Money Lessons From Barack Obama On His 58th Birthday

Important Money Lessons from Barack Obama, Former US President

Introduction

Today, Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States, is celebrating his 58th birthday. So, in this article, we will throw a light on important money lessons we can learn from Barack Obama, Former US President.

Important Money Lessons From Barack Obama

About Barack Obama

• Barack Hussein Obama served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to be elected to the presidency.
• Obama as a world leader does strike a different chord with us Indians. It may be because of his pedigree as a self-made man, much like our Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• Unlike other world leaders who have typically preached from a pulpit, Obama is a man of the soil. He is at home in Asian nations like ours for he is someone who has seen struggle up close and personal and fought his way to the top fair and square.
• This is perhaps the one reason that endears him to us as a nation for most of us in this country are far from being born with a silver spoon in our mouths.

Here are a few important money lessons that we can learn from Barack Obama, former US President. These lessons will surely help us manage our money better.

Which are those Money Lessons From Barack Obama?

1. BE ATTENTIVE and Listen up hard

• One of the reasons that Obama strikes a chord whenever he gives a speech is because he is a great public speaker. To be a good public speaker, one has to begin by being a good listener. Obama is a man who believes communication is a two way street. And for all his major successes, he has attributed credit to those who have inspired him.
• Similarly, when you want to invest in the stock markets, you must keep your eyes and ears open to soak up all the information around you, so that you can decode the information that is relevant to you.
• Try and follow the successful investors, but do not copy them blindly. Be inspired from them and if you must apply their techniques, adjust them to your benefit.

2.Have A Clear and CoNsistent Vision

• ‘Change’ was vision of Obama. Right from the time he was relatively unknown and made speeches in the Democratic National Convention, he hinged his speeches on his a single word vision ‘change’. This was to become the fulcrum of his presidential campaign and ultimately brought him victory, not once but twice !!
• Similarly, when you begin your investment journey, you must have a clear financial plan, to begin with. Have your goals chalked out clearly and invest with focused as well as committed determination to meet them. There will temptations to fluctuate at times, but do not give in to them. Because meeting your financial goals will help not only you but your family in the long run.

3.Take Tough Decisions When the Need Arises

• Barrack Obama took over as the President of the United States in 2009, at a time when it was going through one of the worst financial crises it had seen. So he had to take some tough decisions to get the economy back on track. However, even under pressure, he was firm on his decisions and carried out his actions in a manner that he thought was best for his country.
• Similarly, when it comes to your portfolio, there will be times when you will be called upon to take some tough actions. More often, macro economic conditions will determine what actions you need to take. (A detailed analysis of India’s Macro Economic Indicators is done by us and is published on our Finplan website.)
• At such times you must not discourage or prevent yourself. You should take those decisions to trim or reshuffle your portfolio. Thus, you should balance your portfolio accordingly to allocate your assets towards more gainful investments.
• These decisions will not be the easiest to take, but you must have the confidence to go through with them.

4.Pay off your debts as aggressively as you can

• Obama has often acknowledged that it had taken him a good thirteen years to pay off his law school loans. He graduated from the Law School at Havard in 1991 and it was only in 2004 that he paid of his loans fully.
• So, To students or recent graduates the lesson is clear.
• Do not ramp up or step up your lifestyle as soon as you graduate from school. As a rule of thumb one should take off 50% of their after-tax increase in pay every time they get a raise to pay off debt. The remaining should be invested to get the best inflation-adjusted returns.
• Instead of getting jealous when you see people driving around in snazzy cars, tell yourself it’s more important to be debt free than spend money on materialistic things that you think will make you happy.

Conclusion

Thus as you can see, we as common people may not be able to comprehend the politics of world leaders, but we can sure be inspired from the way they conduct themselves and apply them to our personal lives.