Hola…I have been out exploring the sights and wonders of Mexico. Will come back to update you on my trip later. First, let’s attend to your parents. I was reading an article online on Nairametrics about how you should invest your parents retirement. The one incredulous suggestion I saw listed on the article, was purchasing annuity from an Insurance company.
Your parents did not send you to school and
Let’s start with the basics. What is a Mutual Fund?
A mutual fund is a type of financial vehicle made up of a pool of money collected from many investors to invest in
stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and other assets. These funds are managed by professional money managers, and these organizations abound in the country.
If you are a low income earner, your safest bet in terms of investing is mutual fund. At the end of the month when your salary hits your bank account, it might be the current norm that you are participating in a casual form of ‘Esusu’ or in today’s parlance, ‘Co-operative’ with a group of friends or colleagues. The advantage of participating in a ‘Co-operative’, is the opportunity it affords to raise moderate to large sum of money, if you are investing for the future.
Assuming you have N5,000 – N10,000 monthly to allocate for investment, I will highly recommend you set aside this sum and invest in a mutual fund over a long period of time. You might want to ask ‘When can I withdraw from a mutual fund?’ As soon as your monthly income is doubled or tripled, you can withdraw your invested sum and start allocating it to any money market instruments you select.
Working in an office with expatriates from different nationalities is an insightful experience. It can be hilarious and harrowing, as you navigate personal bias, prejudice against each others’ norm and idiosyncrasies. However, nothing prepares you for working with Indians till you experience it.
So, what’s it like working with Indians? Please note that this is not an Indian bashing exercise, rather its’ a summary of my work experience with Indians. For more than a decade, there has been a gradual invasion of Indians, across the African continent. Taking Lagos as an example, there are exclusive Indian communities, schools and groceries dedicated to serving this ethnic populace.
Indians are highly religious and in an office, you might find replicas of small shrines dedicated to the varied god/goddesses, they worship. However, if religious piety was a major factor in their behavior and attitudes, within the workplace, it’d be astonishing. The Indian populace is largely influenced by a pervasive caste system and this is reflected in the Nigerian workplace, where they think “we are superior to the locals” and “they should serve us in every capacity”.
The second job I had was my first encounter with Indians. Previously I had worked extensively with Britons, Americans, Hungarians and found them to be pleasant without aggravating the locals. When I resumed at this new job, though it was a multinational firm, most of my colleagues were from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Within 2 months of resumption and direct observations, I discovered something appalling. My Indian colleagues were all about double – speak, ass lickers, and always willing to throw you under the bus, if you allowed it.
How did I plow through this toxic situation? I will be exploring this in subsequent posts.
If you are going to live the life you desire, on your own terms, without conforming to societal norms and expectations, ‘Financial Freedom’, is the main key. Now when I speak about financial freedom, its’ not all about having excess money, you’re not sure how to spend it all.
No, this is not the picture I want you to have in mind. Financial freedom will save you from making terrible, hurtful decisions. It will save you from terrible bosses, toxic workplace culture, abusive relationships where its’ mandatory to lose your individuality, so a little of your true self can survive. And in situations where you end up making terrible decisions, financial freedom will step in, to aid you in redeeming the situation. Irrespective of wherever you reside globally, this principle is a universal one.
How do you determine when it is enough and you can bow out of the corporate or whichever race you are on? It is relative to each individual. Assuming you want your kids to pursue higher education in a foreign land, you want to explore the world while retired or simply want to live out your days in relative splendor. If your current monthly expense range within N50,000 – N100,000 monthly, and passive income you are currently earning is within this range, will you consider this enough?
Some might while others’ won’t. My personal yardstick is once 20-30% of annual passive income earned, can take care of your daily needs, then you have passed the yardstick. Please pat yourself on the back and take out time to evaluate goals you have set for yourself this year. Financial freedom is around the corner.
How do you deal with a boss who’s egoistical and tends towards narcissism sometimes? NOTHING! You heard me right…absolutely NOTHING. Stop agreeing with every damn stupid word that spouts up from his/her mouth. Rather learn to rein him/her in and if s/he declines, darling step aside, and let him run into the marketplace amok like a raging bull.
