It has been an incredible year thus far. So many unexpected ups, downs, spins and twirls but we’ve finally come to the end of it.
The last week of the year to reminisce, turn up, strategize and execute. In the spirit of the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, it is super important to give our financial health the attention it deserves. This season comes with the urge to splurge, flex and live it up to the fullest. However, in the context of a year that brought us the widespread of Covid-19, the term Detty December doesn’t quite sink in the same. Notwithstanding, while finding pockets of fun, games and activities to indulge in, we must all keep at the forefront of our minds our financial goals, and strategies to achieving them.
2020 has been a challenging year for everyone financially, with inflation spiking to as high as 15%, another dollar devaluation, significant threats to job security and profitability, just to mention a few things. With that backdrop, what do you want to see yourself achieve in 2021 financially? What financial discipline measures do you plan to put in place? What concrete steps are you making towards buying that dream house, car, Ps5 or bag that you’ve had your eyes set on for some time? As a New Year’s gift, we would be giving some tips and advice on how best you can reach these goals of yours.
- Budget: We cannot forget this indispensable finance principle. As the popular saying goes, “You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.” In the final week of the year, a tremendous load of bills, special requests, “Chief/madam, do Christmas for us” will come your way. You must be readily armed for these with your budget and be prepared to stick to it. This strongly piggybacks on your income, consumption/savings ratio, priorities and already set targets.
- Create stopgaps: Some of us lack financial discipline. It is important to recognize this early enough and make use of stopgaps. A very useful stopgap would be a standing order with your bank to transfer a certain amount every day/week/month to an account earmarked for general or specific savings. A more traditional option that is worth mentioning is using a kolo savings box for loose cash.
- Take advantage of fintech: There is a growing number of fintech applications and websites that empower you financially to meet your targets faster and more successfully. A perfect financial plan and strategy does not take away the fact that we are only human. Using fintech apps such as Ziing to create a plan specifically tailored to you and your financial goals is an effective way of hitting your targets.
- Last but not the least, invest: If saving is cool, investing is ice cold. In order to reach your investment goals faster, it is imperative to include investments into your strategy. A helpful strategy to employ is the 60/40 rule. This suggests that you invest 60% of your portfolio in potentially higher risk, higher return assets such as stocks, while also investing 40% in lower risk assets such as government bonds. Another strategy to explore is mutual fund investing. This allows investors who ordinarily would find it quite difficult with a small amount of capital or limited technical knowledge to access diversified portfolios of equities, bonds and other securities which are professionally managed for optimal yield. Some top performing mutual funds are Vantage Equity Income Fund (VEIF), Vantage Balanced Fund (VBF) and Vantage Dollar Fund (VDF), amongst others.
With these strategies in place, your 2021 financial goals would be well within reach. Go ahead and hit those goals. Looking forward to guiding you through it all!
We wish you a blissful New Year!
