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Five factors that influence your financial status

By Lanre Olusola
09 November 2017   |   3:40 am
Stop comparing your lifestyle with that of others! Do not live to impress other people! More so, if you do not have the financial framework or disciple to manage when you earn 1k or 10k, you can never manage if you begin to earn 1 billion.

It is vital to be equipped with sound knowledge on financial prowess regardless of how much you earn. You need to develop your financial intelligence and know more about money and financial security. The greatest challenge for anyone that needs to transit from where he is to where he desires to be is lack of information.

The difference between a poor man and a rich man is wisdom and knowledge. The rich man understands the laws and principles of wealth creation, attraction and sustenance; and he subjects himself to that law. He doesn’t allow his environment and people’s lifestyle or attitude influence his own financial decisions.

For emphasis sake, financial intelligence should be acquired by all categories of individuals and earners (low income, medium income and high income earners). It is not how much you make that matters, it is what you do with what you make that matters.

Observably, high-income earners are the ones that mostly lack financial intelligence because they get so much money flowing in their direction on a consistent basis. Most of them work in organisations that are responsible for their welfare and that of their families; as a result, they get comfortable and refuse to plan for the future. When they lose their job, get retrenched or retire, most of them enter into poverty or financial danger because they never had strategic financial plans for the future.

Here are factors that influence your financial status:
1. Lifestyle: Your lifestyle can launch you into “multimillionaire status” or launch you into “broke status”. A lot of people forget where they are coming from and get lost in lifestyles dictated by society. It is not about getting to the top; it is about staying and maintaining. Stop comparing your lifestyle with that of others! Do not live to impress other people! More so, if you do not have the financial framework or disciple to manage when you earn 1k or 10k, you can never manage if you begin to earn 1 billion.

2. Your partner/spouse: Do you know you can marry into poverty or into wealth? If your partner does not have good habits when it comes to finance you will surely be affected; it is unavoidable. If you marry a financially unintelligent person, you are doomed! Know the financial values and financial habits of your partner before settling down. If you meet someone that does not share your financial values, you can possibly help them change their financial values overtime but if they are not willingly to change, it is advisable to halt such relationship before it is too late because moving further with the relationship might end up disastrous.

3: Patience: You must learn to delay gratification. You must learn to abase and abound. Whenever your income increases, stay at the same level of lifestyle for the next one-year or more, to ensure that your increase is save and set aside for investment and not for consumption. Learn the act and art of financial discipline, and then watch how you move gradually into that (financial security) future of your dreams. Do not expect to become financially buoyant without being patient to reap the fruit of your labour. The problem we have these days is that majority of people want to see results immediately; they think becoming financially buoyant is magic or a day’s job. It is a journey; a patient and hardworking journey.

4: Environment: What type of people do you surround yourself with? Who do you get financial advice from? What kind of lifestyle do you adopt from people around you? Are the people in you circle financially reasonable? You need to surround yourself with people who are financially intelligent. The people you associate with have an intense ability of influencing your financial status, consciously and unconsciously. Be very mindful of the kind of company you keep. Your circle has a lot to say about your financial status and how financially secure you will be in future.

5. Contentment: Despite the fact that everyone aspire to achieve more, your gratitude and contentment for where you are today are determinants of how quickly you attain that financial status level you desire. Be content with what you have and avoid living above your means. It is unwise to borrow or get a loan to do something that you do not need or you can live without. Stop getting a loan for liabilities. Do not get a loan to buy a car, gadgets, clothes, travel for holidays, pay house rent etc. so you can keep up with your fake and competitive lifestyle; these are bad debts! If you must get a loan, get a loan to create an investment portfolio.

Parkinson’s Law states that if you don’t apply wisdom in your financial management, expenditure will always grow to meet up with income. At this moment of your life, is the Parkinson’s Law already affecting you? Every time your income increases, if you do not have financial intelligence or financial discipline, you will always lift up your expenditure to meet up with your new income and there will be no difference with your life. If your expenditure is greater than your income, your upkeep will become your downfall.

Stop giving the “tomorrow will be bright” excuse for not starting to save and invest today. There is nothing called tomorrow; today is the tomorrow you spoke about yesterday. You have to start building for your ‘tomorrow’ today. Your future cannot be brighter than the light (financial investment) you shine into it.

For Financial Coaching or to order the Money book and Financial Mastery Pack by Olusola Lanre, kindly contact info@olcang.com or call – 08077077000.

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