PERSONAL FINANCE: ‘Yes’ to your resolutions means ‘No’ to something else

If we want to save or invest more within current resources, it means we must forego something. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • You cannot create wealth if you are caught up trying to impress other people.
  • If we want to save or invest more within current resources, it means we must forego something.

Let’s say you buy a new phone. What do you immediately stop doing? You stop using the old one. You transfer all data to the new one and the old phone goes into a drawer or is given to somebody.

When we want to add something new into our lives, we have to be ready to release the old, instead of simply piling up things and expecting the impossible. We need to follow this same principle with our time and money to be able to see a difference this coming year.

Let’s start with how you use your time. In our Centonomy classes, we do a session on the time value of money. One of the exercises we make people do is calculate how much time they spend on things like social media, TV, over sleeping, entertainment, traffic (and recovery from related activities) and so forth.

These are activities that are not related to work and spending quality time with people who are important to you. If you spend four hours a day on these types of activities, it adds up to two whole months per year. You can achieve a lot in that time or even just a portion of it.

In a New Year many people want to make certain moves like learn to run a business, work towards a promotion, save or invest more, be healthier, take a course, build networks, etc. This doesn’t happen if we don’t consciously decide to spend less time on certain things and more on others.

Spend less time watching TV so that you can read and learn something. Re-arrange your life so that you do not have to be in the supermarket with everybody else on Saturday morning so that you can drive around and figure out what opportunities are there in real estate.

SACRIFICE

When I started my business I had to let go of my social life on Friday because I worked on weekends. To achieve your objectives, you also have to place yourself in environments that will encourage you to grow. You may have to stop taking part in certain conversations, which may mean letting go of certain relationships that are not working for you. Nobody created wealth by joining forces with victim minded people who want to blame everything and everyone else.

Almost everybody intends to save and invest more in a New Year. However, we do not allocate time to learn about investments. We don’t have a plan to earn more money. We don’t consciously dedicate time to doing the things at work or in our businesses to make more. It may mean longer hours or spending time more efficiently. Whichever way, we will need to let go of certain activities.

Also if we want to save or invest more within current resources, it means we must forego something. In essence that’s what budgeting is. Planning what you will say yes to and what you will say no to i.e. where your money goes and doesn’t go.

You cannot get out of debt if you are still living above your means. You have to stop spending on certain things. You can’t save more if you do not cut down on spending.

You also have to say no to certain mindsets. You cannot create wealth if you are caught up trying to impress other people. Many people struggle with this impulse spending and then realise that they have tons of things they do not need.

Have the same approach with your things, especially if you know you already have enough. Buy if you are ready to let go of something. This will help keep spending in check and ensure that when you do buy stuff it is really important to you. If you clear out your house or wardrobe you may even find you have heaps of stuff that you can sell.

Everything you want to do has a price. It requires you to intentionally choose what you will not do.

 

Waceke runs programmes on personal finance & entrepreneurship. Get in touch with her on [email protected]|Facebook/WacekeNduati| Twitter@cekenduati