Sunday 17 June 2012

Personal Finance:Lessons From Lagos Traffic


Traffic in lagos can very bad at certain times. It can be as bad as looking at the devil's anus. On the average a typical lagos worker spends an average of four hours on the road daily. In some cases some hit between six to eight hours.. It can be very crazy.. trust me and it is VERY FRUSTRATING.

Finances can be quite frustrating too. You can't pay the bills on time, you can't even buy the dream house in ikoyi or the dream car (rolls royce ghost). You might be thinking that at the current rate of your income you might need to work for two life times just to buy a ferrari enzo or the yacht.
The path to our financial dream(freedom) can be likened to journeying from home to work. You want to get there on time. So here are the possible ways

1. Leave home early. In order to get to work on time you need to leave home early. 10 minutes lateness might make you an hour late to work. Take control of your finances from yesterday. Today is late. If you start today, you might get there quite late or too late

2.Some routes are littered with pot holes avoid them. Pot holes slow you down and they also wear out the vehicle. Bad spending habits are pot holes. Some sample potholes are lavish spending on electronic gadgets, needless clothes, expensive vacations. Enjoy yourself though be frugal still..

3.Drive against traffic if you can you might get there earlier but also bear in mind you might be caught by LASTMA so be prepared.. I mean take huge bets if and only if you can afford it.. Take on huge risks like buying shares of small businesses.. but be prepared for whatever happens

4. If we had more lanes on the road, the traffic might just be a little lighter... By adding more lanes I mean increase your streams of income. buy shares, join a network marketing scheme, take a second job etc... well for network marketing i'd recommend QNET.. You'd be amazed at what is achievable

5. One major reason we have so much traffic on some route is that there are too many people on that route so the route is crowded. Finding an alternative route is an option.. The lesson is don't follow the crowd. Don't just invest in an opportunity because that's what everyone is doing. If every one is buying shares of a particular company then it means, there's huge demand it's time to sell... go the opposite direction (remember what driving to ikoyi from the third mainland bridge at 7pm can feel like when everyone on the other side seems stuck).

6. A bad vehicle on the road is bad enough. It's worse when it breaks down because it slows down everyone else.. Take control of yourself is what i'm saying.. If you are not disciplined you'd end up with debts and you could become a burden to yourself and others

7. Take A bike..I'm talking of starting your own small business i mean low risk low capital requirements e.g. (carwash, cafe, laundry, suprettes, snailery).. it might help you out of the traffic faster and once you are  out of the traffic take a cab its faster when there's no traffic.. meaning after successful small businesses move unto larger ones

8. Give.. Giving is like calling a more important person who has the advantage of a siren or a chopper to get you out of the mess. Imagine if you had the president coming with his convoy into the same traffic... men the road go clear by force.. that's what God does when we give..

I hope your finances won't end up like third mainland bridge at 7:30pm on the first friday of any month

God bless you...