TEXT OF LECTURE DELIVERED BY DR. MARTINS P. IWUANYANWU, FOUNDER, LEADERSHIP WATCH, AT THE BUSINESS SEMINAR BY THE FULL GOSPEL BUSINESS- MEN FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL, (FGBMFI) VICTORY CHAPTER, HELD ON JUNE 01, 2013 AT THE MEALS AND EVENTS CENTER. OKOTA ROAD, OKOTA, LAGOS NIGERIA Theme: Cultivating the Culture of Savings: Financial Intelligence for Personal Growth. This subject is purely about financial intelligence, we must therefore approach it in that order. In a Knowledge based Economy what you know determines what you do, while what determines what you have is what you do with what you know. THE BIBLE SAYS THAT ‘MAN WAS CREATED IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD’ THEREFORE MAN MUST THINK, TALK AND ACT LIKE GOD. Let’s see what God did in the beginning: Genesis 1 V 1 Amplified version In the beginning God prepared, formed, fashioned and created the heavens and the earth. Take note of the underlined. ‘Through wisdom a House is built’ Ostensibly therefore we can say ‘through knowledge or wisdom riches and wealth are created’. Proverbs 30V21-23 Amplified version: Under three things the earth tremble, under four it can not bear up Servant (slave) who becomes king (b) A godless fool who gets plenty to eat and (c) Odious (contemptible) woman who gets married and servant who displaces her mistress. Verse 24 of the same chapter: ‘Four things on earth are small yet they are extremely wise” ‘Aunts are creatures of little strength yet they store up their food in the summer, Hyraxes are creatures of little power, yet they make their homes in the crags, Locust have no king, yet they advance together in ranks, a lizard can be caught with hand, yet they are found in kings palaces’. Therefore, having agreed that we are gods based on the word of God, lets compare ourselves with the small things of this earth juxtaposing it with the exploits by these small things to see reasons why we must think, plan and create wealth, improving the earth condition for human habitation, which is why we were created in the image and likeness of God. God’s people are the only people with God given capacity to make the earth more beautiful and habitable and we need MONEY to do that. There are three main reasons why you have to save part of what you earn, namely: (1) Saving for investment (2) For raining days (3) For Exigencies. THERE ARE THREE MAIN REASONS WHY YOU HAVE TO SAVE PART OF WHAT YOU EARN:(1) SAVING FOR INVESTMENT (2) FOR RAINING DAYS AND (3) FOR EXIGENCIES. You cannot rule out deaths and illnesses particularly among close and loved ones. It can be embarrassing to cry more than necessary because a close relation is dead. It is a tragedy for you to die leaving no inheritance for your children as well. You can now see why money is GOOD. It is not about how much you earn but what you do with it that determines how far you can go in life. The journey to financial freedom is one that everyone who desires to be rich and wealthy must take. No one can arrive at a destination without knowing the pathway that leads to that destination. If you have to create wealth and become wealthy in life, then one vital discovering you must make is the pathway that leads to wealth, you have to know how wealth is created and sustained. The amount you save should depend on your targets at any point in time and how much you earn. You must learn financial intelligence to be able to pay for value and not name. Shop right before placing your money in any savings; be it bank or insurance to guarantee the security of your money and best interest possible. Avoid waste in all forms, e.g. what you eat and how you eat, how you dress and what you wear, the car and house you use. Encourage your household not waste food when many are still looking for what to eat. You do not have to eat out in order to eat what you like to eat. I take food to office daily. Learn to prepare what you like to eat yourself, it is cost effective and the entire household will share and enjoy it together. Most things you eat in eateries are junk and of no meaningful value to your health. Money spent is spent and cannot be recovered. Do not eat up what you earn. There will always be raining days and Exigencies. Your investment is your security. As you grow older, your spending increases because of increased responsibilities and other challenges. There are two ways to conserve (save) money, namely: {A} Increase your income which is why you have learnt the imperative and benefits of having multiple streams of income. Therefore, encourage your spouse to work or do business so that you can support each other. There should be no full (foolish) house wife, if you desire to be rich. {B} Reduce your expenditure, go for what you can easily afford including making choice of car, cloths, accommodation and location of residence etc. Avoiding waste and excesses and keeping the main thing is vital for anyone to survive and thrive particularly in the times we live in now. Do not accept the responsibility meant for others when you are not financially strong enough to do so. Let everybody carry his own load since most people become poor by choice. Do not loan to friends and relations unless you are ready to let go. They hardly pay back! About 98 % OF THE WORLD’S POOR POPULATION BECAME POOR BY CHOICE. Some family member have gone ahead to have more children than they can adequately take care of, hoping that some one else will carry the load for them. Preach family planning so that everyone will know your stand. {C.