Are you in the five percent class?

TUNDE OYEDOYIN   

Tunde Oyedoyin is a London-based personal finance coach and founder of Money Intelligence Coaching Academy, a specialist academy of personal finance. He can be reached as follows: +447846089587 (WhatsApp only); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com

In June of last year, I wrote a piece titled, “Use statistics to change your position.” This week’s drift can actually count as a sequel to that. To refresh your memory, it might be worthwhile to give that particular piece a second look.

But by way of introduction, the idea for this topic was conceived on Wednesday, March 6. Yours truly was attending to stomach matters on that occasion when former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) deputy governor, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, was on air as a guest on Arise News Morning Show. Interestingly, the June piece earlier referenced was also a derivative of a Morning Show interview with another guest. But the difference is that yours truly watched Moghalu live as already mentioned.

Though the theme for Moghalu’s interview was, “Nigeria’s distressed economy: way forward,” he also responded to the questions that co-anchor Reuben Abati and his crew fired in his direction on a paper he recently presented before appearing on their show. I was actually breathing in every advice he was dishing out to the federal government. Hopefully, our “head of the table “ and his Aso Rock team find his submissions useful.

However, among the many things the distinguished banker said that moved the needle for me was that: “less than 5 percent of Nigerians have more than 500k in their bank accounts.” Boy oh boy! That was a wake up call and a reminder that our people must push themselves and use statistics as a springboard to improve their personal finance fortunes.

As mentioned in the June piece, yours truly himself used the statistical information that the guest on that edition of the Morning Show revealed to drive himself, and hence the recommendation that readers should do the same. Hearing Moghalu say something similar was a reminder that there’s a need for fellow Nigerians to get rid of whatever excuses that keep them out of that five percent bracket.

Let me say this. If you’re not in that five percent class, make it a top priority to squeeze yourself in before the end of the third quarter of the year. It doesn’t matter if you’re even at ground zero at the moment. Perhaps, your account has been in the red since the beginning of the year; or perhaps, you are a full time applicant. That doesn’t matter either. Be hungry and put making the five percent class as your topmost financial goal.

That becomes a specific, measurable and time bound goal. As mentioned in an earlier piece, even if you have to beg to be given the opportunity to earn some extra bucks in order to achieve your financial goals, just do it.

Looking forward to seeing you in the five percent class by the end of the year.