Honestly, your days and nights will be much peaceful, since the only thing you will be bothered about is cleaning a bit of the mess he’s left behind. Majority of the mess he’s caused will be cleaned up by none other than ‘El Hombre/La Mujere’.
As part of the lead management team in the SSA region, I report directly to a boss overseeing SSA. While he’s a creative person, sometimes he lets his ego get the best of him and decides to do stuffs that are not aligned internally. Last year, we had developed a creative campaign for a leading brand. When the first cut was presented to the board, there were some elements that were added (talk about too many cooks spoiling the broth). I had raised my objections and given clear cut reasons on why these suggested elements, should not be added to the overall creative.
I am always pissed off when foreigners think they have a secret insight into local life. Disculpe Senor, you know jack shit. When did you arrive and what has been the duration of your stay in the country/continent to think you have an idea of local idioms, cultures and norms in developing a campaign? Suffice to say, the campaign bombed and talk about a major backlash from TG. Consumers were so loud that our North American office had to step in to resolve the ongoing madness.
I cleaned up social media and the next morning, my boss called me in. By this time, he had been chastened and made to see the error of his way. I knew there was a narcissistic storm on the way when he said “Jan, you realize this campaign was developed with a lot of love for the local custom and culture.”
“You know I have always depended on you to set me straight, when i veer off the beaten path”. In my thoughts, I am thinking “hey el hombre, take a dip in the water. I reined you in once or twice and you wouldn’t listen. Be bold enough to face the storm”. Stop this emotional blackmail B.S. It does not work on me. Cut me some slack on the sob story.
I sat in his office pretty as you please, while we evaluated where he went wrong, how we can salvage the situation and come out stronger on the other end of the rainbow. By the end of the day, we had a solution for the national disaster he had created.
Wheew! All in a day’s work.
Glossary:
SSA – Sub Saharan Region
TG – Target Audience
El Hombre – The man
Disculpe – Excuse me/Pardon
La Mujere – The woman
Senor/Senora – Sir/Ma’am
Jefe Egoista – Egoistic Boss
Clique
nnoun: clique; plural noun: cliques
The one thing I have avoided over the course of my career within the workplace is ‘Cliques’. No matter the form or shape it announces itself in, I stick up my middle finger in its’ face, and own the spot I occupy. This dark form of nepotism, destroys the soul and culture within the workplace. I do not think highly of people who belong to ‘Cliques’ as it tells me you have subjugated your individuality for the common individuality of a group.
How boring and utterly stupid? Thinking from a common point of view gets you nowhere on the career ladder. You must learn to stand alone and own your thoughts, irrespective of whether you’ve got supporters or not. Don’t imagine this exists within Naija alone. No! Its’ a global affliction and I have seen this operate everywhere, while working in Dubai and other places.
Belonging to a clique will dumb you down and take you along a narcissistic path, where you will lose all forms of creativity and wit to aid you in your career. That is, if you eventually end up having a meaningful one without spending your days, licking asses up and down (this is the bane of most Nigerian men in the workplace. So timid and always agreeing with every dumb ideas or words, that comes out of their bosses mouth, without taking a moment to think and reflect). It pisses me off completely. Miss me with the B.S.
Rather, choose to be different. Yeah, you might be hated, called weird names, hey sugar, deal with it. How have i dealt with this negative phenomenon?
In my unit, we ain’t got time for ‘Cliques’. Once I notice there is a cliquey thingy going on, I break it up immediately by assigning each person an onerous, individual task that takes a month to deliver. It works like a charm. Since they are so busy with meeting deadlines, each day is filled with heavy grunts and lots of silent thinking.
I love that especially when your unit has been noticed as the only unit, where employees do not dwadle or gossip, you know you are building the right culture.
For all our readers and clients, this is wishing you a splendid Christmas celebration. Thank you all for your immense support and for making 2013 a wonderful year.
Internet connectivity has been down for the past few days and its a pure delight to be back. I’ve been indulging myself on Pinterest for the past few hours on several hairstyles (protective) I’m itching to try out once I’m done with touch up. This is one of them…loved the massive buns.
Simply gorgeous.
Over the past one decade, our attitudes and cultural beliefs about wealth has undergone a dramatic change. We have gone from people who’re proponents of hard work being the backbone of wealth to sudden riches overnight. These elusive lifestyle also comes with glamorous images of flamboyance. Today I’ll be discussing the false myths surrounding wealth.
