Monday, August 3, 2009

7 Financial Lessons Your Parents Never Taught You………Plus, You Will Never Be Taught At School

Parents like to pamper children to make them enjoy life. This happens especially when they have the financial empowerment to put food on their table and can afford basic necessity for comfort.
Let us consider this scenario created by an adult who remembered his childhood after fumbling with the way he handles the money he had earned in life. He wished he had learnt financial literacy early in life.

‘Mummy loves to make life comfortable for me. My father was not different. They both labored to please us. We had good clothes to wear and always dressed smart. Sometimes when we were in the teenage years, I would overhear my mummy asking my dad when the next salary will be paid. My father, a dedicated civil servant always talk about how the salary is not enough to take him home. As soon as the money is paid, it never settled the bills so there is always carry over and the debt keep pilling up. It is now that I am a financially informed adult that I fully appreciate the problems my parents had.’.
Everyone needs to have one form of financial education or another. It is a subject we cannot ignore.
There are certain things about money and finance that our parents never taught us. Not because they hate us but because of their ignorance which was responsible for the failure in money matters.
If anybody want to live a comfortable life, there are certain skills we must acquire and knowledge to be acquired.

Here are 7 financial Lessons Your Parents Never Taught You

1. Education Will Not Make You Rich But Financial Literacy Will. No matter what profession or class you belong, if you do not get serious about this lesson, your financial life may be in tatters. Go over that sentence again. ‘Education will not make you rich but financial literacy will’. This is the basic principle of creating life comfort and wealth. No matter how lucrative your course is, it will not make you rich. There are many doctors, lawyers, engineers, journalists, broadcasters, marketers, etc. finding it difficult to survive despite the fact that they have good jobs and paid fat salary. What will make you become rich is financial literacy. This one respects no man. It is a law. It cannot be broken. If a person with secondary school certificate has financial literacy, he will be rich. If a professor lacks financial literacy, he will be poor. It is that simple. Stories and examples abound of artisans who never had the privilege of attending the conventional schools but still have home to shelter their families with choice properties. Contrarily, we have also heard about professors and retired civil servants who lived miserable life post retirement just because they lack financial education.



2. The Rich Don’t Work For Money. But our parents told us to work hard at our studies so that we could get good grades, have good degree, get good job and be paid fat salary. They taught us to work for money and that is the life we are living. Whatever your background. No matter how fat your salary is. If you want to be rich, understand this lesson-the Rich Don’t Work For Money. In the contrary, ‘Money Work For The Rich’. Many families, civil servants, politicians, top flight professionals work for money. They are money slaves and money is a wicked task master. It runs away from people who work for it but unbelievably pursue those who make it works for them. Where do you want to belong? Work for money or make money work for you? If you work for money, you will not be rich. If you put your money to work, you will be rich. That is the secret of the rich.

3. Mind Your Own Business. This is another vital lesson in personal finance. If you are working for somebody, what you are entitled to is salary. No more no less. You know nothing about the profits the boss is making through your effort. You end up being the monkey while your boss is the baboon. Haven’t you heard the tale ‘monkey dey work, baboon they chop’ before? Even it is the same thing for civil servants. They work for government. Their job is the business of government. But to be financially independent, you need to have a business of your own. Create a business around your talent and passion. It is the way to wealth. Find people in need of a defined service, give them what they want in exchange for money. The richest people in the world owns personal business they run. A civil servant should consider per time business around their skills. If you have no skill, learn one and sell it to those who need the service.


4. Car, House, Not Your Asset. This phenomenon was formerly popular in the developed countries with mortgage service for citizens. Now that the wind had blown to Nigeria, it is high time we talked about it. Most people think car is an asset. They think having a personal home is an asset yet it is not. An asset is anything that put money into your pocket. i.e. generate income for you. A liability is anything that take money out of your pocket. Be warned. You can never find this definition in your dictionary. If your car does not generate income for you, it is a liability. Simple. If your house does not generate income for you, it is not an asset. It is a liability. Hope you get the gist.? Never forget this lesson. It will determine your ability to create wealth and be happy in life.

5. If You Want To Be Rich, Keep More And Spend Less. This is a discipline you must build. Learn to save. What you save will save you in time of financial crisis. What you save will make you profit from taking opportunities that may arise suddenly in the future. With this, you can grow your wealth.

6. Learn To Create Ideas To Solve Your Money Problems. Whenever you are faced with money problems, think about anything you can sell to raise the money. Think about service you can render to attract the money you want.

7. Work To Learn, Don’t Work For Money: If you are working for somebody, set a goal to become better, wiser and smarter. The better you are, the more you attract favor and opportunities to yourself. If you work for money, you will end up in frustration because money is never enough. Develop your self and multiply your skills. You will never be a loser.
That is the curtain raiser for the financial lessons.

2 comments:

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