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Here on Reel From The Real, i write what i’ve learned in investing x personal finance.
My goal is to:
share optimistic and positive energy - because the hustle is real x rough enough
personalise personal finance that bit more.
😎 To your wealth,
Aila Obiocha
Some books change how you think or see the world. But one book that changed my finances, hands down, is “Busting the Financial Planning Lies” by Kim Butler. In his book, Butler talks about the 7 principles of prosperity economics, and one of the ideas from this book is that we should maximise every financial transaction. Do not give up money today in favour of money tomorrow. Discount the future, because money today is more important than money tomorrow.
Maximise every financial transaction does not mean that you will win and make money always. Sometimes, maximising a financial opportunity means reducing your losses, selling off bad assets, getting out of bad deals, or just buying yourself time to regroup and rebound.
The best lessons are the ones we learn twice: first, when we find them, and again, when we apply them. When I started private tutoring, my first year was the hardest, because I had no reputation to leverage, no referrals, nothing.
A few client calls went like this:
Parent: i’d love for you to tutor Older Child please, he needs support with Maths
Me: it would be my pleasure. Can I ask you a few questions? (what time is he available for lessons, etc)
Parent: okay, sounds great! how soon can we start? what are your fees? 🧐
(after hearing my answer)
Parent: okay, can you give us a (25%, 40% 50%) discount? If we work with you, I promise we will stick with you, and we have other children for you to tutor. In fact, I have another child, Younger Child, who will likely need Maths tuition over the summer. If we work with you, you will definitely be his tutor.
In order to accept this offer i.e. lower the value today in favour of the value tomorrow, I would have to believe the following:
First, this family would still be living in the country by the summer (the Middle East can be very transient for expats).
Second, Younger Child would need Maths tuition in the coming summer / near future.
Third (and most importantly), I would be the one to provide that tuition. Not someone else.
I would not only have to believe in all of the above statements, but would also have to believe that I knew or could know the probability of all 3 statements being true / coming to pass.
In the business of money, that’s too much belief, and not enough stacking.
Each time I came up against this situation, I would politely negotiate my way out of it. The reason was simple. I had no way of knowing where I or the family would be in the summer, no way of knowing if Younger Child would still require tutoring, and no way of knowing if I would be the one to support him e.g. our calendars could make it impossible to have classes together, or we might not be the right fit to study together.
I had no way of knowing the value of “Tomorrow”,
and no way of knowing if that value was greater than > or equal to = the value of Today.
There were too many unknowns in “Tomorrow” to sacrifice the known in “Today”.
I called this realisation Échíétéká, after the Igbo name for the Gaboon Viper.
Échíétéká translates to “tomorrow is too far.” This is the name for the Gaboon Viper because its bite is so deadly that it kills within minutes. Done. If this snake bites someone, unless the victim is near a hospital or has a spare antidote just randomly hanging out in their bag, it. is. over. khalas. RIP. 🪦 ⚰️
Échíétéká. Tomorrow is too far.
When it comes to the business of money, the moment we are in is all we truly know. In hindsight, that same moment is all we really have. So we should maximise it: squeeze the juice, chew the leaves, boil the roots, and crush the seeds out of every financial opportunity.
I can’t count the number of parents who were delighted at my devotion, happy to see their children getting A and B grades. They would tell me “maybe you can teach my other son, he is really struggling... maybe next semester we can increase our hours to 3 sessions a week”.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Except …
Promises don’t pay the rent, and potential wealth can be a super slow road out of poverty. Students that I thought I would teach next semester ended up dropping out of the program, or sometimes, parents simply found another tutor for the “other son”. Stuff happens, it happens frequently, and it happens to us.
Échíétéká. Tomorrow is too far.
Reject the idea that wealth can wait.
Reject the idea that you can wait.
Forget “Maybe” - it may never arrive, or it may come too late.
Focus on “Now” - do a damn good job now, and maximise the moment.
Maximise every opportunity to stack cash today - and move towards equity.
Maximise every opportunity away from debt today - and move towards leverage.
Inject urgency into your financial goals (whatever they may be) and then stand back and watch yourself succeed, smash and surpass them. 🙏🏻 🙏🏻 🙏🏻 🙏🏻
5 years from now, you will arrive. Yes.
The question is - where?
- Jim Rohn
TODAY is the most important day of your financial life.
NOW is the most important moment of your financial journey.
Échíétéká.