Ask yourself this question. What’s more important to understand? The entire plot to the jersey shore, or when your power company is going to raise their rates for the eighth time this fiscal quarter? If you are still thinking about this question, you know the answer. General ignorance is actually something that I dealt with for a very long time. I was choosing to focus on things that would, maybe one day, make me popular at school amongst my peers. Whatever they were interested in, I was interested in. I knew, word for word, every episode of Home Improvement. Remember that show? General ignorance was killing me, financially.
General Ignorance is Financial
Wouldn’t it be sick to call your power company and offer them details about the plot of this week’s episode of Lost? Newsflash. The world doesn’t work that way. Want to know why? More than likely, the owners of the power company are executive producers of whatever show that you are going to talk about. That’s odd to hear right? Think about this. People that are huge in the oil industry finance movie studios and their huge blockbusters. Ever seen the Entourage movie? It’s 100% true in that sense. I was spending so much time, watching Home Improvement, that my grades in school started to suffer. I wasn’t focusing on my job. I was under performing and I wasn’t paying attention to the world. If I had been paying attention, I would have known that my power bill was about to rise. I would have known to stay home two more nights in order to save enough money up. Is any of this, making sense to you yet?
I get it. I really do
I completely understand that having friends in your life is important. I want you to have friends. I personally need more friends myself. However, friends do not pay your bills. Friends will not save you money. Friends will not tell you that your power company is raising their rates unless they see a post on Facebook. The only way that they see that post on Facebook is if they liked the page. Chances are that they are not interested in these subjects as well. So you can assume your friends won’t keep you updated. What will keep you updated? Reading the paper and paying attention to the news. Watch your local news once a night. You don’t have to watch it live at 6:00 pm. But you should watch it at some point, every night. Learning about bank accounts with accrued interest can save you money. That’s how the rich do it. Their money goes into an account and the account earns interest. They get paid just for having money in an account. Who knew, right? Now do you get what I’m trying to say? The answers to your problems are out there. You just have to show interest in them and learn. It’s important to know about stupid things like the Jersey shore, in the sense of communicating with your friends. However, you should be learning those things after you update yourself on all of the actual important information.
How to avoid general ignorance
General ignorance is due to a lack of interest in a subject. I do not blame anyone for having zero interest in power company rate spikes and cable company deals. It’s actually not interesting at all. It is important to know about. Because two companies making a deal could raise your bill by $12.50. I had an employer tell me that once. I was no longer interested in Home Improvement. I went home and Googled “Company Mergers”. The first result was Sirius and XM radio merging. I started reading and I found out that my Sirius bill was about to go up by $4.00 a month. I was already strapped for cash. I had to get rid of Sirius. Had I not taken any interest, I would have overdrawn my bank account that month. Here are a few ways I overcame general ignorance.
Step #1: Ask someone who is financially sound for advice. Ask them how they go to where they are today. Chances are, they are going to say “Hard Work” first and foremost. Ask them why they are interested in specific topics. Maybe something they say will spark an interest in you. Like I said, an old employer told me about something and it sparked an interest in me.
Step #2: Find something hilarious about the subject. Every time that I pay my bills, I always make the joke that I’m funding the Jersey Shore. Remember what I said earlier. The guy who owns the power company probably produces the Jersey Shore. So I consider myself co-financier of the show. A silent partner if you will. I also like to pretend that the rich can’t pay their bills unless I pay mine first. Now, that’s not true. It does make me feel better. For what it’s worth.
Step #3: Ask your friends how much they have in the bank. Seriously. I was taking advice from my friends who already had a negative balance due to overdraft fees. If they have less than $3,000 in hte bank, ask someone else. Have you ever been in a automobile accident and your friends start telling you all of the legal actions you can take? They tell you how they went about handling the situation? That’s not legal Advice. If it is legal advice, ask them for the excat book, page and line number where you can find it.
Step #4: See Real Ignorance
The Real World (TV Show) is back in Las Vegas according to our Local Las Vegas Source, and good friend, Vital Vegas. You can see what the “Real World” looks like according to television media.
Step #5: Take this advice.
For me, it’s really that simple.