In this new pandemic era, becoming financially literate is one of the critical keys to protecting your money, growing your savings, increasing your earnings and creating a reliable income strategy even for retirement. Financial literacy is very essential especially during periods of economic turmoil and uncertainty that we’re in now. Truthfully, lack of financial literacy affects many people in both developed and developing economies in the world today.

Now, let’s take a look at what Financial Literacy means!

Financial literacy simply includes acquiring a basic knowledge of budgeting, saving, investing & debt management which helps one make sound financial decisions that are integral to our everyday lives. It is no news that the global COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the financial lives of many people across the globe. There has been financial stress on many individuals, entrepreneurs, employees caused by the effect of COVID-19 and this has become the cause of low productivity, unplanned absences, lower job performance and great distractions among employees in various organizations. This stress impacts the emotional and physical well-being of employees and even entrepreneurs.

Here’s why you need to be financially literate!!

Understanding financial literacy can open you up to divers income generating or investments strategies, systematic savings, budgeting and wealth management strategies. While lack of financial literacy increases uncertainty and stress. Acquiring this knowledge also helps increase job productivity, boost job satisfaction, save costs on health care, retirement and turnover. In other words, as an employer or employee, you get to perform better, efficiently and effectively if you ain’t distracted by the stress of personal financial issues.

A Brief Look at the Core Pillars of Personal Financial Literacy:

• Budgeting. Creating a budget and living within your means is one of the most basic aspects of staying on top of your finances. Effective budgeting is knowing where to put or channel your money instead of wondering where it went. It increases one’s consciousness of spending patterns, thus reducing unnecessary spending.
• Saving. Saving is one of the most important aspects of maintaining a healthy financial life. Without proper savings pattern, it becomes difficult to achieve certain goals in one’s life.
• Investing. In order to achieve most of your financial goals, you must understand different ways to invest your money (e.g. stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, e.t.c)
• Debt Management. Effectively managing debt is very key to understanding the difference between good and bad debt. Knowing when not to go into debt and when to get out of debt.

The bottom line is this; financial literacy is a life-long process of expanding your financial knowledge. And knowing the basics is very important, but applying them to your own financial strategy is even more important, especially in times of economic downturn. So, by becoming financially literate; you are able to make sound financial decisions and also develop the ability to wisely grow your wealth and allocate your income towards accomplishing various goals in your life simultaneously.

Many people are held back by self-limiting thoughts about who they are and all they could become. But if you truly desire to achieve your set-goals in life, your mindset needs to align with your aspirations, otherwise, it might be holding you back from getting where you want to be.

Here are 5 Effective Ways You Can Level up Your Mindset For Personal Improvement:

• Focus on Learning & Applying What You’ve Learnt: Read books from great minds to understand and adopt their thinking. You can also learn from experts through online courses, events, and coaching. Plan time for learning and begin taking note of down your learnings and accomplishments consistently. And as opportunities come, apply the knowledge acquired in the relevant areas.

• Develop Success Habits to Support Your Mindset Change: Incorporate powerful success habits into your daily activities that help your mindset change and empowers your thinking with action. Celebrate small successes and practice being mindful on your journey to self-improvement. It may be slow, but celebrate every progress you make, every step of the way despite the challenges. Growth mindset allows you to love what you’re learning and to continue to love it even in the face of difficulties.

• Surround Yourself with Growing People with the Right Mindset: start hanging out with the kind of people that possesses the desired mindset for success in your finances or any area of your life. Learn how they think and adopt their day to day habits to match their mindset.

• Work on Your Creative Abilities: A growth mindset is limitless as there is always new information out there to acquire. Develop a strategy to grow in your areas of strength, as this makes you valuable, effective and efficient in every aspect of your life. Train yourself more and keep in mind that there’s always room for improvement and growth.
• Keep Setting Goals: the moment you achieve a particular goal, move on to setting another realistic goal. Get into the habit that there are more mountains to climb and things to achieve. Always challenge yourself by asking the question “What’s next?”.

Best of Luck!!

When it comes to getting rich, most people think that saving money is key. But I’ve always said that savers are losers.

No, of course I don’t mean they are personally losers. Rather, I mean that if you’re playing to win when it comes to financial freedom, saving is a losing strategy. Why is that? Because cash is simply a currency. In order to bring value, it must move into some-thing. If it stops moving, it dies.

So, if savers are losers, how can you win financially? It starts with a simple look at how you budget.

My Poor dad said, “Live below your means.”

My Rich dad said, “Expand your means.”

If you were to take a look at the difference between my poor dad’s budget and my rich dad’s budget, you’d understand the vast difference of mindset between the two statements above.

My poor dad’s budget focused on cutting expenses to meet his income. It was important for him to pay everyone else and then enjoy what was left—if anything.

