There is hardly any money decision that we make today that doesn’t affect how better off or worse off we live tomorrow.

I want to challenge you now and let you know that how well you live financially in the next five, ten or even to the rest of your life can only be determined by you. And by you alone. Nobody else. And to achieve this, you must make tough choices. Let me tell you a story and at the end, I will ask you a question. Of course, I expect to get an answer.

A young lady finally got married to her heart loop after so many years of relationship. They live in a modest flat. Just a room and a parlour. Fast forward three years later, the kids have arrived and more are still on the way. It was obvious that their modest apartment was no longer enough to accommodate them. They needed to move. But there were no funds to finance it. The lady had no job. They agreed that she will not work at least for the first six years of their marriage. So she can obviously not contribute financially to the family’s increasing problems. The husband’s business was crumbling at the time. In fact, he needed between 1.5 to 2 million naira to refinance his business and make it profitable again.

Out of the blue, the lady got a little windfall. A family member died and she was bequeathed with one million naira.

What would you do if you were the family? Would you use the money to rent an apartment? (renting an apartment is one thing financing it’s interior is another). Or would you agree to use the money to finance the husband’s business? Or would you agree on the lady to use the money to start something? (since now things are not as rosy as they were, so she can now work). Which would you do?

Decisions like this one above are the sought of decisions we face every day without even realizing it. When we buy airtime, buy tissue paper from the store downstairs or go to akara joint, nudging and pushing each other, hauling insults trying to prove that you came before him/her so that Mama Nkechi will sell akara to you first, we are making these decisions. But we leave them to chance, without taking charge. I remember when I was in the university, I hardly cooked. I went to the restaurant to sought out my stomach. Now came a period that for three days I had no money. I survived soaking garri, soaking biscuits and those other junks students thrive on. On the fourth day, I received fifteen thousand naira. I thought to myself; this money must pay for those three days I missed eating in the restaurant. I eat so much food, took so much mineral and bought so much suya that could last me for two days. I was trying to spend those three days of money that I never spent. I was doing all these without realizing that there is tomorrow. I could run out of money again. Once I had the money, I forgot every other thing. I simply spend. And after two or three weeks, I will start shopping to get better garri because the one I took last time purged me.

It never occurred to me to ask myself; how would I save? How would I reduce my expenses? How would I invest my savings to enable me to build enduring wealth that will nourish and take care of any lifestyle I would want to live?

Our journey to wealth starts with whatever we earn, No matter how small Now we are grown-ups. We earn money. Some earn very well, some earn so little, some even earn nothing because they can’t find work. The truth is, that little or that much you earn, will start your journey to financial freedom. Whether it is twenty thousand naira or thirty thousand naira or fifty or hundred thousand naira, your journey has begun. Spend your money as if there is tomorrow. Ask yourself; what if an accident renders me incapable to work, how would I survive? What if I fall sick  and cannot work for six months or one year, how will I pay the bills? What if a loved one who is under your financial care suddenly became ill and our failed health care system wasn’t able to handle the situation and you have to take your loved one to a country that has provided for its people quality and affordable health care? What if you die and your beautiful wife and your lovely kids have to go  a long time suffering immeasurable hardship to survive? Or what if it’s your lovely wife that goes. Your wife who contributes immensely financially, how would you survive?

God forbid, it’s not my portion! I can hear some people scream. These things are some of life’s realities. They are happening all around us and those that falls victim never prayed for them. Accidents, illness, death, the unknown, will always be part of life’s mysteries and when it happens to us, we will under intense suffering moan; why me.

This is not to scare you, but to point out why it is necessary to learn about personal finance (managing and making money), to understand how money works. Like every other thing in the world, money has its rules. Learn the rules and the way money works. Everything that grows needs something before it grows. The way you were feed as a toddler, to a five years old, to a twenty years old and now look at you. The way a tree needs a fertile land, water, the sun, before it became that massive tree it is today. The only difference with money is that money needs to service you first before it can grow. It needs to take care of you, it needs to feed you, clothe you, transport you, take care of your health needs.

But how will I learn money rules? How will I learn how to manage the little I have and still grow financially. Read this blog. It will guide you as you make your decisions.

Remember, the financial decisions we make today will go a long way to determining how happy or how miserable we will be in the future. If we spend so much of our money on frivolities and things we don’t need today, tomorrow, we will be living miserably, cursing everything around us. But if we spend on only those things we need, save and invest the rest today, tomorrow, we will have enough and that will make us happy..