Three Money Habits You Need To Build

Hey fam, welcome back and a special welcome to our first timers.

I hope your weekend has been restful and your week was productive.

Today we're going to be looking at some tips for financial progression. Every year, millions of people add 'better finances', 'start saving' or many other financial goals to their new year's resolution list. However just like any other goal, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. (No harshness intended) So what can you do to plan? Let's jump into it.

images from paysimple and thebalance

Number one, budgeting.

Budgeting is so underrated yet it is one way to keep track of how you spend your money. I always thought that I was quite frugal with my spending until I decided to check my account balance. As they say, 'E choke'. I had way less money than I imagined so I decided to do some investigating. As a college student, I spent a lot of my money on food and books which was reasonable but this didn't mean my account balance was any higher. Even though I wasn't buying extravagant things every week, I had little money saved and this really bothered me. When I started budgeting however, it helped me be conscious of what I spent my money on and choosing better alternatives. Instead of spending $12 on food everyday, I decided to go grocery shopping and the $84 dollars l would spend in one week lasted for 3 weeks.

Two. Investing.

Where do I start? When it comes to investing especially in Nigeria there is a lot of skepticism which is understandable but after watching a lot of 'how rich people...' or 'how CEOs...', I understood that most wealthy people don't keep their money in bank accounts, they invest. Saving money is good but investing is better. Why? Because when you invest, your money is making money for you. How? Let's look at a short example. If I put 10k into an account on Feb 1 and check it in December, it'll still be 10k. Maybe 10,100 because of interest but if you invested that money, depending on what you invested it in, you would have between 11 to 15k at the end of the year. This protects your money from inflation - when prices go up. So even though the 5k chicken in January is now going for 8k in December, you can still buy two of it with the same amount of money.

Three. Actually saving. But properly.

If you earn a salary, allowance or any type of income, pay attention to this. Saving does not occur after you have attended to all your other expenses, you'll never have enough left. Save at the beginning instead of at the end. One prayer point I got from an acquaintance is 'Father, help me schedule my time around you and not you around my time.' Just like time, money is a precious resource and if you are not intentional about you spend it, you'll often push to the back what you want to be in front. If you really want to save, remove the money first then figure out how you are going to manage the rest. It doesn't have to be half of your income but just like you remove 10% for tithes, remove 5% or 10% ahead so you don't forget. You may think you earn a 100k but if you don't save, then you don't actually earn anything. You are working for your landlord, the supermarket, everyone else but yourself. Just as you are required to pay them money, pay yourself too.

Hi again.

I hope you enjoyed reading today's blog

If you found it useful or entertaining, leave a comment below and share with your friends and family.

I'll be going in-depth about each of these topics later on.

Until then,

✌ & ❤,

Kami.

Explore more of Kami's View here.