Life for the rich is a big party everyday: escapism from life’s’ daily worries does not exclude the rich. Irrespective of the economic divide we belong to as individuals, we all have our fair share of troubles and have to wade through them. If you read through the bio of accomplished men and women, a unifying factor is the hard times they waded through in reaching their goals.
Once I hit the jackpot, I can buy anything I want: this is the biggest fallacy amongst the lot I’ve discovered. The rich don’t buy anything and everything, they carefully plan their purchases. Assuming you want to buy a car or build a house, you just don’t wake up one day and start. No! It all begins with the first seed and consistent savings.Whether you like it or not, hard work is the sure path to building wealth. Disregard all the music videos and movies that promotes easy wealth, popping champagne and throwing endless parties. Life does not pan out that way. Four years ago, i had taken the decision to buy a new car but guess what, I didn’t have the liquid cash to buy one even though I could have converted my stock holdings to do this. I felt it was not necessary and took a decision to save for the kind of car I wanted and could afford. I didn’t make that purchase till late last year when I knew I had the cash to make a one-time purchase. The key lesson here; plan, plan and work assiduously to achieve your goals.As you go along your career path, opportunities will come along that’ll increase your earning power. Remember the popular adage ‘little drops of water make a mighty ocean’. Start small and you’ll end big.
I have not written specifically about financial matters for some time now. I have been trying to discover other forms of investment since the CBN slashed fixed deposit rates. While watching T.V last month, I came across the advert regarding “Federal Government Bond” and how possible it is for an individual investor to participate.
I decided to find out more but it took me about four weeks to locate the website responsible for disseminating information.
What is a bond?
A bond is a loan and the investor or holder of the bond is the lender. When you purchase a bond, you are lending money to a government, local government council, state government, federal agency or a corporation, known as the issuer. The government uses it to fund budget deficit, for instance, or to build roads, electric power stations, finance factories, etc. When you purchase a bond, in return the issuer promises to pay you a specified rate of interest during the life of the bond and to repay the face value of the bond (the principal) when it ‘matures’.
What is FGN Bonds?
FGN Bonds are debt securities (liabilities) of the Federal Government of Nigeria issued under the authority of DMO and listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The FGN has an obligation to pay the bondholder the principal and agreed interest as they fall due. When you buy FGN bonds you are lending to the federal government for a specified period of time. The FGN bond is considered as the safest of all investments in domestic currency securities market because it is backed by the ‘full faith and credit’ of the government. They have no default risk, meaning that it is virtually certain your interest and principal will be paid as and when due. The income you earn is exempt from state and local taxes.
The Government Issues Bonds for the following reasons
Expatiate on Special Purpose FGN Bonds
Special Purpose FGN bonds are bonds issued to meet specific needs of the federal government. For instance, following the approval of Mr. President, special purpose bonds were issued to selected banks for settlement of N75 billion pension arrears in 2006. Five deposit money banks participated in the private placement arrangement. In addition, in 2006 FGN floated bonds for the payment of debt owed to local contractors worth N91.7 billion. Recently, FGN indicated interest to raise funds through bonds for funding specific projects such as Methanol plant, revival of textile industry, terminal wages of workers, building of infrastructural facilities, etc.
Nature of FGN bonds
How do I invest in FGN Bonds?
1. Application forms can be obtained from any of the authorized dealers(PDMMs), or download from the DMO’s website
2. Complete the application forms and submit through any of the PDMMs
3. Common- price auction system is normally employed as opposed to multiple price auctions
4. Payments for the allotment are payable in full on application
5. Minimum of N10,000.00 and multiple of N1,000 thereafter
6. Investors can also access the FGN bonds after the auction through the secondary market
7. FGN bonds purchase is confirmed by registration in the depository (CSCS) or by issue of certificates
8. Interest is paid semi-annually until the maturity date when the principal amount is repaid
9. Payment of interest is through issue of interest warrant(cheque) or direct transfer to current or savings bank accounts
10. Bondholders who do not want to hold the bonds until maturity date can sell them at any time on the floors of Nigerian Stock Exchange or Over the Counter (OTC), through, any of the PDMMs
Why should I invest in these Bonds?
Today's Naira 