That feeling of being broke in the middle of the month is all too familiar. Having to wait until the end of the month to buy something you want can make you feel restricted. The saying “Money is a good servant but a bad master” becomes more accurate when applied to real life, the over-reliance on a salary has pushed people who need immediate cash to resort to credit cards and different forms of loans to meet these needs. This only feeds the cycle and leaves these people in debt and even more dependent than before on money. Our goal should be to gain the freedom to do as we please with our money and not to be slaves to it. Below we have assembled all the proven principles needed to free yourselves and gain control of your finances on the way to freedom.
>Practice financial awareness
To be financially aware is to take responsibility for your choices, it’s not every day “I’m so broke and I don’t even know what I spent the money on” (just two weeks into the month). It is essential for us to maintain control over our finances in order to reach financial freedom. How can we do so? Firstly, you should figure out your expenses. What everyday purchases take the major part of your salary? If you are able to determine your spending patterns, you will be able to design a working budget to fit your lifestyle. Secondly, we should aim to clear out any debt we currently owe. Debt places a burden on the debtor and can cause stress and embarrassment, why not just clear out your debt – as slowly as your budget will allow- and experience that freedom that comes with knowing all the money you currently have belongs to you. After we have cleared out our debt, in order for us not to return to that situation, we should learn to live below our means.
>Pay yourself first
This means to make sure that each time you get your salary you are first going to take a part of it and put into something that helps you grow financially. This could come in the form of a savings account, investing in stocks/securities, buying property etc. in order to help make this easier, we would advise setting up a direct debit to your main account and a savings account where money is paid to the latter on the same day you receive your salary or wages.
>Be an investor and not just a consumer
This could also fall underpaying yourself first. Savings are great and all but we all know the interest rates on them are crazy low, so if you are really serious about growing your money then you should get into investing. Knowing that you should invest/buy assets is one thing, but actually knowing which instruments to invest in is a whole different thing. It is necessary to understand the various markets available for investments, it is also important to understand your attitude towards risk – whether you are risk-averse or a risk taker- and match your portfolio to that attitude. As I said earlier, knowledge of the various types of investment instruments can be daunting to someone who has never been involved in such a thing but thankfully there are various tools to help with that. The InfoWARE finance app is an excellent option if you are looking to learn about the Nigerian stock exchange as it provides real-time information on the NSE as well as a grouping functionality that allows you read about the experiences of other investors and learn from it. When you are ready to start investing, the InfoWARE finance is there for you again, it allows you trade seamlessly from the comfort of your mobile device. In case you are interested, this application can be downloaded on all the major downloading platforms. For more information on this, check out the Infoware finance mobile suite website: https://infowarelimited.com/infoware-finance-mobile-suite/
Becoming an investor as opposed to constantly spending your money buying things that lose value quickly is one of the keys to earning passive income which will the lead to financial freedom. We will speak about this in our next article
