Did you plan out the last five years of your life?
Most people don’t plan ahead that far. We often don’t even plan out the next day.
Imagine how much you could accomplish over the next five years if you made a reasonable plan and stuck to it. Without a plan your life is unlikely to change much. You put yourself at the mercy of luck.
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
Consider these aspects of your life that need planning:
Finances: Think about where you want to be financially. Consider income, net worth, debt, savings, investments, retirement, giftings. Are there new income streams you want to create? What are your future plans for spending? Do you want to purchase a house? An investment property? Or build a house?
Health: What are your current health challenges? How much do you want to weigh? What type of diet do you want to follow? How fit do you want to be?
Career: Where do you see yourself in five years? Where do you want to be working? What do you want to be doing? Do you need to go back to school? What is your dream job?
Relationships: Are there any relationships you’d like to create or dissolve? Do you want to get married? Do you want to have children or more children?
Personal Development: Do you want to learn to speak French or to play the piano? Would you like to learn how to dance? What would you like to learn or to become? What skills do you need to acquire to make the most of the next five years?
Adventure: What would you like to do? Climb a mountain? Go skydiving? See a volcano? What adventures would you like to experience over the next five years?
Write down what you want for each of these six areas of your life. Once you’ve completed that, begin the process of making a plan for the future. It’s not enough to know where you’re going. You must plan your path, too.
These strategies will help you to create a plan and execute it:
Set goals: Create a few goals for each area of your life and set deadlines for each goal. Avoid just having long-term goals. It’s important to have shorter-term goals that lead up to your bigger goals.
It’s hard to maintain focus on goals that require more than 10 weeks to reach. Break your goals down into smaller chunks. Daily Goals, Weekly Goals, and Monthly Goals.
Write a plan: You know what you want to accomplish. You have goals. Create a detailed plan about what you want to accomplish over 10-week segments of time. Just start at the end and keep working back to the present day. Make beginning simple enough that you could literally start doing something today.
Create habits: Goals are easy to achieve if you can create the right habits. The challenge is figuring out the right habits and then implementing them. With effective habits, success is a cinch. There’s a lot of material available on how to create habits. Educate yourself. It’s an incredibly valuable skill to have.
Choose a direction for your life by choosing a destination. Most people fail to plan their lives in any meaningful way. We often keep our focus too short to ever create anything substantial in the future.
A 5-year goal is a good step towards making impressive changes in your life.
Life is beautiful. Live it well.
Greetings and happy new month!!!
In this writeup, I’m unveiling one of the profound secret to making the right financial decisions. As we have entered into the last 60 days of the year, I want you to spend some time to review your financial actions and decisions in 2022 while you also plan for the coming year.
Let me start with this interesting adage;
“We most often buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”
Sound a bit funny but it’s mostly the case.
Do you need it or want it? What do I mean?
Now let’s dig in…
Situation 1:
It is late night and you are walking home from office after a long and tiring day. You are thirsty but your water bottle is empty. Your house is still far and you know that if you don’t drink water soon, you will not be able to walk.
Suddenly, you see an open shop in the distance. A convenience store!
You approach the owner and ask for a bottle of water. He hands over a bottle of water to you. You are delighted to hold the bottle in your hand and a sense of happiness surrounds you.
You check the bottle for the price tag. It is GHC2.50, you remove the cash and hand it over to the owner. The owner looks at you and says “The price will be GHC5.”
You look at him in disbelief. You know your legal rights and that the owner is unethical and wrong. There is no way out at the moment, and you eventually pay him GHC5.
Situation 2:
It is again late night and you are walking home after a tiring day. You feel thirsty but you remember you have ample water with you. So you remove your water bottle, quench your thirst and continue your journey home.
On the way, as you pass by a convenience store, the owner approaches you and says, “Today, we have an irresistible offer and you just cannot miss it.
A water bottle with price tag GHC2.50 is available at GHC1 only!!! Hurry up, offer expires midnight!” You look at him, smile and walk away.
So what do we learn?
The principle is simple;
If there is a genuine need, it is okay to pay even GHC5 for a thing costing GHC2.50 but if there is no need, it is not okay to pay even GHC1 for a thing costing GHC2.50, no matter how good the offer seems!
