financial-planning-for-women-3

The Women Lighthouse Podcast is a community for purpose-driven women. It aims to inspire and guide women to live their dreams. The host, Uyeme Hamilton, talks about the importance of giving and supporting others. Giving can be in the form of time, service, or ideas. It creates a support system and impacts people's lives. The podcast also discusses the importance of having insurance and a plan when taking loans. Discipline is crucial in managing borrowed money. Starting small and growing gradually can lead to success. Hello everyone, you are welcome to the Women Lighthouse Podcast. This is a community for purpose-driven women who desire to live their dreams and aspirations. Our mission is to inspire you to live your dreams one day at a time while serving as a beacon of hope and guidance. We will be addressing various issues related to womanhood. Join me as we explore our journey of life together. I am your host, Uyeme Hamilton. The final quadrant for me would be the giving part, how to give. With the way that the country is, and we women and men, everybody needs a support system. We were talking about the support system the other day and how people would want people or how you would need help from a neighbour or you need help from a sister, from an in-law, from anybody around you, just to cushion the effect of the things people do for you around you and you do not even invest in their lives. You don't give. Now, what giving does for you is to give you a system and to be honest with you, I mean people would say, you know, it's not bribing your way, it's not bribing your way. I would say it is sowing seeds. Yeah, I would call it sowing seeds. And very, very important, the least little things that you do for people, you know, endear them to you to say when you need help, when you need somebody who will do X, Y, Z. I had a friend of mine, we were going somewhere and she had a flat tyre. She called one person, ten people appeared. Ten, I'm not joking, ten people appeared. In fact, they even brought a car for us to go to where we were going to so that they would bring, deal, handle the issue with the car and bring it to her. So don't even stand on the road. That's what giving does. You will call up somebody, you can call up somebody in the middle of the night, the person picks your call because the person, I mean, the person feels, not that the person feels but the person has been impacted by you. How many people do you impact? And we say when we say give, it doesn't have to be money. It doesn't have to be money. We have to learn that culture. It's an investment. It's part of the quadrant, yes, of world-growing. It's part of it. Your time, your service, whatever it is, you know, that you give to people to support, you attend people's events when they call you, you show up there, you are there for people, you know, all of those support systems. Tomorrow you need something. And it might not always be money. It might just be an idea. Like I said to somebody, like I was saying to you, I said, gather three friends, people that you know, put them in one room and say, please, it's time for me to take my business to another level. I need ideas. I need independent ideas. I need people who will be brutal and tell me the truth. How do you get those people? This is part of it. For people who have not made any impact in their life, how do you want to start calling them, say, come and have five minutes and help me with my business? So in world and world-growing also, this is important. Very, very important. Very important. Take out time also. When I say all of this, even to give to people, you have a culture, even in your family. When you take out, how much a packet, say, three cartons or four or five cartons of Indomie tissues, just take out basic things that you know, that more or less baby homes will need. Get a few people and go. People do their bed days and they throw out the big parties. There are certain small things that you can do. Give. I'm not saying give for the public, but just give to be able to give. It's a culture that is very, very, that is lacking in this day and age because everybody seems to say, where am I giving from? With the little I have, even with the little you have. Because those things are things that leave impact in people, no matter how small it is. We need to have that culture. Have the culture of creating a legacy, even with the little that you have. A legacy is very, very, very, very important. When I say legacy, these are things that come up. That's where insurance comes up. That's where a will comes up. That's where, you know, a trust comes up. And people are like, ah, you know, I've not made it big, big, big, big. And you're already telling me, oh, yes, insurance. Because that, God forbid, the day that your car will have the accident, you bring out the money that you don't have home. You bring it out. You bring out that money. Meanwhile, you can have an insurance score of about 20,000 Naira for everything inside your house. That is at least 2 million. Within the mark of 2 million. It's important that some of these things, I had a seminar one time, and I, you know, there was this man that brings in Italian shoes. Actually, he's a Muslim. And he brings in Italian shoes. He had a very small