BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL FINANCE

I came to Canada in 2016 and put $900 in my bank account. That was all I had. In March 2017 I went back home to Nigeria and by January 2018 I bought a house. By August 2018 I took over a restaurant I had bought. I did this working part time at Shoppers Drug Mart and part time at UPS. A lot of people have repeatedly asked me how I was able to pull this off. Here's how I did it. 

How many of us know how much you spent yesterday? Do you have a personal excel spreadsheet where you track your income and expenses? People have asked me how I managed to do the things I did. Let me share how. I did it by simply tracking my income and especially my expenses. It will amaze you how much you will eliminate from your expenses if you go back and look at them. Doing this will immediately throw up certain things you don't really need that you spend money on. I have continued to live by this. I spent $0 from my personal account yesterday. I will spend $0 today. I will spend $0 on Wednesday. On Thursday I will probably buy gas because I drove around the south side of Edmonton on Saturday delivering pizza. It's an expense my business will pay not me. On Thursday I'm still gonna spend $0 from my personal account. See? I know how much I have spent. Do you? 

I only spend on Fridays and Saturdays. I have a list where I write down things I need. Whatever it is I want now I write on the list. If by Friday I still want the thing then I must really want it. I buy it. Many times by Friday lots of things on my list are found to be unnecessary. I delete them. There's a reason I only use Samsung note phones. I like the pen it comes with and I can make notes with it. Makes it fun for me. Do you have such a list? I never go grocery shopping without a list. It's a taboo. I just can't. Without a list I can't buy anything. 

I worked at Shoppers Drug Mart for nearly two years as a merchandiser. I was trained on how to induce impulse buying in customers. From that day I said such tricks will not work on me. Superstore rearranged their aisles in the last couple of months. They removed the aisle that spilt the store in half. Now to get around the store you have to walk up and down the aisles. Doing this makes sure you see all the items on the shelf. They are trying to induce impulse buying. But if you have a list you buy only what you need and go home. You can try it. It works for me. I hope it works for you. 

Our bank accounts are like transit stations. Money comes in on the train called income, buys a ticket at your expense and leaves on a train called bills or another one called expenses. You have to be intentional to prevent this from happening. You won't always win but trying can save you some money. It is what you save that becomes capital for investment. 

I know where every penny of my money goes. I want you to do the same. You must start holding yourself accountable and not just demanding it from politicians. Start from your personal finance. You owe yourself that duty. Get on excel. Start a spreadsheet now. Please. That's how you start being intentional with your personal finance. If you start today in 6 months it will amaze you how much you would have cut off from your expenses and how much you will save. Every unnecessary expense you cut off or don't do is a saving you have made. Be intentional. 

I use excel. There are apps you can use to track your finances. Mint, Spendee, Money Manager, Money Manager Expense & Budget are some of them. There's plenty more. Find the one that suits you and use it. To answer the question of how I did it, I saved. That's all I did. I sat down and understood the difference between needs and wants. I stopped spending money on the things I wanted and spent only on my basic needs. Once in a while I bought little things I wanted but I never took my eyes off the ball. That is how I did it. You can try. There are other things I did but this one is the most important. I will write on those things later.