This is such a basic principle that we always tend to ignore it.
So before you proceed to pounce on that next great online offer before it expires, ask yourself – “Do I really need this?”
This always helps me keep things in perspective while purchasing anything, and is undoubtedly the most valuable financial advice that I have ever practiced.
2022 is ending, review your financial goals. Set new goals for the coming year. And don’t forget to create a Christmas budget.
Most importantly anytime you want to make a PURCHASE, PAUSE for a while…
P = Check the Price
A = Look for Alternatives
U = Understand your need for the purchase
S = Select the best option
E = Enjoy your purchase
Thanks for reading. I’ll be glad to work with you to get and keep your financial house in order. I’m your ideal financial planning PARTNER! Connect via https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrasarenyarko
Big Joe had a dream, he wanted to own a business.
After serving in the police service, he knew that with a little extra training, he could use his skills to start a ventilation and air conditioning company.
He and his wife saved every month until they reached their savings goal to start their business. When they felt the timing was right, they bought a van, tools and equipment and set up shop in an old warehouse.
Big Joe’s wife kept her job so they would have steady income and benefits while the business got off the ground.
https://youtu.be/E3oDMEEY9bY
For the next five years, Big Joe worked long hours and put all the income back into the business to help it grow. He gave his customers good service, attracted more customers and paid close attention to his expenses.
By the sixth year, the business was profitable and Big Joe and his wife were well on the way to owning a successful, ongoing enterprise that will increase their personal wealth.
None of this would have been possible without budgeting and saving; they set a goal, made a budget and stick with it.
Big Joe was able to use the couple’s savings to invest in his talents and entrepreneurial spirit.
You can also start and invest in your own business. This requires planning, know-how, savings and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Starting a small business can be risky, but it is one of the most significant ways individuals have to create personal wealth and achieve financial freedom.
“I’m Waiting To Retire So I Can Enjoy Financial Freedom, The Biggest Lie By The Masses.”
Early in life, you’re taught that you should go to college, get a good paying job, get married, buy a house, start a family, make even more money, buy an even bigger house, send your kids to college and then miraculously, financial freedom will happen at exactly age 60 when you retire. Then after you retire, you’ll have an abundance of time for “financial freedom” type activities and all will be right with the world. That’s the dream of the masses, right?
Unfortunately, what people are finding is that the path defined above doesn’t lead to financial freedom. That path leads to unending debt. It leads to a lack of retirement savings. It leads to financial frustration.
When you eventually come to that realization, you rationalize and say, “Well, I’ll just work beyond age 60 until I clean up this mess and actually can retire.”
I remember, a friends father telling us “I have 4 years to retire but I think I will have to work for another 6 years in order to pay down my house loan.” You see?
Most people don’t want to retire simply because they are in financial mess and not because they enjoy the corporate environment.
If your goal is to work and retire at age 60. If you want to just follow the rules that has been laid down. Thus, go to school, get yourself a good paying job, buy a house, marry and have kids…etc, which after interacting with most of my friends and colleagues, I know is the dream of many today, makes sense. Yes, it makes sense if your dream is to be selfish in life. Keep all you have to yourself and your family.
But the problem you don’t know with that is many of you won’t be able to enjoy freedom, even if you want to. You will end up frustrated and in a serious financial hot water.
I want you to think differently from the masses, I want you to think this way; I will go to school, get myself a good paying job but I will do whatever it takes to master the game of money. I will be financially literate. I will build my financial foundation by embarking on a journey to financial freedom.
Therefore, what I want you to do is “you need to stop thinking that retirement equals financial freedom and start planning towards retirement now.”
How do you plan towards retirement and achieve financial freedom;
Spend less than you earn
While it might sound obvious, one of the first rules you should adopt is around your spending habits. Yes, it’s cliche, however you can’t out-earn poor spending habits. If you are earning a million dollars a year and spending $1.1M, you will still go broke. Set aside something every month for the future. The future you will thank you.
Take advantage of employment retirement plans
If you’re employed at a company with retirement benefits, lean into the options offered to you at your job. To be rich by retirement, you need to take advantage of your employer’s retirement plans. But most importantly, ensure you are contributing enough to get any employer’s matching contributions to set yourself up for success.