} Budget before you spend and before doing so, first do window shopping. Buy only what you need. Do not be carried away by salesmanship and what others are doing. DEVELOP MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME LEVERAGE AND MAXIMIZE OPPORTUNITIES WHEN IT COMES TO WEALTH CREATION STRATEGIES Develop multiple streams of income, leverage and maximize opportunities when it comes to what creation strategies and investing wisely and managing your money actively are important. The rich always have several money making streams working for them. We all need a money mentor: Money mentors are people who have proven their financial acumen making a bit of money by themselves. Make yourself trustworthy and dependable. Endeavour to be a relationship person it is another form of investment. GOOD FRIENDS will help you to stand. ECC 9:10, 14-15 KJV of the Bible: ‘Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might: for there is no work, nor devices, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest’ You ONLY work here on earth! ‘This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seems great to me. There was a little city and a few men within it. And there come a great king around it and besieged it and built great bulwarked against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man who by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man’. What an irony! The lesson to learn from the above passage of scripture is to be committed to whatsoever we find to do here on earth. Use what you have to get what you need. Do not offer your expert counsel free of charge. Make sure you negotiate appropriately to be certain that you will be paid commensurately at the end of the day. IT IS CALLED NEGOTIATION! There is a place for corporate social responsibility no doubt. Be WISE there is no tea party going on anywhere!!!! POOR MAN IS NOT HONORED ANYWHERE. MONEY IS WHAT BRINGS HONOR. MAKE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU TO GET MORE 1, pay for value and not name 2. Do not leave money inactive in bank account 3. Shop around for all services you pay for 4. Do not have property empty, rent it out 5. Exploit all options; don’t be content ever with what you are getting 6. Think, do not postpone anything till tomorrow, do it now. 7. Seek more opportunities 8. Make more good friends and possibly discard liability friends Verse 16 of this same passage of scripture: “Then said I, wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard” The poor have no friend or relation. Start saving young {or teach your kids this one if it’s too late for you to do} It might be too late to start saving young for you. We can not go back. But you can certainly teach your children the importance of learning this wisdom. And I am not suggesting we punish ourselves and save to be able to save. Saving should be something we do naturally. I guess it’s wisdom you learn quickly if you are self –employed – or not, else you crash. Every time you earn money you put some aside for OBLIGATIONS. Failure to do so means scrabbling around when the return is due and you have to find it. If you put aside more than you need, the leftovers become the savings. Obviously you only fail to do this once or twice before it becomes a really easy thing to remember to do. IF YOU PUT ASIDE MORE THAN YOU NEED, THE LEFTOVERS BECOMES THE SAVINGS. Obviously, you only fail to do this once or twice before it becomes a really thing to remember to do always. I find that it is easier to have a figure you are looking at so you do not have to think too much. My own figure is between 30 -50 per cent. Anything I earn, I put that straight into a saving account that is not easily accessibly. I do not have to think about this. This for me is an easy way to save. I do not have to think too much about it. It is a method I am passing on to my son – spend half your pocket money and save half. I hope he will find this an easy method to pick up, a sort of saving muscle memory, so that he will always have surpluses in life. I really wish I had started saving as a young man or was taught to do so. Many really prosperous people have said that they were taught wealth management from a very early age. It is certainly an essential pathway to prosperity. But not many of us were that lucky to be taught this life saving princeples. We all need some where to live. We therefore have the choice as to whether to rent the roof over our heads, or buy it. Most of us can not afford to buy outright so in order to buy we need to borrow a lump sum of money I do not really encourage borrowing because you have to pay so much interest on the amount you have borrowed. So how can you own and not borrow, buy and not have a mortgage? The answer is that a mortgage can actually be viewed as an investment rather than a borrowing. If you buy a property with a mortgage, you make a monthly investment. The fact you pay that to a mortgage company we can gloss over. You see, in the longer term (and if you are lucky, the shorter term too) you can reasonably expect that the interest you pay on your mortgage will be less than the increase in the value of your property. What you are banking on is that the value of your home will, in the longer term; go up and therefore you have invested whatever deposit you put down, and your mortgage money now a great reward. SO HOW CAN YOU OWN AND NOT BORROW, BUY AND NOT HAVE A MORTGAGE? Renting on the other hand is not an investment. You will never see that money again. There is no doubt you will not see that money again. With a mortgage, you stand a good chance in the long term of seeing your mortgage payments lead to an increase in the value of your house. When you sell, you get that increase in value. There are those who believe that buying your home instead of renting bring with it huge stresses, and that means you have less fun. It is actually not the ownership that causes stress; it is how much you borrow to do it and what that means for your overall financial picture. The lesson is on how to think carefully about how much your mortgage repayments will be and that you are able and willing to pay them. Or course if you buy, there are no guarantee that your home will increase in value, there will be house price fluctuation, but over time chances are that they recover and go on to increase again. Ideally buy cheap and sell for a lot more. You then have a choice: invest the profit in the next property without borrowing any more and in doing that outright and without mortgage each time. Eventually you own outright and without mortgage payments you have somewhere to live and do not have to pay for it at all any more. Alternatively you can do what most people do and buy a