Building of Wealth Starts from Your Mind

Ayo Arowolo

“I think that much of the advice given to youths about saving money is wrong. I never saved a cent until I was forty years old. I invested in myself – in the study, mastering my tools, and preparation. Many a man who is putting a few dollars a week into the bank would do much better to put it into himself.” – Henry Ford.

That day was like every other Until my Billionaire- friend placed a call to me, while I was wrapping up at work.

“My boss (that is what he calls me), is it possible that we see any time this week? I want to discuss some issues with you. Kindly give me a 24-hour notice any time you have decided to honour me with your presence.”

Saturday is fine with me. Is it fine with you, sir?

“It is fine with my boss”

What time, sir?

“I am in all day. Just alert me when you are about to take off.”- And the call ended.

Perhaps billionaires don’t talk too much because I doubt our conversation lasted up to one minute. The truth is, ever since he called, everything began to move so fast, apart from Lagos- the traffic that no man could accurately schedule. It annoyingly teaches every man, patience. Saturday came in like Christmas. I was agitated. My billionaire friend, gave me no clue why he wanted to see me, and it felt urgent, like he was about to share a mind-blowing story with me. Yes, every journalist love stories.

The first time I met my Billionaire friend, the calendar read 1989. He was then, in a conversation with one of my friends. Back then, I was a cub reporter, oscillating between writing, editing and re-editing. One thing led to another, and the conversation spilt to my corner. We got talking, and we have built a solid relationship, ever since.

When I got to his home, he had some visitors. He reached out for me, to give him ten minutes, and he stayed true to his words. I guess enlightened billionaires are men of their words. I sat in silence till his fine voice broke the serenity:

“Yes, my boss, thank you for honouring my invitation. I have two concerns about you that I want us to discuss, but I had just not been able to get around to doing so. My first and main concern is this; we have known each other for over three decades, and there is possibly nothing I am doing that is secret to you. I want to ask a simple question: ‘Is it that your profession prevents you from building a personal wealth or you are not just interested?’”

The question shocked me. Who does not like to build Wealth? However, my reply was pious.

I am a journalist. We are trained to observe what people do and make news and features out of such.

“And that prevents you from building some savings and investments, in the process of your reporting on others?”

Not exactly, sir.

“I understand you are a pastor, but I’m curious. Does your religion forbid you from building Wealth, or is it meant only for sinners?”

By no means, sir. I am not a pastor. I am not even close to a deacon, just simply Ayo Arowolo. But more accurately, in our church parlance, you could call me Brother Ayo.

“That brother one is beyond me. Let me stick to the one I know. You are my boss.” – his voice was lighter. I felt it was the perfect opportunity to move the spotlight on him.

Sir, I am just wondering why you would be calling me your boss? You have all the money and the things money can buy, for your family’s reasonable comfort.

“Well, you are a journalist of repute. I like your writing style, and would have liked being able to write like you.”

Let everyone abide by his calling. And we will all be fine.

“Okay, my boss. So tell me, why are you not interested in building up savings and investments to create some wealth for yourself?”

I never said that. It might be a wrong impression. I like to make money. It’s just that combining that with this journalism practice could be cumbersome. The economy is not even encouraging. All the possible economic indicators are not promising at all. Inflation has been on the increase, never looking back. The external reserve has dropped. Government is borrowing left, right and centre, and it does not appear to make sense to me to want to build Wealth here.

“I am surprised you are talking this way. Enlightened wealth hunters do not talk the way you talk. What is my business with whether the government is borrowing or not? Only people with a poverty mindset analyse things like that. Let me break it down for you.

He continued, “This government has just got a budget of N17.136 trillion approved by the two arms of the National Assembly. Of that amount, N3.8 billion (22.2% of Budget) would be spent on debt servicing, which is already more than 3% that is recommended by the Fiscal Responsibility Acts of 2007. Again N6.9 trillion would be spent on recurrent expenditure. Which means that, that amount would be set aside to pay the salaries of civil servants; pay estacode to them when they travel; their health insurance is also tied to that. About N5.4 trillion is expected to be used to create and improve federal public infrastructure, build roads, bridges and things like that”.

“This is the way informed wealth hunters, interpret the same scenario you are complaining about. They would scan the budget, analyse all the funds flowing out of government into private pockets, and figure out how to lawfully and morally create their toll gates to magnetise part of the money. The entire government operation is based on funds inflows and outflows. I would worry about how a part of government operational funding, would come into our pockets. The government is doing its own, and we should be doing our own. The private sector creates economic and investment vehicles, from which it attracts part of government operational expenditure”.

“In 2015, when a dollar was ranging between N195- N214, ten of my savings and investment building friends, came to this place and wanted me to give them tips on where to invest in the coming years. I gave them just one tip: that they should move 80 per cent of their cash savings into foreign currency denominated assets and leave the remaining 20 % for their sustainance cash flow needs. Which was exactly what I did after analysing the then government economic, fiscal and monetary policies and their long term effect. Honestly, it was a no brainer. It was clear then that the only direction the naira would go was down because we were not (and are still not investing in some feasible good number of high value added products, to earn foreign exchange with our continued sole reliance for Forex, on unprocessed crude oil ). I calculated that the naira might hit about N600 to a dollar. Most of this my friends heeded my advice. And they are all happy to have done so. That is how, wealth builders think. They don’t sit back and rant about governments not doing this and not doing that. They want to always look at how they can benefit from governments declared policies”.

Whoa! – I gasped. He sounded so strategic and intentional.

“Let me still ask my innocent question: are you averse to building wealth?”

Not in the least, sir.

“Good! Let us have a deal. You would come around once a week. I will share with you one wealth-building tip per session. You would promise that you would attempt to put them into practice. And you would also tell your readers to do same. I will take your questions. They can ask me questions on any investment building issue or topic through you as long as it has to do with wealth building, over time. We will cover Personal Finance, Investment Tips, Savings, Budgeting, Financial Planning, Commodities such as gold, and anything that helps you increase your knowledge about building Wealth” .

“Do we have a deal?”

Yes, by all means, sir.

“However, there is one rule: if I see that you do not make some efforts to apply what I share, we will stop the weekly conversation. What I say to one, I say to all. What I say to you, I say to your readers as well.”

All right, no problem.

“I will see you next week with our first investment capsule. I look forward to welcoming you.”

Thank you very much, sir.

“Okay, my boss.”

I left his home puzzled. Little did I know it was the beginning of my journey into building, savings, investments and systematically accumulating Wealth. I can’t wait to share with you the lessons I would be learning.

Let us catch-up next week.

Yours moneywisely.