Finance

  We lose more by having the habit of not trusting until we have a reason than by choosing to trust first before a reason not to trust any more shows up. Choosing the latter, yes, would lead to unpleasant consequences when those you trust for no reason disappoints. But at least, it would leave the doors to the heart on both ends open, until the heart finds someone trustworthy enough to keep. On the contrary, choosing not trust at all until you have a reason to trust is sure going to make you suspicious of everyone you meet at the first time.  The suspicion could also, lay the foundation to stereotype those who don’t fit into the culture of those you call, “mind”. Suspicion and stereotyping have caused a lot of people to lose opportunities to make great friends and find great team mates to complete them and help them realize their dreams.  It’s not easy for people with difficult-to-trust attitude to change and move in the opposite direction. Making the transition takes t...

“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.”– Frida Kahlo. Laughter is the best medicine some claim. Is this true? Does laughter improve your health? Yes it does. Humor is the strength that lightens the burdens we all carry. How does laughter give us this strength? It helps us to release anger, gives us the ability to forgive quickly and the reward is, the reduction of pains that in turn, protects us from the destructiveness of stress. It’s almost practically impossible to go through the daily grind of life without facing life’s problems. At every turn and twist, we meet problems in our careers and relationships. These problems affect both our emotional and physical health. Most of us, forget to use the strength that laughter offers us to overcome these problems, grow our careers, strengthen relationships and improve our health.  Experts claim a good hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress and leaves the muscles relax...

Have you just experienced a loss of a loved one, a loss of a job or a loss of something so valuable to you and almost irreplaceable?   Yes. Then you should be going through a rough time right. If the loss of a job is putting you through a financial hardship or, to an insufficient knowledge or skill is making it difficult for you to do something or accomplish a task, then you're having a rough time. If you're going through a rough time, understand that it's part of life. And it's an opportunity for you to become stronger and better by taking the positives and discarding the negatives. This is a fact because it's in tough times that people discover their full potential. Leonardo Bonucci captures this beautifully,  "It is exactly in tough times when we discover our full potential, it allows our mind and body to push ourselves beyond our limits." And never forget that, "Tough times never last, but tough people do." - Robert H. Schuller. So, no matter...

  Life is a tire swing, while you are here, expect to be down this moment, backward the next, just hang in there, because the tire is going to swing you up and bring you back down. No point is fixed, no destination is owned, while the foolish traveller lives for tomorrow, the wise traveller makes the best of every moment.

  Don't wait,  tomorrow may be too late. Set forth now, now is always the right time and, Now is just the best time and where you are is the best place, to dance with that idea. There's no better way to know if it would work than putting it into action. If it works, celebrate. If it doesn't , learn some valuable lessons and try again; Those who take quantum leaps first master  baby steps. And baby steps lead to a well-balanced life .

A well-balance person is not enslaved by emotional problems. Good and bad things happen to them as they happen to everyone else. When they receive good things from life, they enjoy them without being carried away by the ephemerality of their values. When life gives them the raw deal, they accept it as one of life’s mysteries which don’t subtract from the real substance of life. And what’s life real substance? Life’s real substance is rooted in the knowledge that happiness is within and its value can’t be decreased or increased by  nothing else, except by you, the owner of your self.     Thomas Merton captured happiness perfectly when he said, "Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony."

 People set up businesses to make profits.  Often, profits are outcomes of judicious allocations of scarce resources to competing products and services. It’s not always easy to make profits when a business has competing products, screaming for scarce resources. A business in such a situation has to use a reliable formula to ensure survival, continuity and growth. The most reliable formula is the one that helps the business to take appropriate optimal product mix decision. What is optimal product mix decision? Optimal product mix decision is following the process that helps a business to identify the appropriate product mix that maximizes total contributions to the business by the available limited resources. The application of optimal product mix approach is determined by the nature of the constraints (scarce resources). What are the basic constraints? They are basically two: 1. Single constraint and, 2. Multiple constraints. (A) A single constraint or a key limiti...

  Life happens to everyone and sometimes bring along good things and make us glad at other times, it gifts us bad things and make us sad. We really have control over few things in this world, the control over one is really enough, and it's the choice we have to make at every moment between sadness and joy.

