Be ready to press the reset button like President Tinubu

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

Nobel prize winning physicist Albert Einstein’s most cited quotation is that, doing the same thing and expecting a different result is an indication of madness.

Our “head of the table” may not have made reference to it while at last month’s World Economic Forum, WEF, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but he disclosed that his government had to hit the “reset” button in order for our dear fatherland not to go bankrupt. In other words, if he had continued with doing what previous administrations had been doing, there was no way we could have stumbled on a different outcome by not going under.

That was both useful and reassuring disclosure. But beyond that, it was a smart move to make by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his team. After all, there’s nothing sexy or fanciful in leading a country to bankruptcy. There’s no pride in being citizens of a bankrupt nation either. Though we may not have seen the full benefits of pressing the reset button yet, one thing we do know is that we’re no longer heading down the long road to bankruptcy.

That aside, from a personal finance point of view, the action word ‘reset’ also made a tonne of sense. It can be a game changer for you and I. Reason being that the need to hit the reset button is always necessary whenever we get to a dead end. At that point, we need to begin again or go in a different direction. People also sometimes reach for the reset button to set new challenges or to start afresh. For instance, yours truly has put his finger on the reset button in the last quarter in order to set fresh financial goals for the rest of the year.

Perhaps you’ve been struggling to stay committed and focused on your financial goals or you’re still heavily reliant on salary advance. Maybe your job or business is dead, you may want to consider hitting the reset button.

Another reason why a change of direction is not optional is, if you think you’ve hit a roadblock or things are not working the way you want them to. For instance, if you’re not meeting your obligations or you’ve not been specific about what the shape of your liabilities are or you’ve realised they’re spinning out of control, you may also consider doing what the President and his people have done by reaching out for the reset button.

For some, that could mean upgrading your skills and repositioning yourself to tap into the opportunities available in the digital economy. Here’s the thing. Don’t stay on the same road if you’ve realised you’re always out of pocket by the second week of the month. Be prepared to reach for that ‘r’ button.

Don’t Shy Away From Haggling

Haggling is good for you. However, you’re going to meet with some outright “NOs”. Not long ago while at a local stationery store to buy printer’s ink, yours truly asked the gentleman behind the counter to knock just ninety nine pence off the selling price of £19.99. He said “no.” So, I had to pay the quoted price.

After leaving there, my next stop was at a food store, where I picked gari and some other items. Yours truly also got a “no” from the co-owner. That was despite joking that my brother would beat me if I paid the full amount.

A couple of weeks later, while at a second hand furniture store, my haggling instinct surfaced again. Was pleased that it saved me five quids – £5.

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