place, in one plaza. It's a cop out, you know. That's where he sells. He actually works in the public sector. And so it was in this seminar in the public sector that we're talking about this. And, you know, he mentioned that, oh, he had that. And I said, okay, insure it, though. He said, ah, insurance company, this, this, this. I said, no. Come to me. I will give you insurance company that will not give you stories. And he said, ah, okay, I'll come. Today, tomorrow, I'll come. I think two weeks after that seminar, that plaza, I think the plaza burned, the cop fire or something. Yeah. His goods went down. The only thing that, the only goods he still had were the goods. So normally, he takes, he carries his shoes and gives to some small shops or gives to these boys. You know, I mean, they have a system of where people go on their foot to be able to, from, he gives to people who go from, you know, office to office or sections or places to go and sell. Some of the, he calls them his sales boys. And they are loyal to him. So those were the ones that he had that were away from the shop that he only had. It was a, it was not, it was not funny because the money he had in that place, when he was telling me, I was like, okay, there's nothing we can do right now. So those little things, especially when you have, we're talking about when you have built it, when you have built a, you know, when you have gone to a point where you have something that if you lose it, is going to really affect you and take you back to ground zero. One, insurance. You'd be amazed that insurance money, by the time they tell you, you say, eh, what is this? You know, so we Nigerians, we really have to get out of that fear for insurance. If you have a fear for it, don't worry, reach out to me and we will deal that part. I'll just talk about debts, which is a lot that, I mean, you know, there's nothing wrong with boring. If you have the means to pay. And when I say this, nothing wrong with boring for your business, but you have to have drawn out a plan and keep to that plan. I've had people I know that have booked loans for and they have grown their business to another level. It will bite you. It will twist your hands. But if you have the mentality, you actually have the mentality of using that money to grow your business, it will grow. It will grow. I've had people who, close family friends who bought machines, equipment, you know, for tons of millions with loans. And after three years, they could breathe again. Well, after three years, some people, you know, every month they are paying this amount, they are crying, they are crying, but their business is growing. So you cannot, if you're not disciplined, if you're not disciplined, that's where the challenge is. Because if you have it, before you borrow a loan, draft out a plan. Draft out a plan. Otherwise, you see yourself take money that you can't pay back. And before you know it, your business comes to zero. And then don't start off with big. Start off with the small money. I had a friend of mine who, he traveled on student visa. You know how this thing, when you go there, you open an account, they will tell you, you can take loan, you can take loan. See, they disturbed him, disturbed him. It's okay. Small money. That's what they gave him. He took the small money. He said he went into one of these, he went to a place, found a place where he can buy shirts, T-shirts, trousers, da, da, da. While he was buying, he said, this money I'm using for this, this loan I'm using for this thing. Okay, you know what? He called his siblings. I have the clothes I want to send. You sell them for me, you give me the money and da, da, da. I will now invest. Let's do clothes business. That's how it started. He's a lecturer in Lagos Business School, as at now. So, he went, he bought the first one, he sent the clothes down. They gave him money, returns. He said, this money makes sense. He paid back the loan, paid back the loan. The bank again came to him. Ah, this money, you know, we can give you another one. He said, okay, but we can make it higher because of your credit rating. They gave him. He bought more clothes. He sent it. He sent it back. He sent back the money. He paid the loan. When they now called him, ah, this, with your credit rating, we can give you a loan for a car. This is a student loan. He said, okay, loan for a car. He said yes. He got the loan for the car. I think he still had some money still left. He used it again. By then, the money for the clothes had been growing. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. He used it again. By then, the money for the clothes had been growing. The business is growing. You know, he's paying off. He's still making profits. He's adding more and all that. Next thing, he bought it. As a student loan. Next thing, the bank called him and said, you know what? We can give you a mortgage. As a student. For a house. You know, this is what you'll be paying everything. He looked at it. He said, okay, this is what I make from here. This is what I make from here. Will I be able to? As a student, he bought a house. As a student, he bought a house. As a student, he bought a house. As a student, he bought a house. He said he sold it. The amount he sold that house was able to make him start anything in order to start in Nigeria. By the time he came back. So, we need to be strategic in our thinking. When we look for all of this, when we get into debt, what I'm saying is that it's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. 