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 (WhatsApponly); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com
After reading Reverend Mathew Ashimolowo’s revelation in August that he lost millions nearly twenty years ago, when he invested in the stocks of some Nigerian banks, yours truly used the Guardian Newspaper’s report as the backdrop of two column pieces in September. If you fancy going through both again, like Nike’s mantra, just do it.
Before proceeding, a big thank you to Pastor Mathew – as he’s popularly called – for telling the world about that valuable and very costly experience. Sharing that story resonates with one of the many proverbs learnt in one’s primary school. In those days, we heard that: “eni to jin si ko to, ko ara yo ku lo gbon” – he that falls into a ditch, is a lesson for others. Either avoid the ditch by taking the next street or take an Uber ride and even ask the driver to not take the road. But seriously, we should have our learning hats on when it comes to personal finance.
Aside from what I wrote in the two pieces in September, there’s still a valuable takeaway from Pastor Mathew’s narration.
But perhaps you are tempted to ask, does taking that big hit mean that the very anointed man of God wasn’t a savvy investor during that period in 2005 and 2006, when his investments in the stocks of Guaranty Trust Bank, Skye Bank and First Bank made him lose millions of naira? Obviously not. He was as smart and savvy as any prominent investor. Here’s the thing, one fundamental reason why people often suffer losses is due to the unnoticeable gaps in their financial education. In fact, it might interest you to know that some people – Giwa’s with their lovely hearts – are quite aware of the gaps and still go ahead to put money on the table: Of course, they end up losing their shirts.
If not that Ashimolowo was savvy and smart as at then – and even much more last year – he probably would have suffered the fate of many investors and never recovered. Take it from here, it’s not everyone who loses over a hundred million naira’s worth of investments that lives to sing the Lord’s song nearly twenty years later. We never hear of many people again as they’ve been wiped out or still on ground zero.
But back to the point. A fundamental reason why we get hit when investing is due to the gaps in our financial education. You might want to ask, how do I know that there are gaps in my financial education? That’s very easy. The losses are the evidence. In other words, the hits you’ve taken in your pockets tell the story.
Another way the gap comes to the surface is if you don’t know about timing, especially when dealing with stocks.
As an example; in the second half of last year, in response to my inquiries, a professional player in the stock market mentioned the shares of a particular publicly quoted company. Yours truly didn’t fancy the share price. So, l left my treasured cash to gather dust in First Bank, instead.
One other method of discovering where the gaps are is if you keep repeating the same mistakes. You might want to check out any hits or losses incurred last year and take note if you had such hits in 2023, that could mean that’s another.
One big lesson from Pastor Mathew was that he said he was done with the shares of Nigerian banks. That’s his own way of dealing with the gap in his financial education. Perhaps, it’s going to take a specially delivered message from Angel Gabriel – who was sent from above to inform Elizabeth she was going to bear John the Baptist – for the needle to move for him.
How I had sweaty hands inside M & S
Just after Christmas, I popped inside a Marks & Spencer’s store to pick two gifts for two people.
While picking the second, which was actually a bonus I’d wanted to give to top up what I’d earlier dropped for the colleague I’d picked for the office secret Santa, my fingers developed some sweat because of the price of the winter scarf. Long story short, though more than my budget, I weathered the sweaty feeling and eventually parted with nearly twenty quid (£20) at the counter. Thank goodness, this year’s Christmas is far away.
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