Smart Money Lessons (A mini review)

I’m currently at a decision making stage career wise and it has been quite a struggle trying to figure out what path to take.

And then some weeks ago, I got an amazing book that I’ve been dying to read, from a friend, the book; Smart Money Woman- An African girl’s journey to financial freedom by Arese Ugwu.

Interestingly, I had been stalking Arese on Instagram and thinking this woman is a Power babe, with such an amazing personality. I had watched some of her vlogs, and trust me she’s such an eloquent person who knows her onions.

Anyways, you guys get the gist that I’m obsessed with her. But that’s not what this piece is about; it’s about the lessons/life hacks I learnt from the book. Trust me when I say this book is packed with so much lessons, but I’d just be picking out the ones that I could relate with the most.

Let’s start with an overview of the book, for those who have not read it.

It’s about a typical young. ‘Lagos babe’, who seems to have everything figured out; great life, car, beautiful apartment in Lekki phase 1, with an awesome job to top it off.

However, the illusion shatters when she realizes she was in a huge debt and her expenses surpasses her income, and she was left with; an apartment she couldn’t afford, a car with major issues and a job she’s about to lose. Also, surrounding her are 4 amazing friends, one a fashion designer born with a silver spoon, the other an Oil magnate, one a lawyer, and lastly a housewife who got married into a rich family.

The author focuses on their finance problems and how they were able to overcome by making smart money decisions. At the end of each chapter there are Smart money lessons with simple but efficient exercises.

Here goes the first lesson; the fact that we earn money in six figures doesn’t guarantee financial freedom.

Way before, the inception of social media, the Nigerian culture has always had the ‘pepper them’ effect, where I want to prove to the next person that we are not in the same position on the ‘social ladder’. Now you can imagine how worse it has become since social media came about.

This in turn has largely affected our Earning to Investing ratio (Lol, trust me I came up with that on my own) I find that most times when I get a credit alert like this, the first thing that comes to mind is that contour kit I’ve been dying to buy or that nice dress I saw on Instagram, that I clearly know I can’t afford. I end up spending said ‘earning’ on frivolous things and I start complaining of being broke almost immediately after.

This is the attitude of most people these days. Instead of trying to figure out plans on how to generate more income from that ‘credit alert’(not MMM or all these other Ponzi schemes o), the first thing that comes to mind is how to ‘pepper them’.

Until we start to understand that we can have the job of our dreams that pays in six figures, and still be broke due to our money habits, we cannot attain financial freedom.

Now most people have a different notion of being broke, however, according to the Arese being broke means, ‘Living from paycheck to paycheck without enough assets to protect your future’.

Looking at Zuri’s life, we think she’s having a ball, that she’s living the dream, however according to the book; ‘Building wealth is more about how much of your income you are able to keep and convert into assets’

I know what we are thinking right now, trust me I thought about it too. We are thinking well I only earn roughly about 50,000 to 100,000 a month which is the average salary of an entry-level staff, how do I get to convert my income into asset? Well I’m not a financial expert, but I’m sure there are several ways of investing. It could be in a friend’s start-up that you trust has a good growth rate, or you could even start a side business apart from your paid job so as to have multiple streams of income.

Or you could even invest in Stocks with the help of a financial expert of course. I’m sure there plans for different income levels.

While I’m still trying to figure out my purpose and carve a niche for myself professionally, after reading this book it was like a lightbulb went off in my head and now the ‘ginger’ to make something of myself financially is higher than ever.

P.s this is just one of the numerous lessons I learnt from the book. So, if you guys will go along with me, I want to make it a 3-episode series; where in each episode I talk about. 2 major lessons learnt.

Trust me It’ll be a fun ride.

Thank you guys for reading. These are just my amateur views, if you have other opinions that you want share, please don’t hesitate to do so in the comment section 👇🏽.

And Arese if you ever get to read this, I thank you for writing such an amazing book. Can’t wait to read more on Zuri’s financial journey and hopefully she ends up with Tsola. And if you haven’t read the book, what are you waiting for?