Keeping Your Financial Freedom Agenda Alive Amidst Temptations

Karima

- Corporate Affairs & Marketing Investrust Bank Plc

We trust that you and your wonderful family are all well and that you remain steadfast in practising right behaviours as we continue to fight Covid -19. Please always remember to adhere to all health guidelines shared by the Ministry of Health. The festive season is upon us! Much as this is a merry period, it is usually characterised by money-related worries and anxiety. This is a time when we stress about how we will celebrate Christmas, and most of us think ahead of this period. We also think about the month of January that is characterised by a lot of bill payments, particularly those to do with school fees for our children. In essence, we should not be going through such stress if we transform our good Money Management ‘game’ from being reactive to adopting the behaviour as our way of life.

In today’s story, dear Reader, we remind you about the fundamentals that can help us to be consistent, wise and careful spenders. We detail the behaviours that can help us to not only enhance our wealth creation efforts, but that can also help us to do this sustainably. Once you embrace these and make them your way of life, you will undoubtedly be on your path to attaining Financial Freedom so that you and your loved ones have quality lives – you deserve it!

wealth creation ranks highly on your life agenda, you need more than your plans to attain this. You need the discipline to be able to avoid bad behaviours that are a barrier to realising your financial goals. You need to adhere to saving and investment rules, and you have to be intentional about wise spending. You may have a dream or ambition to create wealth and a great plan of how to achieve this, but if you are not committed to executing that plan, and you lack the discipline this requires, you will not succeed.

Asset Vs Income – Know & Understand Difference

If you want to grow your wealth and sustain it, you need to understand the difference between assets and income. If your goal is to create wealth, you should be more focused on accumulating assets, not income. It is those assets that will help you to increase wealth. This way, your money will make money for you, and you will have attained your Financial Freedom. It is only through wise spending that you will realise this. Be sure to always take enough time before you decide to make purchases even during times when you think that what you are spending is so little and that it will not amount to anything. Remember that wealth brings you freedom, extra freedom for you to make choices according to your terms such as choosing holiday destinations that you fancy, kind of hospital to seek health facilities from when you or your loved ones fall ill or when and where to go to for fine dining should you feel like it. What beats that?

Spending Correctly – Lessons From Wealthy People

You can only create and sustain wealth when you spend correctly. We all experience moments when we fail to resist impulse spending. Wealthy people do not allow themselves to be easily swayed by anything when it comes to protecting their wealth; they keep such temptations under strict control. They are very careful about how they spend money. For them, spending has to be done correctly. Price tags matter to the wealthy because they know that wealth can only be sustained when unnecessary spending is totally cut out in their lives. Wealthy people are actually very frugal in the way they spend. They look for bargains, and they question every expense. They are not in a hurry to spend, and they have a habit of comparing prices. They also avoid fees and penalties of any sort in their lives.

‘Chill’ When You Have Unexpected Windfall

The way we handle unexpected monies that may come our way really determines the outcome of our wealth creation journey. These monies manifest in various ways. For salaried people, this may come in the form of a bonus, that extra ‘cheque’ we all love and change in salary due to a promotion. We need to develop a habit of saving or investing such money as opposed to spending it. This is money that you did not plan or budget to spend so, please do not squander it on unnecessary things and do not suddenly develop ideas you did not have.

No one knows what tomorrow brings in terms of our ability to be able to generate an income as a salaried employee or a business person. This reality, therefore, calls for each one of us to plan ahead. Apart from ensuring that we work on having an emergency fund that can sustain us for a period of at least six months should anything happen to us, we are also encouraged to spend money on ensuring that our health is in good stead. Invest in having regular medical check-ups and pay strict attention to your health so that you avoid spending more money on treating illnesses which you could have taken care of had you focussed on making annual check-ups a priority. Remember that good health is paramount in everything that we do. All those monies we spend carelessly could be put to good use.

Unplanned & Immediate Gratification ‘Kills’ – Never Emergency Shop, Ever!

Emergency/impulse/emotional shopping is usually our biggest enemy in wealth creation. Let us avoid buying things because we want them. There really has to be a need for us to spend, and that need should be planned, and the plan should be adhered to. When we emergency buy, we lose out on the opportunity to practise great behaviours such as comparing prices which could save us a lot of money. How many times have you expressed shock and utter disappointment upon noticing something you purchased at say K500.00 costs only K100.00 in other shops?

Remember that wealthy people are not different from us. It is their mindset and behaviours towards money that are different. We can all master behaviours that can lead us to create and sustaining wealth! Let us keep practising; let us keep learning and growing and let us create quality lives for us and our loved ones, we can do it! Please remember to teach your kids and other children under your care about the importance of money, the role it plays in our lives, and why managing it well now for a better tomorrow is key. Begin early enough in their lives. That way, you will be proud of raising Money Smart kids.

Dear Reader, we trust that this read will set you on your path to spending wisely this festive season and that you will begin to practice behaviours that lead to creating and sustaining wealth. Investrust Bank Plc (IBP) wish you a money stress-free life, you deserve it! Please be sure to visit any IBP branch nearest to you for tailor-made suitable products and services that can help you to attain Financial Freedom.

Until next week, stay clear of Covid – 19, follow all health and safety guidelines shared by the Ministry of Health. Be blessed and remember to be a blessing to others!

For comments or questions email maria.karima@investrustbank.co.zm