How self-funded are you?

Living in a country like Nigeria where there is no structure or visible plan for people’s welfare or retirement; where some states are owing workers salary of over a year and pensioners are merely living above poverty level, If you want to maintain a comfortable lifestyle now and in retirement, you will need to be self-funded.

In order to be self-funded, you need to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to manage your own money and create wealth out of it. Managing money however takes discipline, knowledge and — perhaps — motivation. Most people would say they want more money, but the majority don’t know how to make or manage money and aren’t prepared to even find out.

Some are too busy to create time to live intentionally and focus on wealth creation, while some are too laid back or too distracted by, or focused on, other activities to put the precise strategies in place to improve their financial situation.

Many people still fantasize about winning a lottery or getting a political position so they can gather public funds and snip from the citizens.

The fact however is that acquiring a lump sum of money does not instantly solve all your problems. If you don’t have the tools and skills to manage that money, the chances of benefiting from it in the long term are slim.

Take, for example, the many lottery winners who lose their entire windfall of millions of dollars within a couple of years and wind up broke — and also unhappier than they were previously.

Let’s take a quick look at some fundamentals of financial success; like discipline, financial knowledge and inner motivation. If you can bring these three things to your focus, your chances of achieving financial success to create wealth will be much greater.

Motivation clearly, if you want to improve your financial situation, you have to be interested to do so. If you’re not truly motivated, you will have no determination to succeed and will most likely keep flinging the whole issue of financial planning into the ‘too stressful’ basket, as so many people still do today.

The fact that you are reading this column, however, shows that you do have a genuine desire to understand and manage your financial concerns. On this basis alone, I want to believe that your chances of success are already looking good.

The first step that will help you in this process is to identify your needs, objectives, and intentions — in other words, the specific things that motivate you to attempt financial success. You can then develop a plan to achieve what you have set out to accomplish.

This will set you on the path to success, and you will undoubtedly change some of your goals and develop new goals as you progress through life. If you have a partner with whom you share your finances, it’s important to understand your partner’s attitude towards money management. It’s easy to get derailed on your path to financial success, so it’s important you carry your partner along, in other to get the support you require to build your wealth.

It can sometimes be difficult to succeed if your partner resists or opposes your plans.

A recent Westpac bank survey indicated that over 50 percent of couples quarrel over money matters. The survey went on to suggest that four out of 10 women said that their partner squanders money, compared with three out of 10 men. Many women are now taking up senior roles, and their average income is rising sharply. Gone are the days when women simply followed the male lead. It’s as important for couples to discuss and align their attitudes towards money management as it is to clarify their attitudes to other important values-based issues, such as having and raising children, living arrangements, marriage, and jobs. Your financial success may depend upon it.

You may also need a document that sets out your goals and objectives and guides you step-by-step through the issues you need to consider when making any investment decision. An investment decision can be a lifetime decision depending on how you take it and how important it is to you.

It will allow you to plan and monitor your finances using a simple notepad or journal, safely kept. This you can easily refer to often, with a good understanding of the financial concepts and opportunities.

Identifying your goals and objectives, managing and understanding your cash flow are also critical to your financial growth and wealth creation. Find yourself an accountability partner and a financial advisor that can also help you look at your financial plans and objectives, with all of this you can develop a working document which I also call a financial planner. You can refer to this at intervals with your accountability partner to measure your growth.

Don’t leave your life to chances. Make that move and live financially intentionally.

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