Have you been conditioned to earn or make money, or create wealth? And by you, I also mean we, I mean the majority. Most people see having an education and career as a ticket to being financially prosperous.
I, myself, was of that opinion for many years. My father, who is a civil engineer, instilled the importance of having a good education in us; he wanted us to be highly paid influential professionals, such as doctors, engineers and lawyers. Well, my mother on the other hand instilled the importance of spirituality and biblical values, which we still benefit from today. Together, they laid a good foundation for my siblings and I, they did the best they could with what they knew.
But as I have developed as a Strategic Wealth Creation expert, I realized that there was one major element that was missing in my upbringing, and that was to do with my financial education.
I had no financial education whatsoever, or probably I had:
- I could earn money, but I could not create wealth. I was a good employee, but I had no clue about what it meant to be a wealth creator.
- I practiced some great financial habits, such as, not using credit cards, only because my mother at one point warned me not to get into debt.
- I saved a greater percentage of my salary, only because at the time I was a good earner and I was single, and my expenses were not so great.
- I bought my first property when I was 28, only because my brother-in-law encouraged me to buy it.
That was literally the financial education that I had.
Winds of Change
Like I said, I had some good financial habits, but I didn’t really know what I was doing or why I was doing it. My financial habit roots weren’t deep at all. My financial education was more accidental than intentional.
So when the wind of change began to blow, a lot went with it. I found myself in what I personally would consider financial chaos; I had lived with my financial house being in order for a very long time. With my call to ministry, stepping out of my 9-5 into entrepreneurship, getting married and other circumstances changing, I struggled to stabilize myself financially.
More than Giving
I had no sound financial principles or habits undergirding my personal economy at that point. Unfortunately for me, I had also taken in a lot of the teachings about money from the Church, rather from what the Bible itself said.
These teachings had “giving” as their main emphasis, but did not stress the value of saving or investing as an aspect of good stewardship, multiplying what the Lord had entrusted me with, or as a means of creating wealth.
The education system and society in general see having a good education and having a well-paid career as an end in itself; this is good, but it is only a part of the bigger financial picture, the financially literate person will understand that this should never be seen as an end in itself but a means to an end, a means through which they can lay aside a percentage of their income and use it to kick start the wealth creation process.
Paradigm Shift
A person who has a mindset to make money, fairs much better than a person who refuses to work, but at best, they are still short-sighted, whereas the person who has a mindset to create wealth, exercises great foresight.
- They plan well into the future
- Their money reaches well into the future.
- They pass on wealth to future generations.
- They pass on their philosophy that made them wealthy.
In order to make the paradigm shift from having a money making mindset to having a wealth creator’s mindset, you need to get a financial education. It’s not about how much you earn, but about how much of your earnings you translate into income generating assets. It’s about jump starting the process of getting money to work for you, rather than continuing to work for money.
The author of this article is Davida Yemi-Akanle. She is a Strategic Wealth Creation expert who helps people change their money mindset and create plans to put their personal finances in a better shape, build their businesses to generate more profits, and turn their expertise into income generating products and assets.
a Believer ► Do you have an internal pulling saying you were created for more than what you are currently experiencing in life? That's God calling you to Him | Find out More
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