“...turn it into power.” - Rico (Blue Beetle). The reality is, we are in tough times, we’re drowning in our tears and having pains for breakfast, But the truth is, this is the right time for you and I, to wipe our tears and turn the pain into power; this we can achieve by realizing that we’re the only heroes we have, and if we can’t find the power to save ourselves, no one can. *** “USE THE PAIN WE’RE FEELING AND TURN IT INTO POWER.” – ROCIO (Blue Beetle).

...but by staying submerged in it.” So it’s not not fatal when you fall,  But when you stay down you’re crushed; We’re crushed by self defeats, not by unfavorable conditions  which are normal and systemic, But by refusing to look up when we fall; The sun, the moon and the stars are still up in the sky, They need no one’s permission to shine the light On the path of the one that has chosen to see what lies in the morning after,  the coldest night is over. *** "You drown not by falling into the river, but by staying submerged in it." - Ovi  Mahajan (Extraction).

People submit themselves to government becàuse they believe that government has the resources to make life comfortable in ways most individuals can’t.  Government everywhere knows this or should know this fact.  In places, where the legitimacy and acceptability are obtained by popular means, people who seek public offices promise to make life easier for the masses by lowering costs of essential goods and services. One of the popular ways people-centric government keeps this promise is by subsidizing the costs of  filling basic needs.  The costs of filling the following basic needs are often subsidized by governments that empathize with the sufferings of their people are: 1. Education, 2. Food, 3. Quality health care, 4. Decent housing and, 5. Energy. People friendly governments subsidize costs of satisfying these needs because they understand that; 1. When the most people have access to quality education, they would in return use their acquire...

  Life presents to us all, numerous questions.  But it reveals its meaning to only those  who seek answers to only few questions. The meaning of life is found in the answers to: 1. Who am I, 2. Why am I here and , 3. How do I fulfil the reason I am here. Searching for answers to more, would easily make  you unhappy and unfulfilled in life.

  When you make attempts to take a big leap, You should expect to be pushed and kicked by those who seem to love and support you, and give you hope with their nice words  but their actions give you every reason, to seek to be isolated from humanity. No. Rather choose the isolation that protects your exclusive position, to love who you are  and also, all those that come into your life, it doesn't matter,  that many among those who smile back when say hi, are those who don't want you to win, what matters is, you succeed  and when you do, you become the star that no darkness can stand on its path.

Motivation in your pocket .  For me, it is  Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, " For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness ."      Pause! What do we get by being angry?  Does anger on its own change bad situations and make them good? No! Then if it doesn't , why do we sacrifice moments of happiness for an investment in anger that returns only negative? It doesn't make sense, does it?  But it makes sense to go slowly, so that you don't miss life's beautiful moments, which are often sandwitched between the beginning  and endless ending of the rat race to make ends meet. It's this endless rat race that generates competitions among us and competitions create moments of disappointment, frustration and anger. And anger, robs us of happiness when we submit to it.  The good news is, you have the power to always choose happiness over anger.  The power comes when you make up your mind to intentionally seek out people and things, t...

Have you been unfairly treated by  your boss for posting or liking something on Twitter (X) and you want to sue them by don't have the fund? Go ahead, twitter is ready to pick your legal bill. Elon Musk says in a recent tweet; If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill. No limit. Please let us know

  The gods. The beginning . When you love truly, you invest your whole heart into it.  No one that invests their heart into loving someone, willingly chooses to share the love-of-their life with another person.  But loving someone with your whole heart and being completely faithful to a relationship, are never enough to stop a partner bent on being unfaithful.  An unfaithful partner will always hurt a faithful partner. And a faithful partner is always going to feel cheated, betrayed, incomplete and not worthy enough. It’s natural to feel bad when your faithfulness to someone is rewarded with unfaithfulness. It’s also natural to decide not to love any more with your whole heart after you’ve been cheated by a philandering  partner.  But understand this, there’s always someone else , some where who would love you with their whole heart and would be faithful to only you. To meet that someone, you should find the mental strength to walk away from an unrepentant ...

Shelby M.C. Davis says, “Invest for the long haul. Don’t get too greedy and don’t get too scared.”  And Warren Buffett believes, “The stock market is a device to transfer money from the impatient to the patient.” So? Do these investments gurus’ pieces of advice suggest that long term crypto currency investments are better than investing in crypto for the short term? You would find your answer after considering the following factors; 1. The size of your net worth.. 2. Your personal investment goals 3. Risk tolerance. 1. The size of your net worth.  Someone in a weaker financial situation would more likely want to invest in crypto for the short term as opposed to a higher net worth individual. You wouldn’t want to tie down your money in a long term investment in crypto currencies when you have many needs and wants competing for fewer funds in your possession, would you?  Building your financial fortune quickly would certainly be one of your personal investment...