Diversify your investments
When it comes to planning for retirement, it never occurred to me that there were many different investment options. To be wealthy by retirement age, you have to diversify your investments.
There are so many diversified mutual funds and ETFs these days, there is no excuse for not being diversified. Diversify amongst companies and also countries, make sure at least a portion of your investments are international-based.
But by far the most important diversification comes from not having most of your money in a single company. This is a terrible idea when it comes to retirement investing. The money one puts into a single company should be money a person can afford to lose.
Ignore the financial circus
When you’re on the quest to build your net worth and long-term wealth, it’s important to filter out advice that might sound too good to be true.
Tried and true advice based on academic principles doesn’t make the news, it’s boring, but it works.
Keep your investments simple and stick with stuff that has a proven track record. It’s really hard not to build wealth that way over time. Getting rich for sure is better than wanting to get rich quick.
Take a different approach when you’re young
If you start out your retirement financial planning in your 20s, or 30s, taking a different approach could yield good results. When you’re young, invest nearly 100% of your retirement money in stocks. Take advantage of being young and having a long time horizon before you need your retirement funds.
Stocks can be risky investments for older workers, but the market will bounce back if the portfolio has a long time horizon.
Stocks have always out performed bonds over long enough periods. There has never been a 20-year period where stocks have underperformed bonds in many countries.
Secure your retirement future by taking sound decisions and actions today. Your tomorrow is dependent on your decisions and actions today. Be in charge!!!
Register for my upcoming Money Mastery Program: Masterclass Session on IDEAS CAMP.
I’m not a title guy, but I’m glad I can proudly add to my name the word “Certified Financial Fitness Coach” to help me do more of what I love doing.
Peter Asare Nyarko, FFC®
This word means a lot to me and here is the journey behind this word.
In 2020 I started my journey of becoming a certified financial coach where I can coach my clients and help my generation without borders. I enrolled with Sage Financial Solutions to studied Financial Fitness Coaching, a professional certification where reputation has a price and quality is never compromised.
A coaching program that only certifies those who deserve the title and those who continue the journey with commitment and dedication, following the ICF guidelines.
When I joined this program, I was a person and when I graduated, I became another person. I joined looking up to my trainers and mentor coaches and wishing to approach their talents as coaches, by the time I graduated I became the coach with my own personality and character.
Here is a glimpse on how my certification journey took place.
Curriculum & Modules: There is a well-prepared comprehensive curriculum to be studied, along a large list of books to be read and projects to be executed.
There are tools and ICF code of ethics that belongs to this profession, you need to know by heart. There are presentations of coaching tools and demos. There is a lot of practice, observation and coaching taking place. You coach, you watch others coaching and you give your own observations on the coaching and you receive the trainers’ comments on your area of strength and improvement. You get coached and you get the privilege to uncover your potential and inner strength by other fellow coaches studying with you. So, it is a win-win situation where you learn a new discipline, you practice it and you work on achieving your best version. You go through 3 intensive modules that ensure you have it all (Coaching Foundations, Coaching Applications & Coaching Mastery).
Certification & Coaching Hours: Then comes the best part ever, the coaching certification. During this period, you coach like you never did before, you have to fulfil 256 hours of coaching where you get tested live and get graded on your live coaching and your observations. You are as usual coaching and getting coached, having a trainer who grades you and a colleague who observes you. You receive a written feedback that includes your strengths and area of improvement after discussions with your mentor coaches. Their feedback is key and makes a lot of difference in you fine tuning and making sure you deliver high quality coaching. Also, we had several peer coaching zoom calls with our trainer where we discussed several readings and practices. In addition, we had a full practice day on Zoom where we learned new things and as usual, we practiced it and we received feedback.
Mentorship & Demos: During the certification, I opted for mentorship, where I got guided and empowered to move forward in, improving my coaching skills. My mentor coaches were always available for questions, strengthening my knowledge, supporting through encouraging me to keep improving, highlighting my strength as well as areas of improvement and how to develop them
Exams & Projects: As earlier mentioned, there are days where you get evaluated as a coach and as an observer. Also, there are videos you present, and you get feedback from a supervisor who evaluates. Finally, there are written exam with different topics and cases that you must defend or explain or argue. By that time, you are ready to rock and get it done. You are fully prepared after this evaluation and exposure to coaching, you have built your confidence and proved your skill.