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It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. It's not just about the debt. Sit down and itemize how much is it that you are in debt with, this amount, this amount, this amount, this amount, this amount, this amount, and put a timeline to settle them. It's important to start with the...just a minute. It's important to start with...it's important to start with the big debts. The ones that are big. Very important to start with debts that are big. Break them debts. Itemize them. Plan how to settle them. If it's monthly, I will be giving this amount and settle them. Once you have done that, it's also important to engage the person that you are owing it to have an understanding because you see this thing about debts. You will not have peace. The people around you will not have peace. Sometimes you feel like you are having a high blood pressure. You are having high blood pressure. So it's very important, especially if you have a family, to live for your family. Break down your debts. You can be strategic about it. Big ones. Okay, find a way. These are the big ones. This is what I'll be doing every month. I'll be putting this aside. I don't know how to settle this. It has been a long time. Please, can I pay you this amount every single month? With a compromise. Better nothing than something so that the money can be going, reducing for me. Then for the small or medium, the middle ones. Once you are settled with the big ones, then you can be able to now start settling the medium, the middle ones. The ones that are average or the next level. You know what is big debt for you. You know what is the second layer. You know that based on the debt hierarchy that you have. Then you can settle the second level of debt. Because once the big ones are off, there's a peace that you will start having. Second level of debt is something that you can cover up. You can also have a time frame for those ones. Since the money or the expenses are where the source of income for the places where you sorted the big ones, you can use them to cover up for the small ones, for the medium ones and the small ones all together. But it's important that you engage the person that you are, that you're indebted to. And also important that you split them out. Important that you split the debts into levels or based on the amounts so that way it's easier in chunks to attend to. Otherwise, if you're indebted already. I wanted to say that the income that you have, if you could cater for the debts, you wouldn't even be indebted in the first place. So it means that the income that you have is certainly not going to cater for the debts and also leave something on the plate for you to run the period with. So that's why an arrangement needs to be made. Very important. That is more for the peace of mind. Because most times, if you don't settle your debts, you can't even set up or take up projects comfortably. So that's very important. We talked about having a budget, sticking to the budget. And those budgets help you to understand what projects you can take in when you know you have an income and outcome. And then set targets for yourself. There's nothing wrong with my husband and I. We set targets for ourselves. We look at our budget and we see that after we have created our budget, we have a deficit of this amount. He gives himself a target. I take a target. Sometimes the children, we give them a target. That's when you see them, they start creating businesses. Yes, at their age, they start creating businesses. Yes, being 16, being 15, you're not a child. They start to create businesses. I want to do this. I want to sell. I want to be able to do this. I want to edit this. I want to make this. I want to, you know, so they're looking for things. I want to do anime. I want to, you know, they're looking for stuff to do, you know, that would create for them. And it's not because we need their money, but it gives them a sense of belonging to say, I still have responsibilities. So we, like I said, we set our own targets. And that's where, I mean, that's not within our, it's not within our income, what comes in. So we now have to tell ourselves that we have to find a way to, I start to think, how do I meet this target? How do I do this? So if I go out and someone says, oh, can you do this? And I say, oh, yes, I can do it. She says, okay, this is what I'll pay you. Ah, once they pay me, I know what the money is going to be used for. I'm not thinking of going to buy hair or going to buy a 1 million Naira dress. I'm saying to myself, oh, this thing is for that project because we are set to have a project. And that's how families grow. You don't have to be all over the place, but you see a family grow geometrically from one level to another. You're wondering, I mean, it's nothing, it's no biggie. It's just working as a team in synergy. Even you, even if you're not married or a single person, people just see you progress and they're wondering. You can wake up one morning and decide you want to go to this