  " No matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them ." - Jodi  Picoult. The gods. The beginning .  How lonely are you?  Very lonely?  Oh well...now you have concluded that no one cares about you? May be you're right.  But...have you not realized that most don't truly care about others except... When they need something from others.  Self-centered human beings, that's who we truly are. So wouldn't you rather be alone than be in the company of those who don't truly care about you? Wouldn't you be better off alone than be with those who continue to disappoint you? I think you would be.  So next time you feel lonely, look within you and find a great a company in the one who would never disappoint you. And who's that? It's the real you.

. Motivation In Your Pocket By finding something you're most passionate about and doing it every second and energy you have. Make your passion the love of your life and your best friend and, you wouldn't need friends around you to survive. Anyways, who told you,  "You need friends to survive?" The person forgot to remind you that your best friend today could be your worst enemy tomorrow.  Human beings are more likely to choose personal interest and sacrifice friendship when both conflict. No one has absolute control over another human being and who  they  choose to sacrifice in order to satify their personal interests. But with your passion, it's different. You can make the choice to be in control of how you develop your passion and how you use it to get what you want. And the best part is, your passion is that best friend that would never betray you.

   Motivation In Your Pocket . When you have no shoulder to lean on and you conclude that you are alone, look within you and pull out the motivativation in your pocket; In your pocket , you will always find the strength to carry on, beyond the limits of your imagination.  This strength is the power of positive belief.  Positive belief will always see you through the darkest valley, carry you over the tallest mountain and keep you company until you reach your goal. So, keep on believing that your tomorrow will always be better than your today and, always do all you can today,  to live to see a better tomorrow. Your positive belief is the motivation in your pocket  *** Download your free copy of the book, "Motivation In Your Pocket" here . 

  Saiz walked in a hurry in the dark. He glanced over his shoulder for the umpteenth time, to check if there was any suspicious movement behind him. It wasn't out of fear but out of habit.  "I am a master of the night."  He reminded himself. "It should be about 2:30a.m now." He thought to himself.  He remembered checking the clock on his mobile phone when he was leaving the house. The time was 1:45 a m. Since then, he hadn't checked. On his way, he didn't dare or he would've revealed his position to the patroling local police.  "I shouldn't check now." He thought, "I've to approach the prayer mountain as discreetly as possible. Pastor Peterson wouldn't want his spiritual focus to be distracted." He reasoned. He was happy for the opportunity. He had waited for five months to be invited by the pastor to the prayer mountain.  "Only five months..many ." He said under his breathe.  He had met many in the church wh...

First, why is personal budget discipline necessary?  It's necessary because without it, you're going spend more than you earn and end up living the rest of your life in debt. Spending one's entire life in debt doesn't produce growth. Personal finance growth is founded on having substantial savings, which could form a significant portion of initial investment capital.  Investments drive personal growth.  So to grow financially, personal budget discipline is necessary. However personal budget discipline can't be obtained in the absence of effective spending habits. What are the effective spending habits that guarantee personal budget discipline? 1. Having the habit of preparing a personal budget regualrly. Having a personal budget is the starting point and the driver of effective spending habits. A personal budget is a financial plan that clearly defines your expected revenue and expected expenses. For a personal budget to be effective, it must be realistic. That is, ...

  There's no one magic wand. Business survival and success depend on managing a combination of factors successfully.  Pause! This combination must be driven by a clearly thought out selling point matched by a singularity of focus. This selling point, a summary of  the primary reason customers should choose you to do business with instead of competition, is the driver of business survival and success  After you have clearly defined your selling point, shift your focus to situate it with needs and expectations of your target market, investors, suppliers and the public.  While at it, don't forget to be flexible and adaptable to changes. Don't also forget that the customer is king. Therefore, customer satisfaction should be regarded as a very important consideration for the sake of business survival and success.  Another point to keep in mind is that business success takes time. At the early stages of the business, expect expenses to exceed revenue. But with ti...

