"Making money is hard but spending or losing it fast is very easy."
I have come to understand this fact about money at a very young age and this has helped me understand that financial literacy is very important. Thanks to my parents, who made some rules guiding our spending habits at a very young age. When I was still very little, my mom gave me one of her old colored phones, which has games on it. Since I go around playing games, my friends and young children on the street will always look at me in awe and want to play games on my phone. When I discovered this, I allowed some set of friends to play games and then made a rule of taking 20 naira from anyone who wanted to play games on my phone.
I was still in junior secondary school, a young boy, and in a week, I would make 200 naira or more. My parents noticed lots of kids are always visiting me. When they asked what was up, I told them, and they were impressed.
One thing my parents always do is that, when you need to get something you want and not what you need, they would ask this simple question:
"How much do you have?"
Meaning, before you can bring your want to their table, you must have saved a good amount of money before you can make your request known to them.
When did I first learn about financial literacy?
It was immediately after my dad discovered how I made money from making people play games on my phone. He sat me down and explained what it means to make money, save, and grow the money one is making. At that time I almost opened a gaming shop because I had the passion for it then but I was so young. I wonder what would have happened if I had chased that dream.
How long did it take before I got a grasp of it?
It took longer than I expected. The truth is, I stay in a country where everyone needs to be financially smart and sometimes this is not taught by anyone; people have to learn the hard way. There are some things about finance I learned the hard way and some other things I learned from people smarter and more knowledgeable. There was a time I sent 0.02 BTC to a person so he could send me 1 BTC. Crazy, right? But the thing is, finance is wide, and the more you learn about it, the more you see how wide it is. Who knew there would be digital currency in the future? No one did but it's a whole new world of finance.
I'm still learning and I want to get as much knowledge as I can to make me financially successful. I know Rome wasn't built in a day, which is why I'll keep learning and become a better version of my current self.
Thanks for reading. My name is Fashtiouwa.
all images used are mine
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