place or this country, and people are wondering how you're doing it. It's because you have your strategic. You have a budget. You're keeping to it. You have a target. You know your deficit. You know that whatever money comes in extra apart from your normal income, you already know where you're plunging it into. So it's important that we are really strategic. If you really want to go financially, you can have an education trust. When we talk about an education trust, I mean, we're talking about you have children that you want to plan for their future. You know, so I walked into a client's place. We're talking about, you know, all of this, you know, wealth. We're talking about wealth conversation, and I'm her wealth advisor. She said to me that she's 40, and at 40, her friend lost... Growing up, she said at 40 years on the dot, her friend lost her mother. And one of the things that she noticed was that their lifestyle did not change. The children were still going to school. They were still doing what they ought to do. And, you know, going to one of the best schools, they were still... I mean, it was as if nothing happened. And so she said to herself that it was growing up she understood that, you know, her friend's mother did a trust for the children. And she's saying... She said to me that, you know, I'm 40 and I haven't really done anything for my children. I don't know if anything happens to me. I don't know if, you know, I don't want my siblings to share them because there's nothing, you know, available. There's nothing for the children, you know, because I didn't keep anything for the children. I don't want their schools to be changed. I don't want, you know, their lifestyle to just go down, and I don't want the children to abuse me for life. That, you know, and all of that. So we have to do an education trust, you know, for our children. All that entails is that, okay, I want to set aside this amount of money, you know, and then put it for the children in trust for their education. I can't use it for anything but education. Nobody can come and take out of it. The company managing the education trust will pay straight to the school. Well, it doesn't have to also have that objective. It also means that, you know, I can still be alive, and I just want to set up something. Maybe I do contracts and, you know, my money comes in lump sum, you know, once in a while, and I want to be able to pay for the children's school fees even when I don't have anything coming in. So I can do an education trust for the children and see at that point in time when, you know, I don't have any inflow, you know, rather than owing the children school fees, I can get the – activate the education trust to pay for the children's school fees at that point in time. Now, there are people that say, okay, I mean, I want to take my children out of the country, you know, and when they get to that age of university, they can decide to activate an education trust, you know, and do that education trust for their children and say, okay, you know what, I'm going to put in something aside. I want to put – I want them to go outside the country. So you can do a dollar fund education trust. That can also be done for the children. And so you are saving in dollars rather than Naira and those school fees will be paid. Now, the money is being invested. What's being invested? It's invested in fixed income instruments, you know, and locked down there, you know, for your returns, for you to have returns. So when you get open an education trust, it will tell you the returns that comes upon with the education trust and you're able to know, you know, all of that. Yeah. An education trust is held per child. So you open an education trust for a child. And in case you don't get to use it, so the funds at that point in time of maturity is actually, I mean, given back to you. But otherwise, before then, I mean, you can't wake up and say, you know what, I've changed and all of that. If this is what you locked it in for, it's locked in there for. And it will give you the 10 or all of those details will be stated there so that you know what period or how long you're locking it there for. That also helps. That also helps, yeah. In that bit. Yeah. So people also can put, you know, even their properties in trust. You know, you can also do an investment, putting your properties in trust that, oh, if anything happens, this should be given to X, Y, Z, you know. So the company can hold that, all of those properties in trust for you to say, if anything happens to you, you know, this will be given to X, Y, Z. And it is written clearly. It's different from a will. It is written clearly. And, I mean, it really doesn't have to be a family member that you're giving it to. So euro bonds are, I mean, it's almost the same thing with normal bonds. Sometimes, I mean, the euro bond is, how would I put it now? I'm trying to give an example. It's not always in the market. The euro bond is not always in the market. It's something that, you know, an investment house can smooth for a period. Oh, we have euro bonds for sale. It's the same thing with how bonds are being done. So bonds are not readily in the market. There's a period where you come and say, okay, we have bonds for one year, we have three months bonds. Federal