Why do you change a gadget?

The phone you presently own is still functional and has all the basic requirements to facilitate your communication needs yet you decide to change it for “the latest one”. It’s amazing that the things you use your phone for regularly are available on some of the cheapest phones available? Which car does Bill Gates drive? Which year was it made? Truly wealthy people purchase things that they actually need. If you change your car every 2 years that is fine. The question is why? If it’s because brand new cars are cheaper to maintain...Good but if it is because that’s what your colleagues are doing then that may be frowned at. What is a need to Peter may be a want to Paul. That’s not saying you should not enjoy your self but remember to delay gratuity and make profitable expenses. Plan how you will spend your money just like you plan investment. Consider being the role model for others to follow and not vice versa. You too can be a pace setter. What does it matter if the IT student’s phone is more expensive than yours?

What is a want today might be a need tomorrow so there’s no hard and fast rule to it. Just make sure your financial priorities are set right. “JONES” Are people we try to imitate their lifestyle and habits. They are people we subconsciously measure our living standard against.

What is a need to Peter may be a want to Paul. I am not saying you should not enjoy your self but do it as you planned, which is set a goal for enjoyment. You definitely set a goal to earn the money so why don’t you set a goal to expend it! And make sure it is not a strain to your pocket. There’s a difference (huge) between buying something and actually being able to afford it. Consider been copied at the workplace instead of you coping others. You too can be a pace setter. What does it matter if the IT student’s phone is more expensive than yours?

Let’s consider wisdom from an excerpt of one of my books “Empower Yourself: The Making of a Legend” We are all fond of acquiring new things. We generally look forward to our next purchase. While purchasing or buying is good, we need to ensure that what we are buying is essential. Why are you buying it? Is it because you saw Mr. A’s or Mr. B’s possession or because a need exists that the product can adequately fill?

Purchases can generally be categorized into two; assets and liabilities. An asset is a valuable or useful item that can create income while a liability is a thing that causes problems or financial obligation or debt. In other words, assets put money in your pocket while liabilities take money out of your pocket. Examples of assets include

· Equipment or machine that can be used in production

· Business that do not require your presence

· Shares and bonds

· Real estate

· Anything that appreciates with time i.e. art works

Avoid purchasing on impulse. Your judgments are generally impaired under such conditions. Acquire assets that will increase your wealth in the real sense of it. Before you buy a car or other equipment, ensure you find out from people who know about it very well. Consult people who are presently using the equipment or who repairs it in the location you intend to use it.

Securing information from the marketer only is not always the best. Sincerely you will save yourself a lot of headache. Your purchases henceforth should be based on research and wise judgment. Embrace delayed gratification and see how much more finance you can free up for investment.

Oluyemi Adeosun (workplace analyst)

A Consultant with Generis Solutions

www.yemiadeosun.blogspot.com

Keeping up with the Jones at the Workplace

Fitting into someone’s shoes could be an expensive venture, one that requires time and money.

Objectives

· To make a case for functionality ahead of fashion

· To teach people to live for themselves and not to please others.

· Emphasize the value of self improvement over self promotion

	“Jones” Are people we try to imitate their lifestyle and habits. They are people we subconsciously measure our living standard against.

Stephen was on 1.7k per annum in a Nigerian Bank before he got a plum job in an oil servicing firm in the Niger delta and he was placed on 3.5k per annum. After about 3 months in the new place of work he discovered that he was still getting broke at month end. He made a few observations about his spending pattern. A lot of things had changed about him. His taste, appetite, had changed along with his income. Parkinson law ("Parkinson's Law" states that: “expenses rise to meet income”) was in effect already. One major factor contributed to this, he was copying the ‘Jones’. He was living by the rules set by other people who did not set his personal finance goals with him. What is your personal financial goal? That is what should guide your spending and investment choices.

