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As America’s unemployment “problem” continues, we keep hearing about the importance of education. The mantra has not changed: “Go to college so you can get a good job.”

Photo by Ian Lord

The question nobody bothers to ask is, “Who wants a job?” Now, more than ever before, more people are finding it harder to survive depending on a job. If they have not lost their job already, they are afraid of losing it. Call me crazy, but it doesn’t sound like a good solution to me.

Why do people keep repeating the Mantra of Education?

Most people are told since they are children that they should go to school and get a good job. They have accepted this idea as fact, and never stop to think about it. This is known as the phenomenon of cultural hypnosis.

Since we humans are social creatures, we live in groups (called peer groups) and automatically adopt the habits, beliefs and patterns of the people around us. Once these beliefs are acquired, they are never questioned. Any attempt to change our beliefs or go against the conventional ”wisdom” of society is met with ridicule and contempt. We are met with questions like, “What is wrong with you? Are you crazy?”

A “good education” at a college is really just an excuse for mediocrity and debt. If people haven’t racked up tens of thousands of dollars of debt before they graduate, they immediately get into debt when they start working. They believe that a house is a good investment or a tax shelter. They believe that a car loan is a good idea. Credit card debt is no problem because they think they can pay it off later.

It really is just hypnosis.

If you stop to think about it, getting a good education and a dead end job is not that great of an idea. Wasting our lives in an office cubicle is not my idea of a life full of meaning and purpose.  It does not take a large effort to rethink the useless ideas that we have acquired when we were children. But it does take a certain amount of courage and determination.

If a regular education is just an excuse for mediocrity, what is a real education?

I think our destiny and our future should start from one critical question:

If I could do anything I want with my life, what would I do?

Your answer may be “I don’t know.” That’s fine. Most people have no idea what they want to do with their life. The important thing is to ask the question and keep asking until we get some good answers. Fortunately for us, we are surrounded by great resources that will help us figure out what we want to do.

One of my favorite concepts is Tim Ferriss’ idea of Lifestyle Design. Instead of just going through life like a robot, what if we stop to think about what would be really fulfilling and fun? His book, The 4-Hour Workweek is an outstanding way to start to figure out what we want to do with our lives. And, he promotes some very smart ideas about achieving it. His blog is also entertaining and full of useful information.

Another thing that we need to figure out is how to get money without wasting our lives in the office cubicle. It’s called passive income. Passive income means getting money without trading our time for it. It means working once, and getting paid many times. This can be done through building businesses and investing.

What are the best resources available?

The first book of financial education, and a great start to developing passive income, is Rich Dad Poor Dad. This book by Robert Kiyosaki is the best selling financial book of all time. Robert is one of the best known financial authors of our time, and has an interesting blog. He has written dozens of books, all of which provide excellent financial education material free of cultural hypnosis mediocrity. An interesting and rare one is called, If you want to be Rich, Happy and Successful, Stay Away from School!

Ultimately, our income will to some extent come from investing. In fact, investing is one of the most powerful tools that we can use to achieve passive income. Although there is no shortage of information about investing on the internet, I believe that the 99/1 rule applies. That means that 99% is worthless, and 1% is actually useful information that you should devote time and energy reading.

One great source of information that fits in the 1% category is Passion Saving and its associated blog, A Rich Life. Rob’s ideas about investing make a ton of sense to me. He is one of the few people I know that doesn’t believe in Buy and Hope investing. His approach is both mathematically rigorous and easy to understand. The huge amount of information available on his sites constitutes what I consider part of a real financial education: an education that cannot be learned from any college.

No mention of cultural hypnosis would be complete without talking about consumerism. Our desire to buy everything under the sun is the greatest cause of debt for Americans. Is there any way to break away from the addiction of buying iPads, iPods and iPhones? Jacob of ERE fame says “Yes!”. He shows us ways of throwing away the desire to consume, and helps us rethink our needs. His blog entitled Early Retirement Extreme is exactly what it promises: A step-by-step guide to early retirement. Definitely a necessity for anyone who wants to be financially educated.

Am I crazy to go against the grain and believe that there is a better way to live than middle class mediocrity? It depends who you ask. I think anyone who is rich, happy and successful would have already found these unconventional ideas.

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Related posts:

1. Advice into Action: Actually Making Money
2. Financial Wealth is Unrelated to College Education
3. Breaking Free of the College Mold with Online Education
4. The First Book of Financial Education: Rich Dad Poor Dad
5. Lessons from the Financial Crisis

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