On the third Friday of January, I was pleasantly surprised to receive my very first passive income of this new year. It came through one of the investments I made in one of the Federal Government (FGN) Savings Bonds last year.
After getting the notification through the credit alert that landed on my phone on that day, I allowed it to rest and relax in the account for a couple of days before deciding to send it to work elsewhere. As an aside, folks, passive income is good for you. You may want to get the piece written on it in January.
Anyway, guess what that coupon payment was used for? I beefed it up by adding less than a thousand and five thousand Naira to it so as to make it ten thousand Naira (N10,000). It was then given an employment letter and asked to go work on the Nigerian Stock Exchange NGX. Yours truly grabbed a couple of shares of a particular company with that ten grand.
Here’s the thing, many people work hard and pride themselves in their work ethics. That’s commendable. But we often don’t let our money work as hard as we do.
Therefore, it’s important to put your money to work. That’s why you must find a way to chip something away every month as investment money. It doesn’t matter if all you can afford to put away for now is only five thousand Naira or just $20. You just have to get started. Even one percent of your monthly income isn’t a bad starting point.
The Masterclass from a taxi driver
When I jumped inside the back of a local cab a few weeks ago to be ferried from one employer’s premises to another, all that was on my mind was to make it to work before 8 am.
But shortly into the journey, I asked if I could pay with a card. Of course, I knew the company takes card payments. Thus, it didn’t come as a surprise when the elderly gentleman behind the wheel said yes.
However, he quickly said there’ll be an additional charge of a pound on top of the fare. He went further to explain that the £1 was going to the credit card company as a transaction charge. I told him no worries. He then advised me to “always have cash” on me in order to avoid paying transaction fees in future.
Couldn’t but concur. Perhaps, it’s time to increase the cash reserves that I carry about.
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
