- Counting on the illusive someday: David Chilton said the best time to plant an oak tree was twenty years ago, the next best time is now. Do not procrastinate because procrastination is the thief of time. Do not wait for when your cash flow is not so tight or when you have surplus funds before you start planning for investments. The longer you wait for that illusive someday, the more difficult it becomes for you to start planning for your financial future.
- You are not what you drive: While a car is very important for mobility in most Nigerian cities, it is necessary to strike a balance on what we spend buying and maintaining our cars in relation to our investments. A friend with little or no investment bought a Honda car for N3.8 million in 2008 only for him to sell the car for N2 million in 2013. Your financial independence is more important than displaying social status. Is your driveway a car lot? What are you doing with more than two cars? If you must have more than two cars, then the cars should either be for business or the value of the cars should be about 10% of your net-worth.
- Gambling away your future: We must invest our time and money in activities and ventures that will enhance our economic status. Our time must be invested in our education, career, health, family, positive relationships and businesses, while our money must be invested in knowledge, real estate, mutual funds, stocks, money market instruments and businesses. Uninformed people waste their time on activities that do not add value to them and their money playing lottery. The probability of becoming financially independent through gambling, betting or lottery is very slim. The best way to attain financial independence is to have a financial goal, plan your strategy and work hard toward the attainment of the goal.
- Do not think like an employee: No matter who pays your salary, always see yourself as the MD/CEO and Chairman of Yourself Incorporated Nigeria Limited. When you have this mindset, you will not rely on your employer or the government for your economic sustenance. Also endeavour to be good at what you do, add value to your organization, business and the society at large. Money should be secondary, have a genuine interest in solving people, organizational and societal problems. When you truly do these the good Lord will definitely bless the work of your hands.
- Feeding the monster: You are feeding the monster when your
garage is not big enough to hold your cars and other toys, when you are
paying for multiple phone lines, multiple cable channels or computer
hook-ups for your family, when you are finding it difficult to pay the
fees of that expensive private schools that your children attend, always
paying for Aso-ebi, you are a member of multiple country clubs. You
feel you are not controlling your finances because your finances are
controlling you. For how long shall we continue to do these? Do not be
like Will
Rogers, who said we will show the world we are prosperous,
even if we have to go broke to do it. - Wrong networks: Your network determines your net-worth. Where we will be in ten years will be determined by the types of books we read and the types of friends we keep. When we build the right network, it will have positive effects on our careers, family and economic status. We must avoid relationships and networks that do not add value to us. Peoplermad is a very good platform for young people to cultivate friendship and the right networks that will have positive effects on them in no distant future.
- Do not be reactive: In order to succeed this year and beyond we need to be proactive. Proactive people are forward looking and forward thinking, they pray for the best but also plan for the worst. The economic reality of the day is that job security no longer exists in any sector of the economy. It makes a whole lot of sense for every worker to map out strategies that will make them survive a job loss whenever it occurs. Investing and saving for the rainy day is one of the strategies of coping when the unexpected happens to us.A proactive person should not totally rely on the severance package or retirement benefits that will be paid by his or her employer, for sustenance when retirement or job loss occurs. We all need to have a personal retirement plan.
- Linear stream of income: You can never be financially independent through linear stream of income. Our primary source of income should always be diversified into other asset classes such as money market instruments, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, real estates, and small businesses.We should not wait until we retire and get our severance packages before we start investing and creating other streams of income, those who waited till they retired lost most of their money to phoney investment schemes.
- Learning is life-long: Its too bad that we are intellectually lazy in this part of the world. We only read to pass examinations and to acquire certificates. Young people who have good reading habits are in a minority. We must be ready to learn as that is the only way we can become successful professionals and great leaders. We must not limit our readings to our professions or academic fields, but to all spheres of human endeavours and interests.
- You are an economist: A lot of us are well versed in sports
and entertainment matters, but we make the mistake of not having any
interest in the economy. We will deny ourselves of business and
investment opportunities if we are economic illiterates. I am not asking
everyone to become an economic expert but I am of the opinion that
every truly educated person must be conversant with happenings in the
economy.
Information about inflation, consumer price index, exchange rate, foreign reserve, energy consumption, unemployment rate, GDP, per capita income, foreign direct investment, growth sectors of the economy, economic policies of the government etc should be at the finger tips of every professional. It does not matter if you are a doctor, engineer, accountant, businessman, lawyer, architect, student, teacher etc, every educated and informed person should strive to have at least a rudimentary grasp of economy.
Make That Difference Today.
and outside give it up for – Ini Edo Ehiagwina. Next is an amazing Nollywood actress – Yvonne Okoro