bigger, better more expensive house. This is not a wealth creation strategy but it can do what you wanted your wealth to do for you. Understand what investing really means Many investments have a twofold purpose. They generate income and they increase in value. In other words, if you invest a lump sum {this is known as capital} you get regular small payments of some kind and the actual of the capital itself increase, i.e. the lump sum gets bigger. Let’s suppose you invest in property. In an ideal world you should be able to rent it out, thereby providing the regular small payment should go up also, so your capital increase in value over time. Likewise share should pay out dividends {generate income} and should be worth than you bought them for when you come to sell some time later {increase in value}. You get the idea. And notice I say ‘should’ rather than ‘will’ – nothing is certain in this game. You must not be too quick to forget the global economic recession which started since year 2000, most nations have not fully recovered from it. You can of course invest in pretty well anything you want: Company shares Pension funds and such like including saving and deposit account Inventions and new product development Ideas and people Remember that investments of any sort are form of gambling no matter which way you look at it. And that you can lose ask other experts if you do not believe me. REMEMBER THAT INVESTMENTS OF ANY SORT ARE A FORM OF GAMBLING NO MATTER WHICH WAY YOU LOOK AT IT On the other hand, investing in a broad range of low risk investment can still net returns worth having. Build a bit of capital then invest it wisely Lots of people do not get prosperous because, as we saw earlier, they are too lazy to make wise decisions. But a lot fail because they do not know what to do once they start to earn some money. Its easy to think, once you have got your hands on a bit, that you have earned it, you deserve it, you are going to spend it, you have earned it and yes you probably do deserve it. Do not spend it all now, no matter how much you want that new car, holiday, wedding, honey moon, birthday, cottage by the sea, whatever. But that’s the different between the rich and the poor. The rich see a sudden windfall like that of an opportunity to make some more money out of it. The poor and not so rich remain the poor and not so rich as they see it as an opportunity to have some fun. Nothing wrong with that if that’s what you want in life – instant pleasure. But if you want greater pleasure (albeit delayed) then you must learn as I did that once you get your hands on a lump sum, and frankly the only use is as a starter kit for prosperity. And it is not lost, merely put to one side to work for you. Once it has grown and attracted lots more lovely money, you can have all the holidays you want. But you have to wait and you have to use that starter kit well and wisely. See it as a loader. No one will put anything into an empty hat. What you are going to sow will generate you prosperity harvest. NO ONE WILL PUT ANYTHING INTO AN EMPTY HAT Once you have something build up, think about where that money is going to generate you more money, and get it invested, ideally you need to turn that money into an asset that will generate more revenue for you – be it share, property you can rent out, or something else. Wealth happens slowly over a period of time when you turn the surplus into something that will work for you. Get some money mentors When not writing books, I do have a proper job. I have several in fact, which all involve running companies. I’m no fool when it comes to knowledge. I know there are thing I should know that I do not know. And there must be millions of things I do not even know I don’t know. My solution is to use other people’s knowledge to supplement my own deficits. I have money mentors. In fact I have mentors for all sorts of situations but we will stick to the money ones for the moment. Now why should you use money mentors? They bring a wider range of experience to the table. They make you present your ideas in a clear and concise format – which makes you think long and hard about what you are doing. They will make you justify what you are doing – this makes it much harder for you to go off like an unguided person Money mentors: they are independent and so will have no vested interest in what you do as competition. They are independent and therefore will be loyal supportive and on your team Many successful entrepreneurs use mentors when they start out in business. They find somebody who has been successful in starting and running their own business, and they ask if they would be prepared to offer guidance and advice {and something contacts and more} to the new entrepreneur as they start out. The vast majority of experienced business people approach will say yes- it’s fun for them to pass on their expertise. They enjoy it. What sort of mentor do I need? Where do I find them? What’s it going to cost me? Can I ignore them if I do not agree with their advice? For a money mentor you need people who have proved their financial acumen by making a bit of money themselves and not by inheritance or lottery winnings. You find them by looking around you. Anyone you admire who has been successful- approach them – they may well be flattered. MONEY MENTORS ARE PEOPLE WHO HAVE PROVED THEIR FINANCIAL ACUMEN BY MAKING A BIT OF MONEY THEMSELVES It should not cost you more than about four decent lunches a year. You take them out to lunch. In return they give you advice information, suggestions, restraint, support and encouragement. And can you ignore what they say if you do not like it, yes, of course you can. If you chose to ignore any such advise. It may cost you a lot to ignore them. But you should publicly apologize to your money mentor when you discover that it cost you something for ignoring that suggestion and do not ignore them again. WELCOME TO THE CLUB OF THE WEALTHY! Websites: leadershipwatch.org/emergingleadersnigeria.org
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:49:04 +0000
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