Pay thyself first

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

One of the first principles I ever learnt about personal finance was “pay thyself first.” It popped up in my mind recently and yours truly felt it’s never been worth mentioning than now.

As it turned out, that made me remember a conversation about politics and other stuff with one of my managers over a year ago. She said something that caught my attention at the time. She was of the view that as long as she’s able to pay her bills, the party or who is in power doesn’t really matter.

Ordinarily, that would seem to be okay. Quite a lot of people swear by the same ideology of “let life go on” as long as they can pay their bills. It’s almost a rarity to hear anyone talking about the need to pay themselves first. As a matter of fact, sometimes yours truly deliberately chips in a word during conversations with colleagues and it’s almost the same story. It’s not unusual to hear people talk about their direct debits and bills payments. Please, keep doing that.

However, if you’ve not been paying yourself first, now’s the time to hit the reset button. Here’s the thing, you need to and start paying yourself first whenever your salary or wages land in your account or pocket.

Paying yourself first means putting at least ten percent of whatever you earn away for your very good self. Yeah! You earn the money after all. So, why put the phone company or any provider first?

By paying yourself first, you’ll be laying the foundation for your future. Even if your current financial situation doesn’t allow you to put ten percent of your income away, please make it five or even two percent. Perhaps it’s even just two thousand Naira that you can afford from your minimum wage, just pay ahead and start to pay yourself first.

Stay away from Bitcoin and Crypto

About a month or so ago, someone very close to me narrated how she had been scammed as a result of an online investment scheme that a member of her church had sold her.

Thankfully, the amount she lost in the “abracadabra” scheme couldn’t send her to the poorhouse. But despite the capital not being up to thirty thousand Naira, it was borrowed money.

The one thing that instantly came to one’s mind on hearing her story was to say to people that they need to stay away from anything bitcoins, wallets and crypto. It doesn’t matter who’s selling it, if you’re not a sophisticated investor, please don’t put your money into bitcoins until you’ve been schooled.

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