Some of the ways our thinking is keeping us poor

Spend now…save later mentality

One of the surest things in life is that there are ups and downs, economies have booms and recessions, the capital markets go up and down but regardless of these facts we are hardly ever prepared for the down turns as a country or as individuals.

If the government wasn’t so short term in their thinking, in times of surplus i.e when oil was at $80- $100 per barrel, they would have used an adequate amount of the proceeds to develop other sectors i.e. agriculture and manufacturing and invested in the infrastructure to support it.  This would have moved us away from our dependence on oil, created multiple streams of income and a buffer during an era of low oil prices.

Although, many small business owners like Chioma could not have foreseen the combination of factors affecting the economy, the fact is we are born knowing that doing business in Nigeria is unpredictable and policies and circumstances change almost over night sometimes, so we should be accustomed to planning better for sudden changes. However, instead of building an emergency fund during times of surplus that can act as a financial cushion during a down turn or diversifying our income streams, we tend to rely on our supersctious beliefs of ‘ ‘God forbid’ it wont happen and ‘ e go better’ which is great because it keeps us resilient but doesn’t keep us realistic or prepared.

Again, with everything that’s going on with the economy we should be asking ourselves some pertinent questions. How well do we prepare for emergencies? How well do we diversify our incomes?  How well do we invest in developing and mastering our skills, so we are prepared to take advantage of new opportunities that present themselves in a crisis?