Like all typical Nigerian parent will say “study hard so you can get
good grades and a good job afterwards” most of us grew up with the notion that
a good job after school is the key to the good life we v always dreamt off. A
lot is been taught during ones schooling days on our various choice of
disciplines and schools often go extra mile to ensure their graduates are the
best among their peers with slight advantages so as to ensure they fare well in
the ever combative war zone called the Nigerian labour market. But after all
these education and preparations many individuals with excellent degrees and
good jobs still struggle financially and are often covered in debts before it
is time for the next pay check. Education is of great importance especially in
this information age but does it necessarily guarantee a successful life?
Many school graduates leave their schools with
excellent professional and scholastic skills but are mostly financial
illiterates with little or no knowledge of how money works apart from just
working for it. This is because the topic money is never taught in schools and
many educated individuals go into the labour market working for money not
knowing how to make money work for them.
A large
percentage of Nigeria’ middle class and lower class citizens engage in what
multiple award winning investor, entrepreneur, author and financial educator Robert T kiyosaki called the “rat race”. This
term he used to describe people whose expenditure is equal with their income or
even more. This he described as a financial situation caused by a low financial
ineptitude due to the individual’s low understanding of the science of money or
wealth acquisition. The poor and the
middle class often spend their income on liabilities instead of acquiring
assets like the rich do. Liabilities can simply be put as things that take
money out of your pockets, while assets are the opposite. The difference between
the rich and the middle and poor class is the ability to tell the difference
between an asset and a liability.
The poor and middle class knowingly or
unknowingly go about acquiring liabilities which in turn drain their income and
invite debts, while the rich put all they can into the acquisition of assets
which increases their cash flow instead of expenditure. The poor and middle
class live with this illusion that a raise or a promotion which often comes
with an increase in income would put an end to their financial struggles but
this never really happens because of their often poor financial know how which
leads to their inability to differentiate between an asset and a liability .
Due to this fact, an increase in income is often followed by an increase in
expenditure so that the raise or promotion has no significant change on the
person’s financial status. This is what is called the rat race, working so hard
just to survive with barely anything to save. The rich folk on the other hand
might not be as educated as his peers but have a better financial knowledge
which he exploits to get ahead. An increased acquisition of assets results in a
situation Robert T Kiyosaki described as “financial freedom” when the
individuals assets generates a cash flow that adds to the normal income leading
to an increased income. Here the rich man’s income supersedes his expenditure
by a large margin due to the additional source of income created by his assets.
Example of such assets are stocks, bonds eg FGN bonds, mutual funds, shares,
real estate and any type of business that produces steady income.
In
conclusion, we should all Endeavour to increase our financial IQ and background
regardless of our line of work. You can do this by reading financial
educational books mostly written by world renowned investors and entrepreneur
eg the Rich dad series by Robert K Kiyosaki, The warren buffet way by Robert .G
hagstrom and many other proper books on the art of wealth acquisition or make
use of the good old internet to research on many available information
pertinent to this subject matter. Lool hope I did not bore you out with the
money talks. Nothing is pleasurable about money. The only pleasurable thing
about money is spending it. Making it or managing it properly is the hard part.
So brethren next time you just got paid and u are about to go cop that
designers watch you have been drooling over or that new gadget which you know
you don’t really need you might like to think twice so u don’t fit into the
popular expression that says
“ A fool and his money is one big party” .
No comments:
Post a Comment