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Business
Literacy 101
By Laura Marie Pentier
[email protected]HI guys! It’s me...Laura Marie! And today, I want to talk to you about
something that is very very important to us all. And that is the concept of business
literacy.
Now, you might be saying to yourself , “Hey Laura Marie...just what does it mean to
be ‘business literate’? I’ve never really heard that term before.”.
And my answer to you is explained in this article. But !rst, there are 3 types of
literacy:
Basic Literacy
Financial Literacy
Business Literacy
Let’s start with basic literacy. Basic literary is the one you’re probably the most
familiar with. It’s what we learn in grade school. It’s what our parents are trying to
help us learn when they teach us our ABC’s. “A B C D E F G...” If you can read and
basically understand the idea of what I’m saying in this article, you have basic
literacy.
Now, #nancial literacy takes a bit more time to develop. Financial literacy has
more to do with the 123’s than the ABC’s. Financial literacy has much to do with a
person’s understanding of cash $ow, expenses, assets, and liabilities. Many people
don’t have #nancial literacy because it’s really not taught in school. That’s a shame,
because it really is simple—if picked up early in life. Society further compounds
people’s lack of #nancial literacy by promoting what I call “fool’s gold”. Fool’s gold is
simply a liability that is presented or promoted to people as an asset (more on this
in a future article).
Quick lesson: An asset—once you purchase it—continues to put more money in
your pocket (positive cash "ow). A liability—once you purchase it—continues to
take money out of your pocket (negative cash "ow).
The only thing (sounds simple enough, right?) that a person needs to do to get
rich—especially in America—is to get into the habit of acquiring assets! That’s it!
But, because most people buy liabilities that they wrongly think are assets, they
never accumulate riches. This is really a shame.
L
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