Wealth begins in the mind. Financial security is more of a mental process than a physical one.
Wealth can be likened to a tree, where:
• The brain/mind is the root
• The products/services/system is the stem
• The clients/people you could reach are the branches
• The money/profits are the fruits.
Most people make the mistake of thinking that only money is wealth. Let’s imagine, if we pluck out all the orange fruits from an orange tree, can we say the tree is no longer an orange tree because we removed all the fruits? The answer is No, and so is wealth to a man.
The amount of money in your bank account is not the determinant force if you are wealthy or not, but the amount of wealth in your mind/brain.
If only we understand this principle then we will see that it is far easier to be wealthy or financially secured than we think. All we need to be wealthy or financially secured is our brains, and the last time I checked we all have it.
It is possible for everyone to be financially secured, it just take having the right financial education. Just as we deposit money in our accounts, we need to deposit wealth in our minds.
PRINCIPLE OF FINANCIAL SECURITY
Wealth is created base on principles and fundamentals, in order to be financially secured you have to follow the principles.
Let me ask this question; how much do you think you need before you can say you are financially secured? Is it one million naira? Two million naira? Ten million naira? One billion naira?
If you can be certain about how much you need to be financially secured, then you will be certain that you can achieve it. It will surprise you to know that you really don’t need a lot of money to be financially secured.
Financial security is your ability to take care of your monthly expenses even if you stop working.
The principle of financial security states that; you must look for ways to generate extra income to take care of your annual expenses, while reducing your expenses.
To know if you are financially secured is to first determine your monthly expenses and secondly determine how to generate extra income to take care of the expenses, when you have achieved that, then you can boldly say you are financially secured.
WAYS TO ESTIMATE YOUR MONTHLY EXPENSES:
Look at your finances to understand where your cash is coming from and where it is going. Make a plan to direct some of that cash to saving/investment.
If you have never tracked your expenses, try the one month challenge, then evaluate how you are spending your money and see what you can cut out or reduce. Decide if each expense is absolutely necessary then eliminate the unnecessary.
You must keep track of your expenses every month, here is a sample that you can follow to keep track of your expenses. If there are items that you don’t spend money on monthly; like house rent, school fees, etc, you can divide it by 12 to give you the exact amount you spend on a monthly basis.
Let’s say, If your rent is N360,000 per annum, then your monthly expenses on rent will be N30,000. Your monthly expenses may look like that:
1. Rent- N30,000
2. Utilities (electricity bills, water bills etc) – N30,000
3. Transport – N15,000
4. Food – N30,000
5. Health – N10,000
6. School fees – N20,000
7. Body grooming – N5,000
8. Cloth – N10,000
9. Training/books – N10,000
Total – N150,000 per month.
Then your expenses for a year would be the monthly expenses multiply by twelve. From our sample; the annual expenses will be N1,800,000.
If your monthly expense is one hundred and fifty thousand naira, you will need to have one million eight hundred thousand naira in a year coming from an extra source of income to take care of your needs before you can say you are financially secured.
WAYS TO GENERATE EXTRA INCOME:
There is no limit to how much extra money you can earn, majority of us have been hardwired to believe that we are destined to work 9 to 5 jobs for the rest of our lives until we make enough money to retire. Here are some ways to generate extra income outside your salary.
• Selling of items: the fastest way to make extra income is by selling of your used and unwanted items
• Earn higher interest on your savings: one of the easiest ways to increase your passive income is to shift your savings to a bank that pays a higher yield on your savings.
• Rental services: rent out things you think people will need.
• Provide specialised services: provide services like consultancy, catering
• Business: become a business owner
• Paper portfolio: invest in stocks, bond, mutual funds etc.
• Real estate: this is one major way to earn extra income.
• Passive income: you can also generate money from intellectual properties; like songs, ringtones, artworks, books, photograph, poem, drama, patent licensing etc.
Please note: the monthly expenses and ways of generating extra income are not limited to the items listed above; you can add as many items that corresponds to your expenses and sources of generating income.
My advice is for us to keep feeding our minds through books and attending seminars/workshops.
I’m glad to say that organisations can contact us for partnership in helping their staffs/clientele be financially secured, and also individuals can now place their orders for all the recommended books.
– Olodu keonyedi – is a trained engineer and by passion and personal development a public/motivational speaker, a business coach and human capacity developer, he has a B.Eng degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, he is a member of Nigeria Society of Engineer and a COREN registered Engineer
Email: olodukeonyedi@gmail.com Tel: 08037489704, www.instagram.com/sir_keon. www.facebook.com/olodu keonyedi_mentorship.
