FRANCES OKORO: REDEFINING FINANCE

Hi Lovelies, how have you been? I told y’all I am on a mini vacation right?  The past few days has been awesome! However, I caught the flu and so I cannot drink any chilled stuff or stay outside late, so things aren't going like I expected because of this challenge, but it's all good. Nothing spoil.

Remember tomorrow is my birthday! Yaaaaaaay! Truth is, today is actually my birthday oh. I was born around 11pm on the 2nd of June but the nurse wrote 3rd of June in error on my birth card, and my parents decided not to change it. So, I have two birth dates! My family usually calls me today and tomorrow to wish me a happy birthday. Yeah, I'm special like that! 

I told ya something big was coming on the blog right? Well here it is! The wait is over and I know you’ll thank me later, so I’m saying ‘’you’re welcome’’ in advance.

A friend  of mine from the University, her name is Frances Okoro ( she is a blogger too, and her blog address is www.imperfectlyperfectlives.com, you might have read her comments on this blog too, she is an ardent reader and so she is one of us!). She attended an event on Redefining Finance in Lagos and she wrote a very lengthy and explicit article on the event. I read her blog post on it and I learnt a lot, I decided that my readers will benefit from it too, so I sought her permission to repost it here…

Interestingly, if you think my articles are lengthy, you haven’t met Frances' posts! This particular article is 10 pages on MS Word! LOL. So I’ll do what I normally do when an article is long, I’ll try to break it into 2 or 3 parts (like Nollywood films. Maybe we will name one; Redefining Finance 1, the second one; The Return of Redefining Finance and the third; The End of Redefining Finance). Makes sense shey??? LMAO. Back to business...The rest of the post from this point will be her own words not mine, so enjoy…

 

The event was meant for ladies but if you are a man, you can also read on as the wealth of wisdom will also be of great use to you.

The first thing you must do even as you read this is to be ready to change your mind set.

If you think that you can’t #RedefineFinance with your little salary, then so it will be for you.

You believe you can’t, then you can’t.

You believe you can, then you can.

I will be sharing notes from each speaker with a little bit of my thoughts as an aside in it all.

We had the first speaker Arese Agwu of www.smartmoneyafrica.org who spoke on redefining finance.

She made lots of viable points.

She said, women generally know how to make money but don’t know how to grow it.

So basically, most women see money as something to be spent.

But we need a re-orientation of our minds on that belief.

Being broke isn’t when we don’t have money, being broke is – “if you lose your source of income today, would you still live like you are accustomed to without begging from friends and family?” (food for thought)

Your spending patterns doesn’t make you a successful person but your assets make you a successful person.

People who are financially successful aren’t spending from their active cash, they are spending from their asset income.

We must know that there is a certain framework within which we can work, stop living like you have all the time.

Stop saying that “I will save when I get a better job”, the way you spend 10,000Naira is the same way you will spend 100,000Naira.

Your net worth is your assets minus liabilities (and again, material possession, bags, shoes, etc aren’t assets, lands, stocks, buildings, treasury bills, etc are assets)

So what can women use money for aside from spending it?

(1) For emergency funds – If something happens today, would you have something to fall back on?

(My own thoughts – we need to move from thinking only about the now to thinking about the future. Your job isn’t secure, you say when I get better pay I will save more, but what if you never get a better pay? What if you are out of a job for months? We may say God forbid but let’s be realistic here, whose job is assured by anyone??)

So you must have living expenses for up to 9months set aside just in case something happens. (and that fund you can start building now little by little)

(2) For Investment – There is no get rich syndrome that exists that can get you into wealth, you must go through the time and process.

The simple way to build wealth is to spend less than you earn.

5tips for investing your money…

(a) Know why you are investing. Don’t invest because your friend did, have your own solid reasons for doing what you are doing with your money.

(b) You need money to invest. So start saving for it.

You have to find a balance between saving for long term goals, and short term goals(emergency funds). Know how much you can afford to invest into something for a particular amount of time and leave it there.

(c) Ask questions, do your research, speak to people at the investment firm.

(d) Know what you want to use the money you get from your investment to do for you.

Start with a benchmark, have investment goals.

Do you want to get a land with your money from your investment? Stocks, etc?

(e) Pick an investment firm.

Spending Plan…

We have a lot of expenses yes, but let your expenses reflect what really matters to you.

Have a structure to the way you spend money.

70% for living expenses, food, transportation, etc,

20% Long term goals, land, etc

10% short term goals, e.g buy a car.

Having a spending plan helps to make it easy.

Don’t get it twisted, the way you spend 10k is the way you will spend 10million.

(my thoughts- it would amaze us to see just how much we spend mindlessly when we start using a spending plan and stick with it)

How can we make more money?

By living in purpose.

When you are doing something you really love to do and something that comes easily to you, then find a way to turn it into a business.

Tips on how to make money from your purpose…

(1) Know what you are passionate about, what you are invested in emotionally. What your friends call you to help them with.

That stuff that you don’t mind doing whatever it takes to get it done.

(2) Know what area you have skill sets in, identify them and become excellent at them.

When you find your purpose, making money becomes easier.

Assumptions about money that we need to let go of…

People always think that they are going to invest when they make more money but NO, what are you investing in now? What do you have currently?

You must revamp your money mentality. This is very important.

Don’t get carried away with what others are doing, ruthlessly cut your expenses on things that you don’t need if need be.

Have your spending plan, set something aside no matter how small it is, make sure there’s something in your emergency account and organize your cash into different accounts.

Aside from your saving account, it’s also important to have a stock account, one you can afford to use for investment over a period of time and just leave it there.

The next segment was Finance Sessions From The Heart and it was a round table of different amazing ladies speaking to us from their practical experiences in business, 9-5 Jobs, transitioning from 9-5 to a business, managing finance as a married woman, etc.

I will simply write the names of each woman and the words of financial wisdom that were given.

 

Take a break, go drink some water and we'll be back in a jiffy.