Stephens Expenditure on selected items

Expenditure as Bank employee 7k perfume 20k phone 3k shirt 1.8m car 1200 hair

Expenditure as Oil Company Employee 28k perfume 90k phone 15k shirt 4.5m car 4500 hair

Stephen should have considered delaying gratuity and preparing a budget to enable him have a hold over his spending. Getting the money is one thing but managing the resources is a different ball game and requires financial management skills.

The best way to make money is not to spend what you have at your disposal at the moment. If you can’t increase your income right now, you sure can reduce your expenditures. Economists make a distinction between wants and needs. Wants are the things we purchase to meet desires that are not basic or essential for survival. Expenditure on wants actually competes with what we should channel into savings and ultimately investments.

@ Oluyemi Adeosun

2 Truths to know

‘Specialization is good, but has a big disadvantage, the problems and challenges that life offers are not specialized. Your ability to make sound decisions is not a function of how specialist you are, it’s how broad you are’.

‘I tell people, jobs are not scarce, skilled and knowledgeable people are. If reading is not a part of your daily routine, you are under utilizing yourself and cheating your future’

I wish everybody will learn this…..This is profound men..

3 Things That Can Stand You Out

My Mentor (Deolu Akinyemi) shared this stuff at a meeting..i decide to share it with you.

Experience - Someone stood up and said, they’ve seen something like this before .

Perfect. If you have some experience doing what you are looking for an opportunity to do, you’ll have better chances. Experience is not experience because you were paid for doing it, it is experience because you did it. An ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory. Don’t go to class alone, look around you for opportunities to gather experience. It is the little victories that you have had while you were in obscurity that qualifies you for the big opportunities. My own personal story indicates the value of experience. I had been recruiting on campus, for Exploit makers, for SCM, for EEESS and all. When I got my first Job post NYSC as a recruiting Manager, I had experience! I also talked about over 5 people who came to our office as volunteers, and within a period of less than 5 months were able to bag great jobs in other companies. They had the experience, it didn’t matter that they were volunteers.

Preparation - Some people did not even have paper of pens for the exercise. The opportunity came and they did not have the resources for it. They didn’t have the foresight to prepare!

Proper preparation prevents poor performance. Preparation begets performance. Fortune favors the prepared mind. To prepare is to be set when your opportunity comes. Preparation involves enlisting in a routine of developing habits out of things that failures hate to do. It involves living every day alert, being ready for ones opportunities. The quality of your preparation determines the quality of your performance. One of the great example of preparation in history is Hitler. Hitler is said to rehearse his public presentation to death before embarking on it. Hitler rehearses minute things like his smile, his body kinetics e.t.c while making a speech. Another good example is Tyson, Mike Tyson is said to spend hours on end watching knock out scenes in historical fights. When Mike Tyson enters the ring he has prepared for numerous knockout routines, small wonder he knocks people out in 30seconds.

Knowledge - Someone stood up and said, “they knew something we didn’t know!”

One man I respect a lot usually said, Ignorance of ones ignorance is the minimum requirement for admission into the college of fools. Every human being is born at the level of unconscious incompetence. The journey to mastery involves migration from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence. Awareness makes one move from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, training makes one move from conscious incompetence to conscious competence, practice makes one move from conscious competence to unconscious competence. What you don’t know will hurt you, make a resolution to damage your ignorance daily. An empty bag will not stand upright. Leaders are readers, if you need to hide something from a looser, hide it in a self development book.

Courage, Perseverance, Skill, Focus, Innovation were other items spoken about (wouldn’t want to write a book here )

Ultimately my overall position on developing a competitive edge is staying innovative. Staying true to the things that make you unique, different, apart. Focusing on your passions, your strengths, your possibilities. We compete because we do not create. Who says you have to be in the same business with the other guy? Who says your competition is the other guy? I reminded them about my professor of philosophy friend, the story I started with - I told them that after I got philosophy clear, he called me to the side and told me, he would suggest that I use the clean water to wash the clean person. I should then use the water that washes off him, which is suggests I collect because it will still be relatively clean, to wash the dirty man. This way I use the same tools to achieve more than I would with a competitive mindset. This he told me is not philosophy, but creativity!