SAVINGS: GUIDE AND BENEFITS

There is precious treasure and oil in the house of the wise [who prepare for the future], But a short-sighted and foolish man swallows it up and wastes it PROVERBS 21:20 AMP.

Eating everything you have in the immediate according to this text is shortsightedness and foolishness

GUIDE TO SAVINGS

1. Save all the days of your life.
Do not save only when you have a project or business to finance. Save when you have reasons to save. Save when you don't have reasons to save. Save like your life depends on it for indeed it does. You not afford not to save.

2. Save in season and out of season: save in all seasons. Save at all times. Save when the country is in boom or bust. Save when the economy is a bear or bull. Save during the rainy days too. Save during your times of advesity. Save during your time of prosperity too.

3. Determine the percentage: Financial advisors have encouraged us to save 10% of all the money that comes into our hands all the days of our lives. But that can only make you retire rich down the line. In the Bible, Joseph encouraged the people of Egypt to save 1/5th of whatever the good years bring before the dry years. In today's term, that is a whooping 20%.

But for people like you and I who are playing to win and not just not to lose, I suggest we can do better than that. I want to suggest you start saving 1 out of every 2 naira that comes in. That is a whooping  50% percent. That will accelerate your financial journey. It will make you move at the speed of light

However, if you are just starting and you find yourself submerged in an ocean of bills and debt, you may not want to start with 50%. But you can start. Start with 1%. Yes 1%. And take it to three and five and ten percent as you master the skill of savings.

4. READ BOOKS ON SAVINGS: There are technics and tactics that will help your savings. There are common landmines that every saver should be aware of, this savings book will warn you about them. To save consistently, you have to possess the mentality of a seed sower instead of a bread eater, this savings book will guide and guard, inform and transform, impact and impart. There are scores of them in the market go and lay your hands on them and read.

Books like Richest Man in Babylon by George S Classon,Love yourself: pay yourself first by Dr ABIB Olamitoye,30 Laws of Money by ABIB Olamitoye and books by Suze Orman among others.

5. KNOW THAT SAVINGS IS NOT THE END BUT THE MEANS TO AN END: Savings is a means to an end -investment end. But without savings, there won't be money to invest in that end
Perhaps you have met people who have been trying to start a business for the past 10 to 20 years but have not been able to raise the capital. According to Dr ABIB, they have a capital problem because they have a savings problem. All they need to do is save for month or years and start the business small.

BENEFIT OF SAVINGS

1.  THE HABIT OF SAVINGS WILL HELP YOUR ENTERPRISE: savings is beyond just putting money in a bank account to make more more money. Savings s beyond putting money aside. Savings is a proof of financial discipline. Savings is a testament that you have delayed gratification. The habit of savings can only be found in men who have character and patience.

Men who have not mastered savings can hardly conduct a successful business because the habit of savings and delayed gratification that savings bring is the key to conducting a very successful business

2. SAVING ATTRACTS MONEY TO YOU: Its somewhat of a misery that does who save, have and those who have, get. As debts breed like toads so savings attract more money to you. As George Classon said in the Richest Man in Babylon, surely its the will of the God's that to him who does not spend all that he earns but keep a certain part shall gold come more easily.

Even Jesus Christ said in the Parable of the talent that "to him who has will more be given. In another part, he saidhe that I faithful in least  is also faithful in much.

3. SAVING HELPS YOU TO MAXIMIZE OPPORTUNITIES: There are many opportunities flying around daily, however savers are in a better position to capitalize on them. Someone wants to relocate out if the country to Canada and wants to sell a car of #2 million for #400,000. The only part is that he needs a buyer who can deposit at least 50‰ of the purchase price in 24 hours.

4. THE SAVINGS HABIT HELPS YOUR CONFIDENCE AND PEACE OF MIND: there are no magnitude of words that can describe the joy, tranquility, self confidence and peace of mind that the savers get

The future you are sowing money into is a future that will ever excite you. The future that you are planning for is a future that will fill you with expectation.

5. SAVINGS MAKE YOU TO WEATHER THE RAINY DAYS: There is nothing as terrible as when a man loses his job and knows that he has saved nothing. There is nothing as pathetic as when the business is not doing well for the owner not to have anything to fall back on.

Life is in cycles. Life is in seasons. Every season prepares us for the next. Austerity comes after prosperity just as prosperity comes after austerity. Night prepares us for the day just as the day ushers in the night. The fact that money is flowing now does not mean it will always flow like that. Savings make us to be protected and not naked.

6. SAVINGS MAKES US FRUGAL: Its not always easy to find money to save. The saving culture thus help us to become efficient in the way we handle money as we are looking for money to save out of our numerous needs.

Hardly do you see a practiced saver who is also not very frugal with money

They said, what the wise man do before, the foolish man does later. There is no escaping it. We are all going to go through one form of pain or the other. It is either we go through the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. As someone once noted, the pain of discipline weigh ounces while the pain of regret weigh tons. Make up your mind today. Be willing and be ready to pay the price. Destiny calls

Omisore Babatude J.

Culled from Firecrackers, an insightful and inspiring programme of the Youth Transformation Campaign.

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