By Daniel Martey
In Part 1 of this article, l raised some important points that sought to propel low income earners towards
changing their financial status to earn higher incomes, and to manage their money to create wealth and create jobs to help other people. The ultimate goal of wealth creation is to help people and support the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Becoming poor or broke is easy just like watching TV or not working at all, but becoming rich or a millionaire is serious business. Sacrifices must be made, principles must be followed, rules trailed and obeyed. Obeying the laws of money is key; money management techniques have to be embraced, expenses and appetites must be controlled and many other actions taken for low income earners to become rich.
With self-made millionaires as mentioned earlier in the first article, there are quite a number of Ghanaians who started with few Cedis through petty trading and are now Cedi multi-millionaires as well as dollar millionaires.
The first self-made millionaire I want to eulogise is Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, the Executive Chairman of Jospong Group of Companies. He is a multi-dollar millionaire but started with little income in a petty trading venture selling wrist watches, necklaces, finger and ear rings in a simple glass covered wooden case carried in hand around town. Currently he is managing over 100 projects concurrently. He owns Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a giant in the sanitation industry in Africa. Other areas he operates in include Banking and Finance, ICT, automobile and equipment assembling, fabrication of waste bins and other plastic products, the electronic media (including radio and TV stations) among others. He owns a printing press, and also has companies in Dubai, China and other countries just to mention a few. He has employed over five hundred thousand (500,000) people, feeding and caring for over one million people, both local and foreign.
The second businessman to mention is Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, a self-made millionaire who also started with little money but has created over sixty (60) businesses around the world. He owns banks, hotels, printing presses, schools, health insurance companies, radio stations and many more. He has also employed many people, locally and abroad.
Dr. Kwame Osei Despite also started with little trading in musical cassettes across Ghana. He is now a multi-millionaire. He owns Despite Group of Companies which is an umbrella of many companies, which includes UTV, Peace FM and many affiliate stations. He owns a savings and loans company in the financial space. He is a giant in the food and beverages industry as well. He feeds and cares for thousands of people on daily basis.
What must be noted is that, these self-made millionaires were once poor and low income earners, or born into poor families but have made it to the highest levels in life. The conclusion is that it is possible to be financially free in Ghana and Africa. It will not be appropriate to criticize, hate or gossip about them but study what they do on daily basis.
The desire to be financially free is available for everyone but the habits and the shift in mindset from poverty to a wealth mindset are the challenges. It is a choice, not automatic. There are things the rich do which the poor will not. The poor, however, expect the same results as the rich. This is not consistent with life’s principles.
“There is a science of getting rich, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty”. –Wallace Wattles
The three Ghanaian gentlemen l eulogised above knew and obeyed certain financial laws that made them rich. These are some of the money-making rules to consider.
The law of automation
One of the greatest tools that most self-made millionaires used to get to their current financial status is the law of automation. In this case an amount or a percentage of one’s income will be transferred and credited to the investment fund on weekly, monthly or any specified period by the instructions of the investor, this makes investment easy.
Procrastination is one of the habits that prevent people from succeeding or becoming rich. Financial automation is a solution to financial investment procrastination. In order not to waste time to carry money to investment companies and to prevent any risk, automation is the solution. By automation over a period of time, one can be financially free.
The law of retention
This law is so potent that it can make the poor become rich. We ought to understand that money circulates (currency is a current that flows). Whenever any cash, being huge or little, flows to one’s account, one should not allow all the money to leave without saving some for investment. Little drops of water can make a bucket full that can fill drums and finally become an ocean. Every coin or cent has a potential to become a financial giant. Kindly take a pen and a paper and calculate the total salary you earned, the allowances, gifts and tips that came to you in the year 2020, and see if you were able to invest at least 30 percent of it. If you have, then congratulations; if not, then in 2021 do something drastic about your investments. Invest more money than allowing it to go out from you in expenses.
Religion and poverty
By my observations and research, l have drawn a conclusion that individuals and communities that are super-religious and overly spiritual are poor. For as much as religion is good, it is not a solution to all challenges without research and application of knowledge and scientific findings!
Prayer is the foundation of all success as Christians know and belief, but the foundation must be built upon by financial knowledge and investment if one wants to be rich and become a prosperous Christian. Also, as much as possible, fasting, studying of the Holy Bible and giving to the poor should be added to it. Faith without works is vain (James 2:26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead”. NKJ)
For most Christians in Africa to increase their incomes, new skills must be learned to solve problems, crafts mastered to make more money, financial education should be acquired to skillfully manage their revenues, hard work must not be ignored and with prayer, the Christian’s financial status will advance.