My rich dad’s budget focused on increasing income. It was important for him to pay himself first and then taking care of his expenses. He said, “Most people use their budget as a plan to become poor or middle class rather than become rich. My budget is a plan to become rich.”

Here are four tips my rich dad taught me about budgeting to becoming rich.

1. A budget surplus is an expense.

One of rich dad’s most important lessons was, “You have to make a surplus an expense.”

What he meant is that most people view a surplus as an asset. They place their extra cash in the bank or they spend it on liabilities. Rather than view extra money as an asset, rich dad viewed it as an expense in the form of charity, investing and saving.

Most people want to give to charity, invest in assets and save money, but the problem is that they view it as something to do after they’ve paid their expenses. By making these things expenses in his budget, my rich dad ensured that he would make them a priority. He called it paying himself first.

2. Your expense column is a crystal ball.

If you want to predict a person’s financial future, you have to look no further than the expense column. Expenses don’t go towards anything that will make money and only things that permanently take money out of your pocket. Take a look at your expense column.

3. Use assets to pay for liabilities.

My poor dad was frugal and thought that was a virtue. If he wanted a luxury item, he’d simply deny himself that item. He said, “We can’t afford it.”

My rich dad loved luxury and if he wanted a nice toy, he’d find a way to buy it. He wasn’t reckless with his money. Rather he was smart in how he made it work for him and used his financial education. He asked, “How can we afford it?”

By increasing his assets, which increased his monthly cash flow, my rich dad used this money to purchase his luxury items and liabilities. If he wanted a nice car, he’d invest money until the asset produced the cash flow required to purchase that car. Then he had a nice car and a great asset.

4. Spend to get rich.

Being able to execute on the first three tips on budgeting means building a mindset that says when the going gets tough the tough get going. Most people stop spending on charity, investing and saving when times get tough. The rich, however, figure out ways to make more money by spending more money on assets, even when times are tough.

By pushing through those hard times, you develop a mentality that will enable you to make more money no matter what the circumstances. And that will make you richer than you ever imagined.

By Robert Kiyosaki

Credit: RichDad.com

Hi, If you’re looking for some easy ways to simplify your finances, consider these straightforward ways to master money management:

• Don’t Spend More Than You Earn: for you to be financially wise in any financial situation you are in, you can’t spend more than the money you earn or make.
• Create a Financial Calendar: Many people kick off the year with great intentions, but fell off track along the way. For those who already have a budget, go a step further by making a financial calendar. And save your calendar on your phone or any other device, so you can set reminders and create a list of major financial tasks you intend on completing, along with their due date. You can also use it to set financial goals, or to track goal milestones toward investing, savings or paying off debt.

• Organize Your Expenses into Fixed and Variable Categories

  List your monthly expenses and categorize them into fixed and variable.

  • Fixed expenses are bills you usually can’t avoid and need to pay. Such as rent, groceries, transportation, insurance and debt repayment.
  • Variable expenses are more flexible expenses like a gym membership, vacation trips, clothing or entertainment purchases.
• Setup Systems to Automate Your Money Management and Investing:  For the most of your money, you shouldn’t be thinking about; establish procedures that automates your money savings and investments.

Remember this; “Principles are ways of successfully dealing with reality to get what you want out of life.” — Ray Dalio

Sometimes spending less money is all about becoming more aware of how money leaves your wallet daily. It sure pays to become a bit more mindful about your spending habits.

Financial Mindfulness can simply be described as the art of developing increased financial awareness and acquiring the necessary knowledge, and tools to help you make  better decisions with how you make, save, spend and invest your money.

Financial mindfulness isn’t a one-time thing; rather, it’s a state of being. It means spending in a way that aligns with your goals, values and also makes you feel happier and more purposeful.

Here are 3 Simple Ways You Can be More Mindful About How You Spend;

1. Set a Budget and Financial Goals; developing a budget and financial goals is a critical step to achieving financial mindfulness. By clarifying your specific goals surrounding your finances, you’re easily able to gauge whether a specific purchase fits within your values or not. Because, spending aimlessly without a goal or any plan will never allow you to reach your goals. We strongly advice you develop a flexible budget that allows for periodic savings, investments and additional spending money for your occasional purchases that brings you happiness.
2. Track Your Spending; make a straightforward bookkeeping page to monitor your buys on a daily or weekly basis. And for your online purchases, you can keep a track on them by making use of the list of transactions your card or bank provider offers.
3. Control Your Impulse Spending;  When you learn to control your tendencies to spend money impulsively, you’ll be more likely to meet your financial goals with time. Financial mindfulness helps you ask critical questions to reflect on like; why do I feel bad? Do I really need this thing? Will I want this thing tomorrow?

Always Remember, that financial mindfulness is achievable at every level of income and it’s very essential for living a fulfilled life.