THE SUPER WOMAN

 Years ago, the face of family finance was majorly the man’s business even though some women took the responsibilities of solely providing for the family like paying for the accommodation, feeding and footing all bills.  This was the case of women married to lazy men, widows and those whose husbands could not work due to sicknesses and sort.

The prevailing trend now is more men leave the responsibilities of family finance solely to the woman, I have seen able bodied men who are laid backs, lazy and are comfortable in such situation since they have a woman to provide the basics for them. The fact is situation could make the man earn less, I am not talking about men who are giving it a shot and earning something.  The fact that you are putting in efforts is good enough and I encourage you that if you keep at it, you will break through, for this type of men, it’s good to have a supportive woman who will step in and cover the few lapses. Family finances should be the responsibility of both the man and the woman in my opinion but it is best that it’s well defined in the family.

Handling Financially Induced Depression

                       

 Depression is a part of human baggage which is becoming endemic and we need to take conscious effort not to be caught in its web. Anybody can be depressed, a more crucial reason to be watchful and take personal responsibility for our health and life.

What is Depression? This is the feelings of severe despondency and dejection caused by several situations which includes money problems or financial stress. Many people are having a tough time paying bills and meeting their financial obligations which has led to a feeling of despondency, dejection and ultimately Depression.

I am not a health expert but a Personal Finance Coach, so I can only proffer solution on only financially induced depression from finance perspectives.

You need to do more!!

The New Year has begun in earnest and just like preceding years its fast running, this necessitates the need for us to gear up to do more and begin early.

Most people begin the year with expectations of getting the best financially, but as the common quote goes ‘Talk is cheap’ anybody can say anything. The determinants of a better 2018 is the result you can show at the end of the year, and the truth is: the year had begun already, opportunities are already slipping away and some hopes are been dashed.

I am not a prophet of doom I just want to encourage you to do more as time waits for no man. One proverb I love so much is ‘if wishes were horses, beggars will ride’ you cannot live your entire year on wishful thinking but on practicable actions that can deliver your dreams and aspirations to you. Once again time waits for no man.

Evaluation and Appraisal of your Personal Financial Year

 

  The year will soon be out and done with, A time of the year when establishments and Organizations do an appraisal of how they have performed against their outlook at the beginning of the year. This is necessary to put into perspective what needs to be improved upon and what needs to be jettisoned.

In the same vein, we need to carry out personal evaluation and appraisals of how we have managed our finances during the period under review in this case a Year. I know you are thinking it will be an Apulian task given that the needed comprehensive information are not available for adequate evaluation and appraisal. If this is the case, then some adjustments have to be made in the coming year.

All your income and expenditure needs to be recorded, by having a complete and right transaction narration as much as possible. For you to achieve much with the income you earn, you need to block leakages and this leakages can only be identified by doing a thorough and sincere evaluation and appraisals.

Your Family and Your Money (Focus on the Nuclear Family)

Being married brings you to a place of responsibilities, it doesn’t matter if you are the man or the woman, it is, however, more important for the man to quickly understand that his income has become ‘our income’ based on our culture and the female gender belief. I also understand that we have a class of ‘Super Women’ who are the ones footing the family bills (We will discuss more on this soon)

Free Personal Finance Seminar!!!!!!

Do you wish to take charge of your finances? If your answer is yes, then you need to plan and prepare to attend this free Personal Finance seminar on the 2nd October 2017. Pre-register here: https://goo.gl/forms/d4DrcISf04wb92Bj1. Share with friends. Limited space available.

"Land Speculating- An Investment with huge returns but require a lot of care!"

I first read about Land speculators while in the University some years back, and it was eye opening, I cannot remember which book it was, but it was a book on history in my University Library. Let us look at this investment strategy a bit closer.

A land speculator is someone that buys a large amount of land for little money and also with no intention of using it, then sells it for a larger amount of money to many people to make money when the land appreciates.

Personal Finance

Money and Family Members- The Extended Family

This is a sequel to the first post on money and friendship (Get it here), in this post we are considering your personal financial relationship with your family members, with an eye on the extended, say your Brothers, Sisters, Cousins and the like.

Just as Money and Friendship do not mix well, same can be said of Money and this family members, a lot of people have got their hands burnt for lending money to family members who will not return and will still be arrogant about it. 

Money and Friendship

 Money often does not mix well with friendship, as so many promising friendships are lost based on money issues. In most cases, this happens when friends borrow money and refuses to pay back or when there is a business deal between friends and one party decides to play the smart one and cheats the other. And because of this personal experience, most of us have put our friends in different buckets, hear say, and characters exhibited by the friends in question.

The truth is you are also being placed in buckets too based on the same measurement by some friends. Let us do a quick evaluation of your friendships, quickly list five friends you can do business with without fear of losing your funds, and now list the friends you can never trust with your money (You need not write them out). You see how easy it was to put your friends in one of these two buckets? You reached this decision based on a few parameters best known to you, which might not be correct in its entirety. It is not strange that many people have a lot to say on money and friendship and the need to exercise caution but, the beautiful thing is that we can have a sustainable balance wherein our friendship is secured and our ‘business friendship ‘ is also very secured

Mortgages 101

 Been a house owner via  Mortgage is very prevalent in developed countries, however not in Nigeria due to the high interest rate which is applicable to any other loan that can be accessed here. So what then is Mortgage?

 A mortgage is a debt instrument, secured by the collateral of a specified real estate property, that the borrower is obliged to pay back with a predetermined set of payments, usually monthly. It is a secured form of loan and usually secured with the property being purchased. In Nigeria most commercial banks offer mortgage loans we also specialized banks called mortgage banks whose primary focus is mortgages.

In accessing a mortgage loan, there are few criteria that you must fulfil and there is a limit to the loan you can get for your home, irrespective of your income. These factors may include but not limited to the following:

Key things to know before getting a loan

Feedback from our last  post shows that so many people feel cheated by financial institutions as well as loan providers, this is why I feel we need to look at critical things to look into before getting a loan.

 Note when securing a loan, all charges be it internal or external charges incurred while processing the loan will be borne by you, so let’s take a look at common terminologies as well as costs associated with loan collection

INTEREST RATE: A rate which is charged or paid for the use of money or money borrowed (Loan). Interest rate is often expressed as an annual percentage of the principal. It is calculated by dividing the amount of interest by the amount of principal. Interest rates often changes as a result of inflation or as agreed by the Lender and the Borrower. This is normally expressed in percentages (%).

This is a key factor in loans and it’s one of the elements with which the profitability of the financial institution is built. And it is not a fixed rate because it is a percentage and most interest rates are flexible, it could either increases or decreases, and the financial institution would have made you sign a document saying they reserve the right to change the rate, so it is key for the Borrower to read the loan contract (Terms and condition) well before appending signature, most times we are so excited about getting the loan that we forget the years or months paying it back, this post is not to scare you away from taking loans but to get you educated about the nitty-gritty associated with it. I take loans myself, funding any mega project requires a loan for success, the pillar that sustains any conglomerate is a loan and so on.