Money Confidential

Hello!

So, before I get into the article, I want to say a very big thank you to the Peer Mentors Circles team for letting me come and share my personal finance knowledge on their platform. I couldn’t have found a better home for this column.

With that out of the way, Let’s do some housekeeping.

From the 1st of July (i.e. today, till the end of the foreseeable future), every other week I’ll cover a topic on personal finance that will change the way you see and relate with money.

These topics will ALL be related to each other, i.e. whatever I write in later weeks will most likely refer to a prior post. All of this is to say that, to gain the maximum value from my column, it’d be advisable to read and apply whatever is suggested in sequential order.

That’s it.

Oh, and one last thing before we start, “Personal Finance issa marathon and not a sprint”. I find that it's easier to keep things simple when it comes to talking about money, especially personal finance because we as human beings LOVE to overestimate what we can do in one year, and underestimate what we can do in five.

As our faces differ, so do the various reasons for taking the reins on our personal finances. Sometimes it’s to get out of debt, sometimes it’s to develop a better understanding of where the hell all our money keeps going, other times it’s growing our income. Regardless, you should know that when we get our personal finance ducks in a row, financial independence and freedom are ALWAYS sure outcomes.

The principal underlying foundation of everything related to personal finance is based on this very tiny, extremely simple but equally extremely difficult to implement formula which is:

reduce your expenses
increase your income
grow the gap between both of them and;
invest it

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

Yes, there are some moving parts such as time, inflation rates, exchange rate fluctuations, etc., but by and large, if you stick to the above formula, you are already on the highway that leads to financial freedom.

Now to embark on this journey with me, I need four things from you:

This week I want you to set out 30-60 minutes and think very deeply about what financial freedom and financial independence means to you. Mind you, there are no wrong or right answers. Just write down three lines. This is an excerpt of my statement: “Being able to imagine photos of myself in all the places that Lagbaja sings about in Africalypso, debt free.”

I want you to create a meeting on your calendar, recurring weekly when you are undisturbed, and your mind is alert, and name it “Money Confidential”. This can be 30 minute or it can be one hour, but this is the time that you’ll use to meet with yourself to go over and practice everything you have read. Personally, I use this time to track my expenses and look over my quarterly money goals to ensure that everything is going according to plan.

I want you to move all your spending into one account. If you are like me and you have 3 different accounts, try as much as possible to streamline all your recurrent monthly expenditure to one account. My general spending account is my GTbank savings account.

Finally, I want you to believe that you can be financially free and independent irrespective of what your financial situation looks like right now. I want you to know that all it takes is a mindset shift and the willingness to do the work (which exists, because if it didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this).

Lastly, as you commence this journey, I need you to realize, understand and accept that personal finance, while being finance, is very personal - that is to say, no one can wrangle your personal finances for you. This is something you’ll have to do by yourself, but it does not mean you have to be alone.

The steps and activities that will come up in later posts will provide you with the tools to get to your destination, but you have to be in the driver’s seat. I’ll be with you though. Drop a comment and send me all your questions at: contact@peermentorcircles.com.

Till next time, I leave you with the immortal words of Sarkodie.

“You know say money no be problem”.

Edirin.