Here, I dispel popular misconceptions, urban myths and bad programming about winning financially, fed forcefully on us since young by the media, education system, and yes, the job market.

Myth 1.You need 'Higher Education';

In 1998, Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund run by mathematicians, computer scientists and 2 Nobel Prize-winning economists lost more than a whopping $2 Billion in just weeks. They placed a huge bet that the bond market would return to normalcy, when in fact, it went the other way! Now, before you believe a word I say, read Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed (Random House, 2000).

Why would a group of highly 'qualified'scientists, mathematicians and the like fail at the money game that is the stock market? The key is in getting the proper type of education. They might have excelled in academia, but they appeared to definitely flunk in 'money 101'. If you simply lack sufficient know-how in the areas of personal finance and money management, your expertise might end up counting for nothing. Having mere 'paper qualifications' can never guarantee you success with money.

Notice, in life there are NO guarantees. You have no guarantee on when you will get married, when you might retire, or even when you might stop living.

Same goes for money. There is actual EFFORT involved in really mastering all the different aspects of dealing with money,so dump that 'guarantee mentality', which just happens to be rooted in insecurity.It goes without saying that money skills can definitely be learned by getting the correct kind of financial education. Need inspiration on that one? Look to the rich.

Myth 2.You must be a 'Genius' to win;

In 1720, Sir Isaac Newton sold his shares in South Sea Company, pocketing a handsome 100 percent profit of 7000 pounds. Months later, swept in by the market's wild enthusiasm, he jumped back in at a much higher price, and commenced to lose 20,000 pounds (more than $3 million in today's money), recounted in John Corswell's The South Sea Bubble (Cresset Press, London, 1960).

So what went wrong with the genius behind the 'Law of Gravity'? Well, he couldn't resist the tug of another type of gravity: herd following. In this are ample lessons for us, non-genius-types. Blindly following others' advice in the areas of money is so insanely dangerous, that it squarely defeated one of the greatest scientific minds of modern times.

At the other extreme, billionaire investor Warren Buffett attributes his own success to simple common sense. If he doesn't understand a business, he steers clear of it. It's as simple as that. Wall Street financial reports frequently corroborate this by calling him "a man with unusual common sense".

Notice that such common sense needs to be cultivated. It requires disassociation from misleading financial press, eager people dishing out free advice, and having healthy doses of scepticism. You do not need to be genius to earn a lot of money. But you do need awareness, which always trumps the ignorant herd behaviour of the crowds. In short, keep TESTING others' logics..

Myth 3.You must work as a Doctor/Lawyer/Engineer;

The perennially favourite profession almost every kid dreams of, this career bloc is rooted in personal services business. So what exactly has winning, or not winning got to do with being in personal services business? Let's try massage parlour owners for size. There are only so much customers they can handle in a day. This means their key liability is the lack of a system for duplication. Even if their business booms, if there is zero duplication taking place, the massage parlour owner may well expect to continue working for life!

So what exactly is duplication? Simply put, it is using leverage to free yourself up. In the massage parlour owner's case, he could use time leverage by hiring and training assistants, he could use money leverage to outsource some of the work, or he could system leverage to automate the whole business process. Notice the end-result in all the leverage scenarios is the same; the owner frees up his valuable time.

Hence, as long as doctors, lawyers and engineers do not employ some form of leverage to take over their work, they might find themselves having money, but no TIME to spend that money. Now, that is NOT freedom. Yuck!

One great service we can all do to ourselves is to recognise that there are all sorts of useless junk about money being circulated everywhere. Just like junk food, they do fill you up (think pay-check), but are never good for the long-term (think freedom).So whenever possible, and in whatever situation you find yourself in, challenge your own thinking. Silently analyse the

information and compare its relevance to your future. Feel free to discard whatever that doesn't make you better than you already are.

That's what the rich do!