Take ownership of your Financial Success

I would like this blog from now and going forward to focus on giving personal opinions on how to be a success in managing and improving your financial situation. I have always wanted to have a platform to reach to all my friends and colleagues and help advice on how to get it done financially. I get a lot of questions here and there when holding discussions with colleagues, how did you do this and that etc, and believe through this platform I will help show you what has worked well for me. We all want to be successful in life one way or another, be it in a career, have a peaceful retirement, travel, complete PhD degrees and even being an entrepreneur (Which I highly recommend etc Let’s be honest, finances are big part of that success story. In the next couple of months, and even years I will go from successfully managing your hard earned money day to day, to investing the money overtime in various financial markets. Some of these things have worked well for me and I believe that recognizing this early on in my life was a key part of that story. Other issues that I will handle include whether to invest in the west or to invest in Africa, buying a house or renting, and ultimately investing in real estate, especially the rising need for housing in Africa and the opportunity that it presents to us. In the end, my aim is to ensure that we are informed to make wise decisions to help us be successful in the long run. This article will assume that we are all planning or investing as individuals, for those that intend to plan their finances as a couple, I always say make sure that the significant other person has the same financial values as you do. I advise those that aren't married as yet, as much as we love our partners, ensure that you share the same financial values, because as you go on with life, finances will begin to play a key factor in most of the things you do in your lives. First things first, how do you get ahead financially and even improve your situation? To me, my take on finances is simple and clear; respect your finances just like you respect anything else. Firstly, you need to spend less than you earn. It doesn't matter how much you make, if you spend more than you bring in, you are going to struggle financially. What I believe in is that it’s always easier to spend less that it is to earn more. If you are going to make a big purchase, like a TV, Car, Furniture etc and you don’t make enough to cover that cost, I would say save and plan for the purchase. Secondly, to get ahead financially we need to ensure that we spend our finances as planned, in other words have a budget and stick to it. If you are going to be flexible with your budget, then you must have a savings account from which you draw from. Often, a lot of people budget and then before they know it they have gone to overspend. Another thing that is going to prevent you from getting ahead financially is credit cards debt. People pay ridiculous amount of interest on their credit card balances, anywhere between 19.99%-30% on store cards. My advice is simple and clear, pay of any credit card balances. If you decide to use a credit card, make sure you have the funds in a savings account to pay off the balance when it’s due. There are very good credit cards that give you cash back, reward points for travel, and to build your credit score. But all of these are worthless if you carry a balance and continue to pay lots of interest. Remember if you pay the minimum payments each month on a credit card, very little if any is going towards the principal. You could use some of those funds for investments (that for another day). Learn to cook. Its sounds simplistic but it is very important. If you start making your meals, you will soon realize that a lot of funds are being saved from groceries, eating out etc, again funds that you can use to save toward retirement and invest for future earnings. A lot of us are mistaken to think that life will stay the same forever. There are lots of changes in life, losing a job, disability, retirement, relocation and divorce/separation. It’s wise that you recognize early that being financial in a strong position if any of these storms come your way is as important as anything else you plan in your life. Believe me, how you live in retirement will be a direct result of how you planned, saved and invested today, something we will focus on in the coming months and years. I hope some of the information here has helped recognize the need for planning our finances. In the end we want the money to work for us, and not us working for it. And planning wisely, living below your means will aid in that financial success story. We are on a journey and we need to help educate one another and the success will follow accordingly.