Don’t tow Nigeria’s path in managing your money

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

When it comes to sorting out public finance, you sometimes don’t need the brain of a Nobel prize winning economist to figure things out. My bit is personal finance, anyway.

By way of introduction, I’d put down what to craft for this edition of the column a few days prior to having to tear the script last week, Thursday, June 6th.

The inspiration to put that other topic away came while watching Arise News, as the Morning Show crew of Dr Reuben Abati, Ayo and Rufai interviewed Esili Eigbe, an economist and also the director of Escap Management. They had the gentleman in the studio to discuss “The Finance Minister Presents Economic Stability Plan”.

What made me have a change of mind was when I heard from Mr Eigbe that ninety percent of what our dear fatherland earns is used in servicing debts. Wonderment! Thought I needed hearing aids, but he reiterated it in arguing that those managing our money and economy must do better.

Nearly a year ago, yours truly wrote “don’t take your personal finance cue from the U.S public finance.” If you fancy taking another look at that piece, go for it. For now, the guidance is not to tow the path of our very own country in managing your personal finance affairs.

Folks, if you don’t want to go under nor end up in the legendary poorhouse, don’t use ninety percent of your earnings to service your debts.

To paint a clearer picture, assuming we bank a hundred thousand naira per month as a country, as it turns out, what it means is that we’re using ninety thousand of it to pay our debts. Tell you what? Irrespective of who you owe and how much, please don’t manage your own personal finance this way.

As mentioned in the opening, you sometimes don’t need to have graduated from Oxford or Harvard to figure out some things. Please talk to your lenders and creditors to restructure your debts.

Agreed, you’ll pay more interest in the long run, but servicing your debts with ninety thousand naira when your monthly income is only a hundred thousand, seems like the road to hell.

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