Learn How to Earn with the Hip-Hop Stock Doc
Where did you learn how to earn? Probably nowhere. Most of us grew up without financial education. Our schools didn’t require it. And maybe our parents never learned either. Or they always handled the family finances for us. Then before they knew it, we were out on our own before they could teach us. So unless we’re part of a motivated minority who taught ourselves, most of us still have no idea how to manage money or build wealth.
But have no fear. With the internet and social media today, learning how to live it up for the long-term without going broke is easier than ever. Recently I chatted with Eric Patrick, a.k.a. the Hip-Hop Stock Doc, to find out how he went from pharmacist to money expert without any formal financial education. Not only is he self-taught, but he now teaches finance to others in ways that even the biggest arithmophobiacs can comprehend.
Learning How to Earn Outside the Classroom
Although Eric’s parents were bankers and he always excelled at math, his family never talked about finance much at home. It was just a few years ago when his career path changed course from medicine to money mentorship. He credits his wife for teaching him about budgeting and saving and for sparking his interest in finance.
As he learned from his wife, he recognized the need for an offensive strategy to complement her defensive strategy. He realized you can only decrease your expenses so much, but increasing your cash flow can be infinite. So, he delved into investing. However, once Eric started studying investing, he realized it was all the same old format. And it wasn’t relatable or digestible enough for the majority of people.
To change this scenario, Eric began sharing what he learned by connecting it to a universal language he and his target audience liked and understood — hip-hop music. When people heard songs about poppin’ bottles in the club, Eric wanted them to think about who made those bottles and how to earn an additional income stream by investing in them.
Still, while Eric’s innovative and engaging teaching methodology in an otherwise dense and intimidating topic proves successful with his audience, I wondered what he thought about requiring formal financial education in schools, especially for those of us less motivated to educate ourselves later on. As kids, the pressure of a report card, and a parent’s wrath, is often all the motivation we need!
What About Financial Education in Schools?
Considering two-thirds of adults are financially illiterate around the globe, formal financial education requirements seem necessary to help people build fundamental personal finance skills from a young age. If Phys Ed is a requirement, why isn’t Fin Ed?
Eric says more financial components are making their way into schools, but much more progress is needed to teach people even basic financial life skills like budgeting, credit-building and doing taxes. Fortunately, educators have a wealth of lesson plan inspiration right at their fingertips with the creative and engaging tactics already used by successful financial bloggers like Eric.
Providing basic knowledge of personal finance in schools can have monumental impact, particularly for underserved communities where children do not have the luxury of being born into financial security. Future entrepreneurs stand to benefit as well since business success depends on solid money management skills. But for those of us whose school days are over, we can always learn how to earn from people like Eric!
Other Tips
But what if you don’t like hip-hop? Or you just want more tips? Well, Eric’s financial wisdom spans a wide range. Here are a few additional pieces of wisdom he shared.
When talking about how much his wife helped increase his financial knowledge, Eric emphasized the value of having financial accountability partners. Whether it’s your significant other, your sibling, your friend or whoever, creating and sharing financial goals with someone you trust can provide major benefits even if you’ve never had formal financial education.
Also, compete with yourself to build wealth. Make it a game. Start with simple goals and then gradually up the ante. For example, start with a goal of saving $10 in week one. Then increase the amount for week two. Turn your goal-setting into a leisurely hobby and a habit.
In addition, today banks and other financial services providers are introducing apps and other technology all the time that are making saving and money management easier and more automated than ever.
The most important directive from Eric though is just to start somewhere. So on behalf of Eric, get motivated and go get that money!
Learn more about Eric and
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