Life is short, and wanting to invest, is a lousy alternative to actually investing.
To improve our investing habits, we need to think about the deeper aspects of our psychology that drive them.
For instance, before we act on our behaviours, we make tactical choices about what actions to take. Those choices are based on a strategy, which is designed to help us reach our goals. And our goals are shaped by our purpose, which is what gives meaning and direction to our lives.
One of the purposes we may have, especially if we are parents or good citizens, is to care for the next generation. If we have children, we want to build wealth for them and teach them how to do the same. As both George Benson and Whitney Houston sang, I believe that children are our future; teach them well, and they will show the way. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we (as a nation) are teaching are children well. Teaching them well, in my view, means there’s objective truth and facts about the world, and sometimes it is possible to be wrong about things. So we should be teaching them basic skills like reading, writing, and math. Learning these skills is not a form of oppression but a way of understanding how the world works. Building wealth in your own world while ignoring this is folly.
If we want our children to be well-educated, we need public schools to do their job.
But sadly, progressive ideology has corrupted much of society, including the education system. Other countries have realised this already, but not New Zealand.
The consequence? More and more kids are skipping school, the curriculum is weak, and teachers are not trained to teach the fundamentals. Instead of blaming the teachers, principals, schools, or the system, I think we need to confront the ideology.
This is a difficult topic that I have wanted to address for a while, so I have invited two guests from the Maxim Institute, an independent think tank that stands for the dignity of every person in New Zealand, by advocating for freedom, justice, and compassion. Our first guest is Maryanne Spurdle, a researcher at Maxim Institute who has written a lot on education policy, curriculum design, and teacher training. Our second guest is Tim Wilson, the executive director of Maxim Institute, who oversees the strategic direction and operations of the organisation.