government comes up and say, okay, there are bonds. So the investment house just comes in and say, there's bonds for this period of time. And then you get to, people get to now go and look for bonds, you know, and go and buy bonds. So they're not, you can't walk into an investment house and say, oh, I want euro bonds. They will let you know when it is available, when there are bonds, euro bonds to be sold. And they'll let you know and then you can buy. Like I said, it's also the same thing with the bonds, except you want to do a secondary market, you know, get people who already have that want to, you know, now sell. But however, it's to go to investment houses like the Stambika IBC Asset Management, the ARM Fund, the FEST trustees, so FedEx for FEST Bank. You can go into any of them and then make inquiries, oh, this is what I want to sell, I want a euro bond, or I want a money market, or I want a, you know, so it's very, I mean, it's actually something that you can walk into and then deal. When bonds come out, they tell you the rates at that point in time. This is the rate and this is the return, this is the returns and this is the period that you're looking for. So, I mean, it's not like, oh, you say, they're not all fixed to say you can get bonds only at this particular, you know, rate. Once the rate comes out, once the bond comes out, they tell you the rates at which you can get them and they let you know the tender maturity. So, all of those information are being determined. Yeah. So, if it's a euro bond, you get it in euros. If it is a Naira bond, you get it in Naira. So, you can't use a Naira to get it in euro, in a euro bond. So, these are questions that people, you know, don't get to ask or people, when you come in for investment, it's important that you're being properly profiled. You know, all of these things is important. And that's where you go to the U.S. or you go to U.K. You can't walk into an investment place where you always come on appointment. That appointment is where they profile you. You have a conversation. I want to buy money market. Okay, what do you want to use it for? It's your money, yes, but they need to profile you to make sure that what you're asking for is what you need. Because if you're not, if you're not, if you're not, if you're asking for what you don't need, at the end of the day, you're not satisfied. You feel that investment is a scam or does not make it or is not worth it. So, people need to be educated, profiled, you know, explained to. But these days, you walk into a place and people say, I want money market. And they just say, oh, yes, open the, fill the form, all of that. No questions are being asked. But really, what's your goal? What do you intend to do? You know, all of that. Do you want to put some here and put some here? You know, these are questions and all of that. So, for me, even my clients, I do a simulation. I say you want to put in this amount of money. This is what you want to do over a period. If you're, if you're, the returns is key for you. This is what you would do and da, da, da, da, da. So, this is fixed. This can be changed. This can vary and all of that. See how it looks like in the next six months. So, this is what it looks like. This is the picture you have in the next six months. And the person says, okay, well, oh, well, okay. This looks good. This looks good. What about this? Explain further on this for me. The client still gets to choose. But you are giving him a lot of varieties. And maybe what he was, what the client was thinking about might not even be the one that will solve the issue that you want to solve. So, it's always very important that, you know, it's like ice cream. When I go to buy ice cream, you know, my children say, mommy, you never choose your flavors. I always tell other people, choose for me. I mean, you've worked here for how many years? You obviously know the best combo. So, I mean, educate me on what's the best. So, now, when I go to buy ice cream, my children, they're like, okay, choose what you think is the best. And I exactly taste it. I mean, what I would have chosen. Maybe I've not even been able to dig it. So, I mean, I just tell them to, you know, and choose. And once they choose, I mean, I always enjoy it. So, that's the thing about, you know, walking into an investment house. I mean, let them educate you. Let them educate you on the different forms. In fact, you get to know the ones that you don't even know exist. And you're like, oh, really? Oh, this exists? What's this about? So, even for knowledge sake, you know, by the time you're out there, you're more educated and you feel very well that you have made the right choice. Even if it's the same one you wanted to, but you are convinced that you have made the right choice. So, thank you. And over to you, my hosts. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the Women Lighthouse Podcast. I hope you were inspired to keep taking steps towards living out your dreams. If you enjoyed this episode, we encourage you to share it with other women and leave us a review on our social media platform, which is in the description box. Also, feel free to subscribe to our channel to get notified of new episodes. Till I come your way on our next episode, keep living, keep dreaming. Bye for now.