about finance.
“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” takes more of a business approach to financial intelligence and how a business can benefit your personal finance. It also talks about the benefits of being ‘incorporated’ and investing in Real Estate.
“The intelligent investor” is a book that is aimed at the fundamental analysis of securities. Valuing stocks and companies and how to invest in undervalued stocks. This book is a bit heavier than the previous two and is aimed more at investors.
Finally, “Unshakeable” is a fantastic book giving a broad overview of what to do investment wise to stay protected during all kinds of economies. This is one of my favourite books ever because it is an easy read and it provides a smart but simple blueprint on what to do with your money. It also revealed to me how a market collapse is the best thing you can ask for, because if you’ve got cash when there’s a crash, you will make a lot of money.
2. Stay informed via social media
If you’re a younger person nowadays it’s hard to avoid social media, so why not make it useful?
On all my social media I follow the FT, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, The economist. This is good advice because whenever you’re scrolling through your feeds you will see little bits of financial information, so you’ll become more financially intelligent just by looking at your feed (Check out my IG account: @xelafinance). It’s the same deal with YouTube, you can see loads of great finance content for free. So instead of watching something that’s not going to teach you something you could watch something that will make you more financially intelligent which will help you for the future.
3. Learn by doing
I’ve learnt a lot about finance just by doing. More so for investing than personal finance. personal finance is more theory driven than investing, I’ve learnt more about investing by investing than I have reading about investing. I have a book where I write something that I’ve learned in the market either from losing money or making money. I learnt one thing in the market which cost me £600.
Xela Finance 
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