Blog | Personal Finance

A Money Lesson from Wimbledon

What Brexit can teach you about money

This week, Serena Williams, arguably the most dominate female tennis pro in the his-tory of the game, won her seventh Wimbledon title. But even though she made more in pounds this year than her victory purse in 2015, this year it’s worth less.

As Bloomberg reports, thanks to Brexit, “The winner’s prize is worth $2.59 million when converted to U.S. dollars, about $380,000 less than it was worth a few days be-fore the tournament, on the eve of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.”

You read that right. In a few days, thanks to global currency markets, Williams lost $380,000.

 

 

And this highlights an important lesson about money. Mainly, that money isn’t really money. Why? Because we live in a time when money is not based on anything other than people’s faith in the governments that print it. When that confidence goes down, so does the value of that money. That is what happened with Britain and why Williams just lost a bunch of cash.

The rules of money have changed significantly since I was a little girl. My folks could count on the dollar to hold its value. For them, it made sense to get a good job, buy a house, and save money. Today, that is no longer the path to financial freedom.

For the last few weeks, Robert has written about the new rules of money. One of the most important, and thus the first, is that money is no longer money. Instead, knowledge is money. Another important new rule of money is the need for speed.

In a world where currency values change constantly—and in some cases, drastically—it’s important to invest in your financial education. Only if you have a high degree of knowledge about money and how it works, can you truly be rich. This, coupled with the ability to move quickly in the markets, allows you to avoid major losses that others don’t see coming.

Brexit is only one recent example of how global markets continually shift to either add or take value from your currencies and investments. Events happen constantly, and to be successful, you must be on constant watch, ready to move when needed to where the money is flowing.

This is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for the financially uneducated. But it is why savers are losers, and why most people feel like they can’t get ahead but aren’t quite sure why.

Today, if you want to be rich, start by increasing your knowledge and focusing on your speed. It will be one of the best investments you’ve ever made.