A lot of times our consistent financial downtime is not unscientific, neither is it demonic or a mystery.
Apart from the fact that we (at least myself and a few people I know) were born into poor homes without any silver or wooden spoon or laddle, our poverty is more largely occasioned not necessarily by the lack of money in the homes where we grew, but more importantly, the lack of quality information on the game of money.
For example, whilst we played ludo, oware, ampe, snakes and ladders as our indoor games, which in themselves are not bad and also teach some vital lessons, they were of less lofty value compared to if we had been raised playing Chess and Monopoly as our indoor games!
Chess teaches Mind Strategy, Monopoly teaches the Game of Money and how it works to walk you into Riches.
Think about it!
That we had to become adults first to begin to learn and understand Capital Appreciation, Cashflow, NPV Rule, Assets & Liabilities, Ordinary Annuity and Annuity Due, etc are we not seemingly late?
Whilst our parents did excellently in raising us with home values and eternal principles of character, I can boldly say without any equivocation, that our upbringing was also, sadly, not grounded in prudential wisdom when it comes to the game of Money.
We are coming from a background where we do not even understand how money works. We attended schools where we were focused on botanical names of pawpaw and cocoa, drawing crocodiles and labeling cockroaches; this knowledge is not a waste per se, but of what use is theobroma cacao and carica papaya to me when I am now a grown up adult but completely clueless about the most important subject of human natural existence and survival on earth – Money?
There was a particular year I intentionally took my time to methodically pen down all the moneys that had passed through my hand which I spent, and by December of that year, I realised that over Million cedis had walked through my hands, but when I looked around, I couldnt really point to anything memorial that I used the money for, I couldnt believe my eyes.
That year taught me a bitter and sad lesson, I realised that God actually blesses us with alot of seeds, but instead of the wisdom to plant and water them so they can grow into a Plantation for which we can enjoy more, we eat up the seeds in anticipation that more seeds will come tomorrow, and then when seasons and times happen and tomorrow’s seed fails to materialise, we go around begging for food. It is not that God wasnt faithful to us, we were just unfaithful to ourselves due to our lack of understanding of how money works and the basic knowledge of times and seasons when it comes to blessings and moneys.
If you have serious issues with managing of your finances. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Start with getting some good books on Money. Read up. It’s not too late.
2. Download a finance management App and use it to control and monitor your spending.
3. Have a clear idea of how much you spend daily, weekly, and monthly. Draw budgets before you start spending. If you dont have a cap to your spending, people will help you spend it anyhow – problems no dey finish.
4. Create alternative income stream if you are an Employee, do not forget the lessons of Banking Sector Cleanup and Covid. Always, ALWAYS, have a Plan B.
A Man without financial Plan B, is like jumping out of a flying Plane without a Parachute and hoping that he will land on a Sofa in a Yatch on the Sea – the probabilities are as slim as Akua Donkor winning Ghana’s Presidential Election in 2024, or BigGodwin becoming a Rev Father, I don’t think I can survive not being married forever, so it won’t happen!
5. Make sensible friends, those who can form your base and support systems, have friends you can call if you needed GHC10,000 cedis urgently. Okay, if that sounds astronomical to you, have friends who can help you out of financial crisis, however the level of your financial dealings even if it’s GHC2,000. If you do not have such friends, then there is a big problem and you have to re-evaluate the people in your life. The essense of social capital is to build a reliable social bank account that you can draw from in the days of austerity.
