Many couples ask this question of themselves all the time. Often they are hardworking, well-educated, high income people. Why, then, are they not in the millionaire league? The points need to be stated again: Wealth is not the same as income. Wealth is what you accumulate, not what you spend.
Wealth does not always come by inheritance. Advanced degrees or academic intelligence do not guarantee fortune. The story of the young chartered Accountant that I always share during my wealth building seminars and investment workshops across the country, will readily illustrate this point.
This young man was working as a Chartered Accountant and Group Head of Finance Division for a conglomerate. He was earning net of N2. 7 million as salary. He lived in company’s furnished apartment. He was provided with chauffeur driven car. His company supplied the gas to his kitchen and picked his utility bills. He ate breakfast and lunch at Company’s restaurant, free of charge, and sometimes his supper, at company’s expense, when he worked late.
This Accountant traveled abroad regularly on official assignment and paid out of station allowance in dollars. His vacation abroad was fully borne by his company. So generous was the perk of his office that he hardly used any part of his income to maintain himself. This young man headed the Division for about 9 years as Group Accountant and rapidly moved up the corporate ladder. It was at this point in his career that a new Group Managing Director was brought in to replace the former Managing Director who had just retired.
The new helmsman was not too comfortable with the Group Accountant’s style of ensuring and insisting on due diligence. His uncompromising stand on several issues that border on financial probity and monetary allocation for “public relation” irked the Chief Executive Officer Corporate politics soon took over. The young man, being ill equipped politically, got caught in the web” of politicking. He lost the job for his political naivety. He was asked to resign.
He ran to his mentor to -bemoan his plight. After commiserating with him over the monumental loss, the mentor asked to know about his financial condition. “How much do you have in your saving account to handle this contingency?”, the mentor asked. He replied “I have no kobo to my name in any bank account. I have spent all the mentor assumed he had spent all on investment and asked further. “How are your various investments doing? What is your portfolio like?” The young man replied, “I have not started investing as I thought I still had much time ahead of me” By this time the company had withdrawn the two official cars with him and served him two months quit notice to vacate his official residence.
IT IS NOT HOW MUCH YOU MAKE THAT IS YOUR WEALTH; IT IS HOW MUCH YOU ARE ABLE TO KEEP AND TURN AROUND.
Many participants always responded with consternation and disbelief that such a profligacy can be found with a Chartered Accountant and a finance expert. The point should be noted. It is not how much you make that is your wealth; it is how much you are able to keep and turn around.
Albert Aina is a Management Consultant and Chief Executive Officer of Christian Leadership Skill Inc.
Reach him at albertaina@yahoo.com.