For a human body to function well all the parts must play their roles. The spiritual and the physical should be combined for success to be attained. It will not be good to succeed spiritually and fail physically.
Read, read, read
I have read many books that have concluded that readers are leaders and leaders are readers. With this in mind, anyone who wants to be a financial leader has to read lots of good financial books to acquire knowledge for the journey of wealth creation.
All the information one needs to be financially free are in good financial materials: books, magazines, journals, and more. Reading very good financial materials must be a habit. All the billionaires in the world are avid readers; they read books on investments, company’s reports, financials and investments, health, diet, fitness, psychology and more.
I will recommend books like, The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and my books “77 Quotes on Riches and Wealth Creation” and “The Journey to Riches and Wealth Creation”.
“Making money is not a thing that you do – it’s a skill that you learn”. – Naval Ravikant
My story
I was a teacher for thirteen (13) years, impacting knowledge in Mathematics and Science to schoolchildren. During that time, my main interest was to see the month ended for me to be paid. I always used up every pesewa I earned. I made sure that I owe no one as the Holy Bible says (Romans 13: 8 “Owe no man anything, except to love one another …” NKV). l paid all my expenses and that made me very happy and fulfilled which are against the principle of getting rich. I however didn’t know. My close teacher friends also did same. For the entire thirteen years, l didn’t save anything. I had no idea of wealth creation, money management, investments, budgeting, planning for retirement. Mine was to complain, blame the Government and the systems in my country.
It was when I got to know how to manage and grow my money that my situation changed from hand to mouth to wealth creation. When l applied financial knowledge, my financial status changed for the better, then my understanding of life also became clear. Life must not only be enjoyed instantly, but something must be set aside for the future and for emergencies.
The challenge is that, in our schools, from Class One through to the tertiary levels, money management is never mentioned, neither is it taught although we use money on daily basis. We buy food, commute from one point to the other by bus, taxi or a private car, we also buy water to keep our bodies hydrated and rent accommodation to sleep in after a day’s hard work, but skills to manage our money is not in our dictionaries.
Retire a millionaire through 5% investment technique
Every earning, wage or salary that one makes ought to be converted into wealth to last for many generations. That is the purpose of earning an income. To convert income to wealth, helping people by creating jobs and supporting the poor in society must be the focal point of our earnings.
It is possible for all individuals to retire as millionaires. This can be attained by starting with little monies earned. Consistently saving and investing 5% of an income for a working lifetime, say 25 to 30 years will help realize this goal.
To cite a simple example, in Ghana, the hard working military are to faithfully serve the country for 25 years before retirement. In other words, any officer who is recruited as a junior officer, up to his or her retirement time, can become a millionaire through the power of 5% investment through compound interest.
The above principle and technique can be applied by teachers as well. Teachers in the pre-university schools can be millionaires on retirement after teaching and educating pupils and the youth for 30 years. Writing pamphlets, story books, conducting private classes and online revenue generation systems (book to read) can help them earn more income that would accelerate their journey to wealth.
The 5% should be calculated on the take-home pay for the entire working life.
“It’s not your salary that makes you rich, it’s your spending habits.” Charles A Jaffe
The medical nurse
Most of the time people find it difficult to overcome the challenges of poverty and blame Governments, bosses, husbands, wives and parents for their inability to become financially free. That was not the story of a nurse l know who has started a real estate business. She deposits cash for a bag of cement each month when she receives her monthly modest pay. She also deposits money with sand vendors till she pays for a trip of it. She then molds cement blocks. She dedicated a portion of her salaries for paying labourers’ workmanship. She then built her first chamber and hall apartment, which took her about three years. She repeats the process each year. In short she deposits money for each building material at a time till she has enough materials to build one chamber and hall.
In 12 years, how many apartments will she have built, all things being equal? She is now a landlady receiving passive income, plus her monthly modest salary as a nurse – big dream with little money.
Moving from the zone of poverty to the zone of the wealthy is a journey. With patience, one can be financially free.
Money is a seed and a tool, but applied financial knowledge is the manure and rainfall to make the money grow. In other words, financial knowledge is more important than the amount of money one earns regularly or irregularly.
The whole secret is this: keep part of what you earn and invest it consistently for a period of time to grow.
“Unless you control your money, making more won’t help. You’ll just have bigger payments.” – Unknown
To be continued.
The writer is a Preacher and CEO of Joe’s Coaching Consult, an Author and a Coach.
For further information on training for churches, NGOs, schools, corporate organizations etc., please WhatsApp or call +233545541820 or write to joestechpu@gmail.com.