I CAN DO MORE !, I CAN BECOME BETTER!!

         Let me start by saying Happy New Year. I want to believe we are all ready to achieve our financial targets this year 2016, and if this is your decision, there is a need to be resolute enough to achieve it through a well-articulated vision and determination.

     I am optimistic it is going to be a great financial year, even though the economic indices are not favorable, yet many will achieve financial freedom this year and these classes of people are the smart ones. We will look at how to be smart with our finances in 2016 and beyond so as to meet our financial targets and achievable.  That is why we are starting the year with the topic I CAN DO MORE, I CAN BECOME BETTER.

 Each of us can do more with our finances, you can save more, you can invest more, and you can make more money.  A popular quote says “malady is doing something the old way and expecting a better result” and so is it for our personal finances, if I decide to spend recklessly this year the way I did last year, believing things will get better, then I deceive myself absolutely. Same goes for investment and other personal finance related areas. We need to adopt new strategies if we want to do better. I will like you to consider your finances to a game of Chess played with a friend, he won the first round (even if you won) and you are to play another round, what will readily come to mind is how you easily lost your officers in the last game, then this will lead to new strategy that will be enacted to win the next round. In essence, you need to have a strategic session with yourself and if you are married, you need another session with your spouse.

Hints on what to do in the #personal finance strategic session either alone or with your spouse:

I will like to stress that in this process,  you will need a writing material either electronic or the conventional pen and paper, that will be in addition to a suitable time which will enable a lot of brainstorming with regards to the past year and the new year.

a)      Evaluate your finances in 2015: We must learn the habit of evaluating how we managed our finances especially in a new year like this. We should look at both our income and expenses in the past year, we should also review the financial decisions we made in the year and the outcome of such decisions and evaluate them critically.

b)      Make plans for the year 2016: write down your financial plans for the New Year, be realistic as much as possible with your plans. Let your plan be on improving on what worked in the year before and how to avoid errors made.

c)     It is time for a side income: Most people have procrastinated on getting another side income. We all need multiple streams of income at this age and time more than ever. We will be looking at this critically in the following weeks.

Let me welcome you again to a great year, let us be hopeful for the best and I trust the best will surely come to us financially.