New Year, new me?

The year 2020 was an extremely challenging year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenging in every aspect especially financially. People lost job or had pay cuts, business had to shut down some, due to social distancing and others due to low patronage. Despite all these examine your current financial situation and prepare your finances to help you achieve your goal in 2021.

Here are four ways to stay financially smart:

Plan your finances

Having financial goals is the foundation for your financial success. It is important that one of your goals includes a plan to deal with emergencies set short term goal, spend prudently, create a budget and stick to it. And if you are serious about building wealth, then you are going to need to put your money to work for you. For example, if you earn N100,000, 20% should go into savings and investment, 50% into household needs and utilities, 30% for other needs such as entertainment. With this you can control your finances.

Learn about investment

Investing is a way to set aside money while you are busy with life and have that money work for you so that you can fully reap the rewards of your labor in the future. Investing is a means to a happier ending. Legendary investor Warren Buffett defines investing as the “process of laying out money now to receive money in the future.” The goal of investing is to put your money to work in one or more types of investment vehicles (such debt instrument and equity instrument) in the hopes of growing your money over time. You can educate yourself by subscribing to investment platform, journals , E-books on the internet.

Get insurance

Mitigate risks and protect your assets from financial loss with a viable insurance plan. For those who purchase expensive jewellery in gold and precious stones (which can be considered as an investment) it is wise to insure against theft and loss.

Increase your earning power

No matter the reason, increasing your income potential can be a great way to achieve your financial goals faster plus the ability to earn more money does not require you to work long tedious hours but might involves some upfront work on your part. Seek avenues to earn more than your current income, and in turn invest to multiply. You can invest directly in federal government treasury bills with as low as N10,000. It allows clients to maximize returns with negligible risk.