Always Been Literate...

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With the way the world is today and the way the economy is using everyone to catch cruise, I don’t think financial literacy is something that should be debated on. It’s even a wonder why such courses are not offered in school. We have courses on Morals, ethics, religion, history, but we don’t have any on finances. That’s already shaky.

But then, that doesn’t mean that we should all play with our finances, because whether we like it or not, we must learn how to manage finances. Because if we’re not careful, we’d end up wasting money regardless of how much we’re making. We’ll be making bucket loads of money, yet we won’t even see where it’s all going.

For me, I’ve always been financially inclined. When it comes to finances, one can argue that I never really lacked. From a very young age, I already loved making money, and while I tried to do it as often as I wanted, the means of making the money wasn’t the kind my parents liked. Relax… I didn’t break any laws or commit any crimes.

As a child, I remember going from site to site with my friends to help them lift blocks or carry sand from one place to the other. Each trip earned me an average of 50-100, depending on the specifics of the job. So in a day, I could make a cool 500-ish amount. That was a pretty solid amount back then. However, I never really had plans for this money because I only saved it up to get the toys that I wanted. And I always had to keep the money secret from my mom because if she found out I was doing such odd labour, she would have freaked out.

And growing up, it didn’t change much. I’ve already made a post about how I used to do ushering during my secondary school days. I would tell my Mom I was going for lessons, and I would spend the entire Saturday at weddings or some other fun event. By the time I’m going home, I could have at least 5k- 10k sitting in my pocket.

The thing is, I’ve always had a knack for making money. When I need money for something, I always find a way to raise that money. No matter how expensive that thing is. However, when it comes to investing, it’s the one area I don’t seem to have a lot of experience with. Because from childhood, I didn’t really do much of it. Not even when I was making steady bank in secondary school. However, if there was one other thing I could do, it was saving.

I have that culture burned into me. I’ve saved with Kolo, and now with digital apps like Cowrywise and Piggyvest. This habit has saved my life in more ways than I can even admit. The most profound impact saving has had on me is the moment I swore never to spend polymer money again.

You might find this funny, but I swore that I would never spend money that’s not paper anymore. So notes like N50, N20, N10, and N5 were now off limits to me because they were made of polymer, which clearly isn’t paper. But I didn’t throw these notes away, I stored them in a container. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter how many notes I had, I chucked all of them that were polymer into the container. And due to their nature, they couldn’t be torn or washed by time.

When I was living in a lodge back in Owerri, the money stored in this container became handy for immediate and emergency spending. Like paying for sanitation, power, buying water, or lighter… all those little bills that you might easily forget. And the first time I emptied the container to count how much I had in it, it was up to 8k. I was broke at the time, and I was forced to take from the container. Imagine having 8k in N50 and N20 bills. Naira notes were everywhere!!!🤣😂

This is something that I still do, and it’s always been helpful. Even my friends who visit me know that it’s a habit for me. When you come to my home, you’ll see a transparent container with lots of N50 notes inside it. And that is a lifesaver. Sadly though, I’ve not really been putting much into the container of late. Because most of my transactions have been done by mobile transfer, and I no longer collect change, I’ve not had a lot of notes to put there. But it’s all good.

So, the one thing I’m still learning is investment. I was brought up to shy away from risks, but also to know how to be independent. That’s why even though I know how to make money and save money, I’m still weak when it comes to multiplying that money. And I’m learning still.

So, when did I learn financial literacy? I guess it was the moment I started wanting certain things, and I realized that my parents couldn’t get them for me. Not because they didn’t want to, but because there were more important things they had to deal with. So I learned how to get what I want. I learned how to appropriate my funds, and I learned how to use the scale of preference to my advantage. And it still works. And that’s how I’ve been able to do just about everything that I wanted to do.

I believe that childhood is the best time for financial literacy. And parents should be the ones to start it. Children should be taught financial risks and rewards, investments and profits… they should be taught how to save and how to budget. Because without all these, they could be making millions each month, but at the end of the day, no one would be able to account for where all the money has gone.

We can all do better, I believe.

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{This post is inspired by the second topic of this week which is Financial Literacy. Feel free to try it out.}

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_{N.B: All images used in this post are mine. The thumbnail was designed using Canva.}

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