By Martin Mwinga
MOST Namibians go on retirement with insufficient income levels to sustain the life style they were accustomed to, and some have lost money due to greed and not following the right money principles. In order to plan your financial future successfully, you really must have guiding money principles and make a basic plan for your financial life.
You must take full responsibility for your own financial destiny. Take initiatives and start by educating yourself and you will see a major change in your life. This week I will share with you some of the lessons and principles that are commonly used by successful and rich people.
Principle 1: Set goals and create a burning desire
Many researchers have established that the reason why most people are going nowhere, and are stagnant and trapped in poverty and find themselves in a financial mess, is that they have no goals. They spend very little time planning for their lives, hoping that government or someone else will take care of their lives. We all have many wishes and dreams about what we would like to be or have in life, but for some people, these remain only dreams and wishes never to be fulfilled in their lifetime. Without translating these dreams and wishes into achievable and definite goals, you will get nowhere and you will keep fumbling along aimlessly in one direction and then suddenly decide to change course, as the grass may be greener on the other side. Most people attempt one thing and at the first sign of an obstacle, they drop it for another. To ensure success in life, you must learn to set goals. In order to live the life of your dreams, you must have a distinct picture of exactly what you want. Setting goals alone is not enough. What you need is to create a burning desire to inspire you to accomplish your goals.
When you desire something so intensely that you give up short-term enjoyment, you will succeed, crushing all obstacles along the way. It is this intense and obsessive desire that makes the difference, separating the winners from the losers. You create desire by analyzing the personal rewards or benefits you stand to gain from achieving your goals. To achieve your goals you need to design a plan of action that will lead you to the fulfillment of your goals.
Principle 2: Pay yourself first
Work hard at whatever you are doing and make the best of it. Pay yourself from the income that you earn from your trade. Let us take an example of an employed person who earns a salary of N$5 000 per month. For you to build wealth you need to pay yourself a minimum of 10 percent of that income, because the N$5 000 salary is not yours. When you get your salary of N$5 000, you have to pay expenses such as water and electricity, food, loan installments, etc. If you pay the entire N$5 000 into expenses then you are left with nothing and you are not building wealth. If you pay yourself 10% or 500 per month, after ten years you would have accumulated more than N$100 000 at an average interest rate of ten percent per year.
Principle 3: Control your expenditure
To control expenses you must try to distinguish between necessary expenses and desires. Each of us together with our families has more desires than our incomes can satisfy.
Study your spending/expenditure patterns and your accustomed habits of living carefully and you will come to realize that certain expenses are not necessary and can be eliminated. Always prepare a budget and after paying yourself 10% or more of your income, allocate the remaining income into necessary expenditure only, and never try to satisfy all desires. Desires are multitude and recurring and trying to satisfy them is an invitation to poverty.
Principle 4: Make your money to multiply
The portion that you pay yourself from your salary is a good start, but the returns and earnings that your savings will generate will determine how much your wealth grows. Remember, a man’s wealth is not in the coins or cash you hold in your bank, it is the income you earn on your investment.
Principle 5: Guard your wealth from loss
Before you invest your money, study and analyze the investment scheme carefully. Do not be misled by your unrealistic desires to make wealth rapidly. I therefore advise you from the wisdom of my knowledge and experience – it is better by far to consult and seek the wisdom of those experienced in handling money matters. Do not lose your hard won savings because of your inexperience and greed.
(This column is a re-run of the column that appeared in May 30 this year. The contributor Martin Mwinga is currently on leave and the regular weekly column will only resume next week.)
• Mwinga works for First Capital Treasury Solutions and can be reached at mwinga@firstcapitalnam.com