BY TUNDE OYEDOYIN
Tunde Oyedoyin is a personal finance coach and founder of UK-based Money Intelligence Coaching Academy, a specialist academy of personal finance. He can be reached as follows: +447846089587 (WhatsApp only); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com
For starters, have you noticed that this year is going “small by small”? If, like yours truly, there have been times when you felt time was draggingly sluggish, especially and occasionally when at work, make no mistake about it, the year wasn’t marking time.
So, here we are already at the halfway mark of the year that seemed to have rolled in not too long ago. One thing is sure, 2023 seems to be steadily, but surely sprinting away. For many of us, it is good news and for some of us, it may not be exciting.
In the business world, the half-year is a significant point. At this time, stakeholders, particularly investors, take stock. They want to know what’s up. They are keen to find out how their prized investments have fared. If you pay rent annually as is the practice in Nigeria, your landlord is happy that another December will soon be around. Reason being that “mama landlord” will send a reminder for her dues.
Investors of many notable companies, be it those listed on the London Stock Exchange or the Nigerian counterpart, seek out results at this time. They don’t want some unpleasant surprises at the end of the calendar year. As a matter of fact, they cannot afford to wait till the end of the year to know how their investments have performed. Hence, some companies publish their half-year results.
Even football clubs don’t wait for the season to end. The owners may not lift a finger as match results trickle in week in, week out, but by mid-season, they open their eyes. Either they’re drafting the manager’s sack letter or giving him thumbs up for the journey so far.
That’s the same approach to adopt if you dream of becoming financially free. Now’s the time to check how intelligent you’ve been with your personal finance. One place you need to focus on is your bank statements. The indices of how your half-year results should be there.
Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, underlined the importance of results just before the end of last season. During a BBC post -match interview, he told the media that the reason he’s still in the job is nothing mysterious. It’s because of his results. Though one didn’t hear the exact question, that’s the gospel truth from the lips of a treble winning manager.
So, evaluate your mid-year results. Are things better than what they were when the year rolled in? Have you fallen behind and constantly dropped into red or always in blue? Are you taking a salary advance every month or not? This is the time to check and then take appropriate steps for the second half of the year.
Adieu Jerry Okorodudu: Someone once said that taxes and death are the only certainties in this life. Against that backdrop, it wasn’t so much the recent passing away of the 64-year old that saddens one as the fact that the 1984 Los Angeles Olympian didn’t have the means to pay the hospital bill for a medical procedure.
Yours truly was still living in Lagos when Okorodudu featured at the Los Angeles Olympics. I stayed up to watch his fights and those of others. He may have been controversially edged out at the quarterfinals by judges’ dubious scorecards, but he won not a few hearts as one of the standouts of the Nigerian contingent.
Reading Segun Odegbami’s “Jeremiah Okorodudu, Please Forgive Nigeria” “ in the Guardian of July 1, one was further saddened that all the former national hero needed for his hospital bill was the equivalent of just $2000. For two years, he couldn’t raise the funds nor get people to take care of the fee. Hopefully, the Ikorodu hospital will be kind enough to let go of his dead body even if the family can settle the bill.
May the soul of the late Nigeria’s former middleweight boxing champion rest peacefully in the Lord’s bosom.