Now I received officially my certification and I am entitled to the “certified” word. I have completed over 18 months of training and 256 hrs of coaching practice.
I am really grateful to the FFC team, starting with its founder Saundra Davis, who trained me along very qualified trainers and coaches, as well, Shipra Gupta, Professional Certified Coach IDC PCC/ICF who happened to be my mentor coach and where I benefited a lot on our evaluation and feedback sessions. Candra Young,Kieran Barkley, Jason Stokes and all who ensured I was always on track with every single detail. The FFC team is a special team, they are serious, empathetic, friendly, humble, and very competent, words can’t give any of them credit. My respect and sincere gratitude to them and the time and dedication they have put, making sure to fulfil FFC Certification, a training for excellence.
I am also grateful to my colleagues – #finfitcrew especially Parthar Iyengar, Shilpa Bhaskar Gole, we developed friendship, respect, and we practiced together. It was an honour studying with you all.
I extend my gratitude to my partners (my clients) who ventured in my early coaching practice and gave me the opportunity to excel and improve. I am grateful to my current clients who are trusting me and my future clients who will eventually venture to improve their personal and financial life and hire me.
Finally, I am deeply thankful to my family who always encouraged and believed in me. My great mentor in this space, Valentino Sabuco, who already believes I am a great coach, my Executive Board Members at Center for Financial Literacy Education Africa, and the entire team who was beyond supportive.
To sum up the coaching profession is about working on oneself. The journey is not over yet, you learn that learning and exposure is a continuous process in the coaching profession, and you need to keep working on yourself and your coaching. This profession is expanding dramatically, and you need to be updated with all the new learnings. It is like practicing sports; you need to train by learning and exercise by practicing coaching.
A final word, to be a coach is a responsibility and to be a certified coach entails high commitment and quality involvement.
This was my certification journey where coaching became a life journey of motivation and passion.
I’m available to serve my global audience and clients with high quality standards and values learnt from the FFC certification and ICF code of ethics.
I’m your global certified financial fitness coach from now till 2025. Let’s go!!!
Whatever you accomplish in life, there will be moments when things do not go as planned, times when everything appears to be working against you and times when you fail.
You may feel like giving up at times like these, and you may even have a low sense of confidence and self-esteem, which makes you feel horrible about yourself.
During such instances, the easiest thing to do is to stop what we’re doing and go on to something else. Something that makes our prior work simpler or distracts us from it. This is precisely what the vast majority of individuals in our society do, because it is a normal human predisposition to prioritize pleasurable and simple activities over those that are difficult and important.
Those who can persevere in the face of hardship, on the other hand, have a greater chance of doing something meaningful and valuable in their lives.
Most individuals who fail in life expect to succeed fast and with little effort. While this may occur for some people, majority of us will have to work extremely hard and for many hours before we are able to complete our goals. The realistic components for success are hard effort and long hours.
The greatest achievements frequently follow the biggest failures. Even if it appears hopeless at times, if you work hard enough, you will ultimately experience success.
It will be much simpler to acquire the talent of self-persistence if you can adopt this approach of attempting to see the good in every situation. You’ll also notice that when things don’t go your way, you’ll be able to deal with it emotionally far better.
This is critical since self-doubt and sadness are two of the most powerful deterrents to persistence. These bad feelings can sap your motivation, robbing you of the energy you need to get things done. Because it is intricately associated with one’s own personal growth and self-improvement, persistence is an extremely vital attribute to cultivate in life.
Failure, learning from your mistakes, and moving on are the only ways to improve in life.
As Martin Luther King Jr. has rightly said that “If you can’t fly you run, if you can’t run you walk, if you can’t walk you crawl. But no matter what, you keep moving forward.”
No one has ever saved their way to wealth. Investing has always,… yes! always been the way to wealth.
However, there are reasons for some, where saving may be better than investing. One of the key reasons you should save money is to invest it.
We save with the intention to spend money in the future, we invest with the intention to earn money in the future.
Without saving money, investing won’t be prudent.
Now let’s dig in on when saving money is better than investing.
Saving is better than investing for a person who is just starting to work. This can be the teenager living at home, the recent graduate beginning a new career, or a person in transition from job to job.
