Hello, I believe we are keeping well. In this blog we are talking about money. If you didn’t read the last blog on time, please go back and read it. In this blog, we are talking about four places, where your money could go.
Before we get into that, shall I still mention that we should continue to raise our voices against racism in all its forms. It is strange that after weeks of protests in many states in the United States of America and parts of the world, a crazy cop will have the guts to kill another black man needlessly. But you know though, when you do something repeatedly, you become accustomed to that way. Your reactions become conditioned. This is what is happening to the police In America. When we build a pattern of behavior, we become used to that way. This applies to us and the way we use our money as well.
Generally, when you have money in your hand, what do you do with it? Take a moment to think about this question and write down all the ways in which you use up your money. We will come back to it later.
I guess we have basic ways of using up money that comes to us including on food, clothing, airtime/data. I read a book by Rob Moore a year ago titled, Money — Know more, Make more, Give more. In this book, the author explains how we use up money, by juxtaposing time with money.
Time is often wasted, spent, invested or leveraged.
With money as well, we either waste it (which we often do), spend it, invest it or leverage it. What does it mean to waste money? I guess we’re all familiar with this one. Through the time-money analogy, wasted time is when we use our time for non-profitable things. Things that bring us no value in return.
As it relates to money, we know we have wasted money when we know we will never get the money back and it didn’t provide us any value either. Usually we say we have, ‘blown’ the money. Need I give examples? Like spending money on data to watch celebrity stories and gossip on Instagram, or (your new betting games for the guys- which you never win) or all those clothes we buy to fill up our closest that we never wear, that is how we waste money.
The next time-money relationship model is spending time (money). Rob Moore explains in his book that we spend time by exchanging time for money through work that we do. As it relates to money, I would say maybe the money we used to buy groceries and other essentials in the home like toilet roll, lol. We do not gain returns from this, but they are necessary (my own explanation).
The next two are very important and we should do more of them.
Investing time means using our time to do things that give us returns and sometimes even long after we have completed tasks. In the same way, when we invest money, we get returns from them in the long term.
How do we invest our money? I guess by now we know several ways of putting our money to work to earn for us. You can check out this link below for some ideas on investing money. (not all points may apply, but it may give you an idea or two).
- https://www.moneyunder30.com/start-investing-with-little-money.
- https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/investing/how-to-invest-money
- https://www.investopedia.com/articles/younginvestors/12/best-investments-for-young-people.asp
The last option is leveraging. According to author Rob Moore, leveraging time builds on invested time. How I understand this is, giving out tasks to others to perform on your behalf an earning on that time. In terms of money, it is definitely similar to investing money- Like gaining on other people’s money.
In this scenario, even though it may not be your own money, you may be able to earn on others’ money through partnerships that you invest your skills instead of money. I hope we understand all these ways of using money. The one question to ask yourself is, am I able to gain any returns from the way I use my money?
Let us go back to the answer you provided to the first question. The one that you wrote down. In which of these four areas have you been using your money the most? Now you know. Prepare a plan that will ensure you are investing your money.
I can imagine some of you saying, “I never get enough extra money to invest neither can I invest my skills” But let’s say if you able to put down 10 cedis a day, you can make 300 cedis a month. Then in a year you will have about 3600 cedis. That is enough money to start an investment with which you can earn some interests on in the long term.
So next time you have money in hand be conscious on how you use it. You can start today by saving a little so that you can invest tomorrow.
Please don’t waste your time and your money you will regret it.