TO BE FREE, FINANCIALLY

What does it mean to be free, financially?

I bet there are as many answers to this as there are people. Everyone has their approach to this age-old question. A consensus can be that it is the point when you have the financial capability to do whatever you’d like with your time without worry. You can sleep, swim, spend time with your family without worrying about making money to afford the basics and the luxuries.
We all dream of financial freedom, that is why we do what we do on a daily to get there. Whether you are in school sweating for that certificate, working on a business or side hustle, looking for employment, in employment we are all on this race to financial freedom. There are ways you can achieve this seamlessly.

Educate yourself
The most important aspect in the journey to financial freedom is educating oneself on the various avenues toward this goal. There are millions on millions of resources online and offline that can be of great assistance.

You can read books like “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki and “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham to give you a perspective on financial freedom.

You can turn to courses on finances like the expertly crafted one by Centonomy Campus Edition to get in-depth knowledge. The beauty of courses is the structuring which makes it easy to understand the jargon in the financial world and also the one-on-one nature ensures you get all your queries answered.

Finding a mentor is another way to educate yourself. With a financial mentor, you can sit with them and possibly watch how they strive to attain and maintain financial freedom. Mentors are also resourceful in giving you a nudge in the right direction and be a guide in your journey to financial freedom.

Spending wisely & Budgeting
While gaining the crucial and needed information I am sure you came across the financial tip of spending your money wisely. This mantra has been repeated time and again for the truth it holds. When you spend your money wisely it unlocks many doors in your life. For example, you are avoid spending on frivolous, unnecessary items.

You can cultivate financial discipline that will come in handy when you begin to handle unspeakable amounts of money. You can decipher when, where, and how best to spend money.

Budgeting is a vital mechanism to spending wisely. A budget is a financial plan that is used to allocate income to expenses, debt, and savings. Budgeting, therefore, is planning for your money to see how much you can put towards your expenses and any commitments you have. When you budget for your finances you can know what exactly you are spending on and the amount of money as well. Budgeting is such a useful skill and everyone should be able to draw out a budget that is suitable to their individual needs to better optimize their financial wellbeing.

Saving
Another rule of thumb on the path to financial freedom is being able to save. Savings refers to the amount of money left after spending. It is set aside for use in the near or far future. Having some money put away in form of savings is so important as they can help you attain personal goals like accumulating funds to start a business, getting you the shoes and outfit you want, or maybe that karoad trip you and your friends opened a Whatsapp group for (lol, mtaenda tu ).

Savings can be instrumental during rainy days when Fuliza has had enough of you and all other mobile-lending sites are a no-go zone. With those savings, you can buy food to keep you going the rest of week until your parent has mercy on you.

It is advisable to set up an account with a bank of your choice to make your saving process easier and more fruitful. Examples of savings account options are Fixed-deposit accounts and Traditional savings accounts among others.

Don’t shy away from keeping your money in any of these accounts as it could be the key to your financial freedom.

Investing

As pertinent as saving money can be there is the headache that is, inflation. Inflation is the rate at which prices in a country increase over time. This affects savings as follows; Say you had KSH. 1,000,000 saved in the year 2001, in 20 years it would be worth KSH. 641,500!
It will feel like your pedaling backward. Enter investing! Making investments is the sure-fire way to beat inflation. Investing is the allocation of sums of money or resources expecting to make a profit or create income. Investing can help beat inflation because the value of your investment (hopefully) appreciates with time and increases in value as opposed to the money you let sit in the bank for ten years.

Learn how to invest and ensure you do thorough due diligence before selecting a suitable investment avenue be it real estate (if you can afford this now kudos!), buying shares, diving into cryptocurrency, or trading foreign currency.

Take time to learn your preferred investment option and the basics such as an asset and liability. Jumping into the deep end of investing without the foundational knowledge will leave you broke and bitter.

Investing is also in choosing to invest in oneself. You can pick up a skill that you can monetize and make a killing with. You can go to school, get a degree or certification, be better qualified for an employment opportunity, and make your paper. There are many ways to invest, choose one and watch your fortunes change for the better.

I encourage all of us to journey toward financial freedom. Doesn’t it feel good to have your own and have the ability to help out those in need? Imagine being financially secure to spoil yourself when you please and to travel and enjoy life. This goes out to my sisters especially; let us strive to make money and not be at the mercy of a man financially. Sure it may be easier for now but in the long run, it can curtail your freedom as you’ll be chained down to him for everything. Let us see more of the youth coming together and forming investment groups like Saccos and growing industries. Let us aspire to be trailblazers on the road to be free, financially.

Register for Centonomy’s Campus Edition (32^nd session) here and thank Anoni later.