Saving is better than investing for a person who does not like or tolerate risk. Some people are just risk averse. I never had this problem. I like risk. Risk taking is in my blood. I learn to manage and understand it.
I like this quote by Warren Buffett that says “I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” Understand risk and learn to manage them if you want to invest.
Saving is better than investing for a person who doesn’t understand basic and advanced financial concepts. Some people either don’t care or want to understand financial concepts. Understanding real estate, business development, stock, and stock options financial concepts is the first step to investing. When it comes to investing, nothing will pay off more than educating yourself. Do the necessary research and analysis before making any investment decisions.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
Saving is better than investing for a person who doesn’t like to make mistakes. Some people equate mistakes with failing. Mistakes are temporary. When I look back at my investing experience, learning from my mistakes propelled my growth.
I agree with Carlos Slim Helu when he said “With a good perspective on history, we can have a better understanding of the past and present, and thus a clear vision of the future.”
Saving is better than investing for people who have really high incomes and don’t have the time to invest. These people might not trust others to invest for them. Investing in anything takes time that others might not have. But these people should always remember; “the biggest risk of all is not taking one.” — Mellody Hobson
Saving is a foundation. Investing is the vehicle. Build wealth through investing!
Book a session for Money Mastery Course where we sit down with you to discuss your wealth building journey with actionable and practical principles and strategies.
Call/Whatsapp: +233 (0)27 855 3887 for details.
Marriage is a beautiful bond between two people which binds them in a strong relationship throughout their lives.
I sit with newly wedded couples almost every month to assess their financial situation and concerns. Interestingly, most newly wedded couples are not on the same wavelength or page when it comes to finances and money matters.
Marriage is based on 4 main pillars
Love and care: Real oxygen for marriage
Support: Required to make the bonding stronger between the couple
Space: Required so that no one feels suffocated
Trust: Real foundation and a building block of marriage.
In these four pillars of marriage, TRUST has many layers and MONEY is one of them. It is very important for a couple to keep money and finance matter sorted each time between them so that the trust and love between two people never ends.
What could be the reasons for misunderstanding between the couple about finances and money matters.
Lack of transparency
This is the most important thing one should keep in mind in any relationship and especially with their spouse. When you just married, both are nurturing that relationship. At that time if one partner got to know that his/her partner is hiding financial matters from him/her it can be a major setback for that blooming relationship.
Not willing to talk much about finances
Many times it is found that at early stage of marriage couples are not very keen to talk about finances. One of the spouses may think that the other will find him/her very practical and so the open talk about future planning does not happen as needed.
Male ego
Many times the male partner thinks that the female doesn’t understand about money matters, personal finance or investments. This male ego is not only found in the senior-aged males but also in youngsters.
Female disinterested about finances
It is not only male ego but it is found that ladies or even young girls are not interested in finance. Girls start earning money early but they are not as interested in managing household finances as shopping or household chores.
Not finding personal finance important and interesting
Financial planning is considered as the least important thing among a couple. Kids, parents, office work, relatives, household chores are the topics which are discussed among the couple. It is found that the husband runs the house and take all decision regarding money and the wife is the silent supporter.
Here are small things which you can do as a couple to live financial life happily.
Disclose every financial detail with your partner: Your monthly take-home, bank account details, investments, different types of loan, your life insurance, and health insurance details, etc.
Arrive at the same page with each other: Many times preferences, likes, habits and nature of spouses towards personal finance do not match with each other. But it is very important for a couple to arrive on the same page giving consideration to other spouse’s views.
Discuss life goals: It is very essential for a couple to know what are their goals in life. What are the aspirations and dreams which they want to fulfill with each other. Give equal importance to your spouse’s view and jot down the life goals. Arrive at the consensus. Some may find it too early but arriving at life goals early gives you an upper hand in wealth creation.
Decide monthly investible surplus: When the couple plan the monthly budget they arrive at the investible surplus which they can invest per month. If both the partners are working share the expense in the proportion of the income. So that not only one partner’s salary is being invested and not other’s getting spent on house expenses.
Make an emergency surplus: It is a very important step before starting any investment. Arrive at this surplus after jotting down monthly and yearly expenses of at least 6 months. Keep aside this fund in liquid assets. Let both the partner fund this if both are working and before spending anything from that get consent from each other.
