I personally love President Obama. I completely support everything he stands for as well as the American image that he portrays. It doesn’t matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat, it doesn’t matter whether you support President Obama or not; what does matter is that we are all Americans and we all love money.
As DINKS we wake up every day and go to work to hopefully earn enough money to support our lifestyle and fund a successful retirement. As the President and First Lady of the United States Barack and Michelle Obama do the exact same thing.
President Obama recently gave a conference at the White House for personal finance journalists where he shared his personal savings strategies as well as the best financial advice he ever received as a young boy and still lives by today as a successful man.
President Obama says to Focus on Personal Savings
The number one rule of saving according to President Obama’s Grandmother is “don’t spend all of your money.” As per Grandma Obama we don’t have to save a large percentage of our pay check as long as we start saving at a young age and we continue saving over many years. Compounded annual rates of return allow us to earn interest on interest, or reinvest our dividends to purchase more units. Compound investing is a great investment strategy but in order for it to be effective we have to start investing at a young age.
If we save $25 biweekly for 30 years at a 7% average annual rate of return we will have approximately $132,000. In order to achieve the exact same amount within 10 years we would have to invest $353 biweekly. I think that most of us would agree that saving $25 from each bi weekly pay check is a lot more affordable than trying to save $353.
Obama says to Invest in our Education
I really like the fact that not only does President Obama run one of the greatest countries in the world; he also takes an active role in managing his own personal finances. President Obama is the author of two very successful best-selling books. Obama is a Harvard Law School alumnus who graduated with $125,000 in student debt. However, he says that it was a good investment.
Anyone who takes even a slight interest in the lives of the Obama’s knows that Michelle Obama is an advocate for higher learning. Investing in ourselves and our education is always a good investment. Even if it takes us several years to pay off our student debts (it took the Obama’s 10 years to pay off $125,000 in student debt) our education is worth the cost. We may not have the job and pay check that allows us to make our student loan payments if we didn’t have our education. And the good news is that our pay check will (hopefully) continue long after the student loan is paid off.
President Obama’s naturally playful personality came out during the conference when he used phrases such as “quadruple whammy” as he talked about the financial struggles that American’s face every day. He is both understanding and sympathetic to the scarce job market as well as the housing market. Barack Obama applies his personal financial advice strategies to the bigger picture of American finance as a whole. He says that it is ok to borrow and spend money for good investments such as education, clean energy, and infrastructure. We have to learn to spend our money wisely and make smart investments.
I personally can’t help but listen when President Barack Obama speaks. When it comes to his personal financial advice the only thing I can say is…If it’s good enough for the Obama’s, then it’s good enough for me!
Photo by James OMalley
DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) Finance is a blog discussing personal finance for couples. While by no means financial experts, we own a variety of assets including real estate and stocks. We've both been up to our eyeballs in debt and have made tons of financial mistakes. However, we've both successfully retired that debt and we both do learn from our failings. We hope that our voice in this blog can help others in achieving their goals!
