Your job can be an incubator for greater things in the future if you handle and manage your income with a vision-minded focus.
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The answer is a resounding yes. One of the most powerful mindsets that I have ever heard is that where there’s a will, there is a way. Having followed hard-hitting, fire-spitting, and the brutally honest Dave Ramsey for a while now, I know that creating wealth is not a far-fetched dream.
Dave Ramsey is an American multimillionaire, founder of Ramsey Solutions, and a financial advisor. One of the reasons people don’t create wealth is because they think that they need large amounts of capital or inherited wealth so that they can be wealthy.
However, a survey done on a group of millionaires in the US revealed that less than 21% had inherited part of the wealth. That means that more than 78% had created wealth from scratch.
How possible is it to create wealth?
One of the criticisms that many Africans constantly get from social media is complaining too much and not utilizing what we have. If you work a regular job and get a salary at the end of every month, you have all you need.
Your job can be an incubator for greater things in the future if you handle and manage your income with a vision-minded focus.
According to Earl Nightingale, he discovered that the difference between the haves and the have nots was that the haves really wanted to be rich. He said that they were very intentional about creating wealth and that was the starting point.
You have to actually want it then proceed to action. Do you intend to make wealth? Then set goals and write them down. The Bible metaphorically says engrave your vision in tablets. This means that you need to write down your dreams and aspirations so that you can always go back to it every time things become tough or you want to get comfortable.
Organize your vision board into short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. The short-term goals consist of what you can do now e.g. save, study and change spending behavior. Mid-term goals will be birthed from short-term goals. They can be investing in money markets, bonds, side hustles, and much more.
Then your big vision will be realized by the success you achieve in your short and mid-term goals.
Increase your income streams
You need to look into ways in which you can increase your income. This is where side gigs and hustles come in. Of course, you have to stretch yourself and work harder. But if it was easy everyone would be doing it.
From your paycheck, you can set a portion apart for investing in starting a side business. Alternatively, you can use your skills to take on an additional job. For example, my friend who works as a Talent Specialist helps people craft winning CVs aside from his day job, for a fee.
When you increase your income, getting to your wealth goals will be easier and faster. One of my most favorite quotes from Dave Ramsey is “Live like nobody else today so that you can live and give like nobody else in future”. The fact that you’ll have less time to have fun and socialize shouldn’t worry you. In future, you will have time to have more fun and more expensive options because you’ll be wealthy.
Get out of debt
One of the most grave, crippling mistakes millennials make when it comes to finances is that they use debt to finance lifestyles. A sharp spike in consumerism has driven the demand for mobile lenders. These lenders give debts on demand and the interest rates are not usually friendly.
When you get your money, it will go into repaying loans that were spent on things that you can do without. For example, it’s not financially prudent to borrow money to buy an expensive outfit for the gram or an upcoming event.
However, there is good debt, for example, if you take credit to fund a small business or an asset, that will boost your financial goals. On the other hand, if the debt is for filling in the middle of the month when you’ve spent all of your salary on luxury, take-outs, and entertainment, wealth might just remain to be a good dream.
Aim at paying cash for the things you buy such as a car to prevent bad debt from hampering your financial success.
Live on less than you make
One of the ways you can have enough to save and create wealth is by trimming your lifestyle to less than your paycheck. And the best way to do it is by having a monthly budget. Ramsey says that a budget tells your money what to do and where to go.
When you draft your budget you need to ensure that you make provision for saving and prioritize your needs over your wants. Needs are the things that we can’t do without such as food, bills, rent, airtime, and others.
Wants are the things that you desire but you can do without. You desire a car, but public transport can still do. If you practice leaving the house on time and having an allowance for traffic jams, you will hardly find the need to take a cab. They shoot your monthly transport expenses up and this will slow down your wealth goals.
If you have enough clothes on your back, stay out of the mall and only buy what you need and when you need it. Even if you love fun, you should restrict yourself to destinations and activities that you can afford any saving up towards those goals.
You need to take a hard look at your finances and seal all the holes which leak your money unnecessarily.
Save and invest
Your savings and extra cash will be the seed that you lay in the ground for your wealth goals. Saving money is not enough if the money will only be stored somewhere in an account. When you accumulate a good amount, you can invest the money in various ways.
Depending on your passions and interests, you should pick investments that you have ample knowledge about. That means you should read adequately about investing. Some may choose to buy shares, others may invest in small businesses, bonds, mutual funds, and other avenues.
Just look for investments that will grow your money over a couple of years. Then in several years, you could take that money and buy assets that will, in turn, bring in revenue such as real estate.
Be patient and generous
Building wealth takes time, you need to be patient. It might be a bit irritating because we want instant results. But that’s not how our planet works. Jeff Bezos started Amazon in 1996 and it took him almost 14 years for the business to grow to become the trillion-dollar giant that it is today.
At the same time be generous and invest in people. Don’t always consume for yourself. Real wealth is also in the people you impact. Look at Bill Gates and the billions he has invested in healthcare all over the world. Another good example is how the business community in Kenya came together last year to raise money towards fighting Covid-19 and its effects. They raised billions which went into buying crucial PPEs for frontline workers and relief for small businesses.
Conclusion
One of the biggest favors you’ll do yourself is removing all the limitations that you have erected in your mind. Because they only exist in the mind. Building wealth that will benefit generations after you is possible. You only need to tune your actions and behavior today so that you can achieve your dreams tomorrow.
Evaluate the changes you need to make and start from where you are because you can create wealth from a regular paycheck.