Make a consensus on financial products to choose for investment: many times choices of financial products do not match at all. One partner being very conservative and other being very aggressive. One believes in traditional products and the other one is open for new ideas. Give due respect to each other’s views and arrive at the basket of investment products according to risk-taking ability and asset allocation for each of life goals.
Talk about your loans freely with your spouse: If you have to serve any education loan or personal loan or credit card loan . Tell your spouse about these loans. Try to repay your personal and credit card loans as early as possible and then slowly education loan and then start thinking about investment jointly.
Take term plan and health plan after discussing with each other: Take adequate term and health plan for both of the partner if both are earning. Nominate each other and let both know the place where the hard copy of insurance policy is kept.
Last but not least have faith in your partner: You being in any financial position must have faith that your partner will understand you and will help you arrive at the solution. This faith will help you go strong in building your finances well.
Marriages are meant to be nurtured every day with LOVE, CARE and TRUST. Work towards it daily because when your foundation of marriage is stronger, your financial life will also be stronger with your spouse.
Personal cash-flow management and managing your spending habits are key areas of personal financial management, and are concerns for many families. With fantastic new products arriving in the market daily, managing available cash becomes quite a challenge.
This also becomes more challenging as we move into the various higher purchasing times – birthdays, vacations, back to school, year-end holidays, among others. At the end of the day there are usually only two ways in which you will have more money: receive more and/or spend less.
To assist you with the latter, try playing a fun game we have developed, designed to improve your situation. It’s called the “Cost-Cutting Money-Making Game.”
THE BASICS To win at the “Cost-Cutting Money-Making Game”, you will need the right strategies, an open mind and a small amount of time and effort. It is really a money-saving game, with techniques for saving large and small amounts every day that can really add up over your lifetime.
HOW TO PLAY The objective here is to save the most money with the least amount of effort.
Following are Top Suggestions for Saving Money.
Check off any items that apply to you. Write down what you might be able to save in a month in each category, and then total your monthly savings.
Some strategies take a bit of time and attention, while others are easy to put into action right away. None have immediate impact on your lifestyle, however, over time, they can add up to significant savings for you. As you think about your spending patterns and needs, come up with new ideas to add to your list. To foster a little friendly competition in the game, challenge your family to see who can save more each month. The winner gets something special prepared by the loser(s) – maybe a favorite culinary treat or a pass from doing some household chores.
TOP MONEY SAVING IDEAS
FINANCIAL
Income taxes – If you regularly get a tax refund, talk to your tax preparer or adviser about reducing your estimate tax payments or withholdings during the year. Put that money to work immediately.
Bank services – Shop for no-fee checking and ATMs. Use free online bill payments and automatic payments to save time.
Credit cards – Use a card with no annual fee and one that gives you “cash rebates”. Pay off your balances monthly. If you are carrying a balance, ask your card company to lower its rate, or transfer to a lower-rate card.
Insurance – Consider raising deductibles or co-insurance on health, disability, auto, and homeowner’s insurance. Shop for better coverage and lower premiums. Pay premiums annually.
Loans – Refinance high-interest loans into lower-interest ones. If available to you, consider converting non-deductible consumer debt into a tax-deductible home equity loan. Do not abuse this strategy.
Property taxes – If property values in your neighborhood have decreased, try having your property reassessed by your tax assessor to lower your property taxes.
Charitable contributions – If you do not have a lot of money volunteer time instead of money. Donate household items that you no longer use. Consider making gifts of appreciated property (stocks, mutual funds, art, and real estate) instead of cash.
Advisors – Use qualified fee-based financial advisors before making major financial decisions. Prepare an agenda for all meetings to save everyone’s time. Use a discount broker to buy and sell your investments if you are doing all the research and financial planning.
HOUSEHOLD
Get physical – Clean your own house, mow your own lawn, wash your own car, recycle your recyclables, etc.
Appliances – Consider upgrading older appliances to more energy-efficient models.
Utilities – For your power use energy-efficient appliances. For your landscaping conserve water with efficient planning and irrigation. Check out if solar energy works for your dwelling and workplace.
Phone / Internet – Shop for the best cellular phone and internet services.
SHOPPING
Clothing – Shop during sales or at discount outlets (making sure that “discount” prices are actually lower). Think twice about marked-down items – if you would not buy the garment at full price, you may not really want or like it that much. Consider maintenance costs – a garment that needs to be dry-cleaned every time it’s worn may not be a bargain at all.
Food – Grow your own; consider an indoor vertical garden https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/urban/starting-a-vertical-farm-indoors.ht . When shopping use a grocery list and avoid shopping on an empty stomach. Cut back on prepared foods; try using the weekend to prepare bulk dishes for the a week or two, also shop for food items in bulk, in this strategy you tend to gain from volume purchase. Also you can use an online menu planner like https://mealsmatter.org/. When shopping with kids limit them to choosing one item each.
Buy in volume carefully – Buying on sale or through big-box retailers can mean major savings, provided you stick to your shopping list and use what you buy. Needing extra storage or trashing spoiled or unused food waists your money. Set up a bulk food–buying cooperative with friends.
Coupons & rebates – Use them to your advantage and only if you need the item. If there is a great special coupon offered through a newspaper, buy an extra paper and use it on a separate shopping trip. Before making a large purchase check online if there is a discount coupon available.
Avoid impulse buying – Resist the temptation to go shopping just for something to do or to cheer yourself up.
Generic brands – By buying generic brands, a family of four can save as much on its food bill.
PERSONAL
Forgo little things – Saving GHS1 a day by giving up specialty soft drinks, sodas and snack foods could add up to over GHS300 over the course of a year. By investing that money with an 8 percent return, you’d have GHS4,345 in 10 years. In 45 years you’d have over GHS115,951! Could you use this at YOUR retirement?
Take advantage of community resources – Borrow books from the library instead of buying them. Run at the school track instead of a club. Go to free community concerts. Trade baby-sitting with friends. Have a yard sale to sell what’s not needed.
Automobiles – Make your car last another year. Conserve gas by driving below the speed limit. Change your own oil according to specs. Buy a late-model used car instead of a new one.
Meals – Take your lunch to work. When eating out at restaurants pick those that offer two-for-one specials or other discounts. People often spend more on restaurant meals or purchases when they pay by phone or credit card. Try making it a habit to pay by cash or check.
Entertainment – View recent movies online or from your cable provider, go to bargain movies. Go for a hike and picnic instead a shopping trip or an amusement park. Plan vacations you can afford. Lower your golf score by spending less money at the driving range and more time at the free putting and chipping greens.
Memberships – Belong only to clubs that matter to you, especially when dues are involved. Review your membership on an annual basis.
RESULTS If you practiced all these money-saving techniques, you could save yourself more than GHS100 per month. If you’re 34 and saved this amount every month until age 60 while earning 10 percent on your money, you could have over an additional GHS118,000! If you earned 12% on you money you’d have over GHS165,000.
Not bad for playing the “Cost-Saving Money-Making Game.”
To book Peter Kwadwo Asare Nyarko for Speaking Engagements, Group and Personal Financial Planning Sessions, Training and Facilitation, contact
Many people mistakenly believe that since they are not “rich” they do not need to do any financial, estate and gift planning. This attitude can be financially harmful and can be avoided with proactive action.
In support of The Improving Financial Awareness and Financial Literacy Movement Movement, we thought an article on selecting “your right” financial advisors and right financial product providers would be interesting and helpful.
Preview The Improving Financial Awareness and Financial Literacy Movement below
Financial decisions you make today will have a major effect on how you will be able to live out your lives. It’s important that you carefully select qualified advisors to guide you through life’s changes and challenges. If used properly, the right financial advisor(s) can save you time, money and heartaches.
There are many types of financial advisors and financial product providers to choose from. These many include attorneys, accountants, bankers, credit/debt counselors, financial planners, investment advisers, life insurance brokers and agents, money managers, realtors, wealth managers, registered representatives, stockbrokers, trust officers and many others.
Who and how you choose depends on your specific needs. Many financial advisors and financial product providers offer more than one service. For example, some law firms provide tax preparation services and function as financial advisors. Accounting firms may go beyond the scope of tax preparation and serve as mortgage brokers, insurance agents, money managers and/or financial advisors.
A number of life insurance agents and stockbrokers are also qualified as financial planners.
HOW FINANCIAL ADVISORS & FINANCIAL PRODUCT PROVIDERS ARE COMPENSATED
Financial advisors and financial product providers are usually compensated either with commissions or fees, some are compensated by both.
These will not charge any direct fees, provided that you buy your financial products through them. The advantage is that you do not pay directly for services. The disadvantage is that your provider might lose objectivity or provide you with financial products that you don’t need but that provide the person with excessive commissions. Commission-based providers are usually found through brokerage houses, insurance companies, banks, credit unions and financial planning firms.
FEE-BASED ADVISORS
These advisors charge you for their time. They work on an hourly or project basis or charge a fee based on a percentage of assets managed. The advantage of this type of arrangement is maintaining the advisor’s objectivity and independence. The fee advisor may also direct you to no-commission or low-commission products. The disadvantage of fee-based advisor’s is you pay direct fees even if you do not follow their advice. If financial products are involved, you may still end up paying commissions along with the fees.
Fee-based advisors are usually found through accounting firms, law firms, trust departments and financial planning practices.
COMMISSION-AND-FEE-BASED ADVISORS
These advisors or financial product providers receive compensation both ways. Some charge a flat fee or hourly fee for services rendered, then receive commissions if you buy financial products through them. Others offset charged fees with their commissions, while others rebate commissions back to the client.
These advisors are in a position to “double dip”, receive double fees. They are also in a position to reduce their clients’ overall costs for financial products and services depending on their skill set and professional ethics.
These types of advisors are usually found in accounting firms (Financial Advisors/Planners in Ghana may sell financial products to their clients or refer them to associates who do the selling and receive commissions), some law firms, independent brokers and financial planning practices.
FINDING THE RIGHT ADVISOR
Choosing the right financial advisor for your particular situation is an important decision. Selecting a financial advisor is a lot like choosing a doctor, dentist, family counselor or other trusted professional.
Start by asking your current professional contacts and your peers for quality referrals. Then check them out further. If you do not get satisfactory input, check with professional associations for advisor referrals.
Activities Preview Financial Literacy Month Campaign April 2022
MEETING WITH A FINANCIAL ADVISOR
Before meeting with a prospective financial advisor or financial product provider, sit down and outline your goals and your current and future needs.
Determine what services or financial products you require: a financial review, investing advice, tax planning and/or preparation, insurance planning, estate and gift planning, business accounting services, etc. When interviewing financial professionals, evaluate them according to personal compatibility, expertise/experience, degrees/certification, professional references/reputation, ability to understand your needs, size of their firm and their fee/compensation structure.
You should feel free to ask a prospective financial professional direct questions such as:
What is your background? Your firm’s background?
What is your area of specialization?
Do you have expertise in (an area specific to your needs)?
Will you be working on my account or will your staff? If staff, will a specific staff person be assigned to me?
How do you get paid: fixed fee, hourly or commission?
How much will I be charged?
Will you quote a fixed fee per assignment and provide a letter outlining our relationship?
How many of your clients have situations similar to mine?
Have you ever been sued for professional reasons? If so, why? What was the outcome?
Will you provide a list of professional references and/or current clients?
For existing financial professionals, ask yourself:
Has my professional completed tasks requested in a timely manner?
Has the professional worked within the fees quoted?
Does the professional contact me with information valuable to me?
If you are not satisfied with an advisor’s or a product provider’s performance or attitude, give them feedback and see if they are willing to meet your needs. If you remain dissatisfied, it’s time to find another.
USING THE TEAM APPROACH AND GETTING A SECOND OPINION
If you are faced with making a significant financial decision and you are not clear about your options, do not hesitate in bringing your financial professionals together for a joint call(s) or meeting(s), or at least seeking a second opinion from another qualified professional.
“Never buy or be sold a financial service or product you do not understand to your satisfaction.”
Over the years, financial advisors and their firms can play a very important role in helping you reach and maintain your financial goals. By following the above guidelines you should improve your chances of selecting and working successfully with advisors appropriate for your situation.
Contact Peter Kwadwo Asare Nyarko for Speaking Engagements, Group and Personal Financial Planning, Financial Coaching Sessions and Trainings.