  Businesses associated with constantly rising share prices and a corresponding constantly rising dividend payouts are  attractive to dividend stock investors. This is because, investors are confident that these businesses have managements that set and achieve progressively increasing total sales revenue and declining total costs.  The result, progressively rising profits for appropriation as retained profits, dividend payouts and reinvestment for growth and expansion purposes. Now, which dividend stocks will continue to grow over the next 5 years? No one can accurately predict future share prices. Share prices are influenced by speculators' often irrational decisions.  However, as an investor, you can make near accurate predictions by picking and investing in a portfolio of at least, 15 financially strong and stable high dividend paying businesses. Such businesses can be selected from the "New York Stock Exchange’s 106 Best High Dividend Stocks - Analyzed and Scored...

  Every business set up for the purpose of making profit is primarily interested in reaching and maintaining a high level of performance where revenue exceeds expenses.  It measures its performance in terms of of the price of its shares, dividends and number of issued shares. A business's dividend policy including the stability of the policy, is tied to the business's earned profits, cash flows, prospects of growth and the preferences of shareholders or investors. Shareholders or investors considering investment options would assess dividend policies and results of shareholder or investor ratios (especially the price earnings ratio) of available businesses before making an investment decision.. The dividend policy indicates the proportion of earned profits a business is willing to pay out and the regularity at which dividends are paid out.  Now note, when a company is not making stable profits, their shares will not yield regular dividends.  What is the price earning...

  It's common for an investor to do the financial analysis of the company they want to invest in. It's uncommon for an investor to do the organizational structure analysis. The latter is usually done by management for the purpose of internal decisions. The organizational structure of a company defines its business approach. The way a company approaches its business operations has a significant impact on its performance. Its performance is the primary determinant of either profitability or non-profitability. The profitability of a company is known by carrying out the financial analysis of its performance within its industry over a range of financial years.  Profitability and its consistency form the primary concern of an investor. It is the consistency in profitability that guarantees regular payment of dividends, interest on debt and return of principal. The foregoing indicates that both organizational structure and financial analyses of investment options could improve invest...

  Do you have a plan for your future? The answer is most likely a quick YES! Does that plan include a financial plan (a budget to control your spending, saving and dictate your invesments)? The answer more likely a NO!  Many make plans for the future without including a financial plan in them. Why do they ignore this all important map and means to get to their goals? It's most probably because they don't have a financial literacy.  What is financial literacy? Financial literacy is the acquisition of at least,  a basic financial knowledge that helps you to know how to fill your needs, spend responsibly and still set aside (save) a portion of your income for the future.  Why is it important to save a portion of your income? So that you can have a significant portion of capital that may be required to invest, grow and secure a lifetime financial stability Also for the sake of the protection of your investments (and your entire personal finance) against future risks...

What are marketable securities as a short term investment option? First, what are marketable securities? Many businesses prefer to invest most of their liquid resources in marketable resources instead of keeping them in idle cash. Businesses prefer holding a greater portion of their liquid resources in this form, because marketable securities can be easily and quickly bought or sold (they are highly liquid, that is, easily converted into cash) at quoted market prices daily, on securities exchanges.     Marketable securities consist basically of bonds and common stock of publicly owned companies. Investments in marketable securities yield returns in the form of interest and dividends.  When marketable securities are bought, how is the purchase price calculated? ABC Company makes a short term investment by buying 10,000 shares of the common stock of XYC Company at $0.35 per share. ABC also pays a brokerage commission of $500. The purchase price is $4,000 (10,000 x $0.3...

  What Is Inflation? Inflation reduces the purchasing power of money (purchasing power, the quantity of goods bought by an amount of money).  Inflation reduces the purchasing power of money in a growing economy by triggering rising prices of consumer goods and services. `A slow and steady rising of prices caused by an inflation rate of at about 2% is okay. But when the rate rises faster, sometimes to double digits, then it can have a negative impact on personal financial management. For instance, as a consumer, you would be time consuming to compare and determine best prices to get goods and services at a given moment. How is inflation measured? Inflation is measured by using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCI) tools.  The Consumer Price Index tracks prices for individual goods and services which households are buying.  The Personal Consumption Expenditures, PCE, tracks changes in prices of consumer goods and services which ...

 First, what is cash flow> Cash flow is defined as an increase or decrease in an amount of cash. And what is cash? Cash is defined as ‘cash held  in hand’ and any deposits repayable on demand with banks and any other qualifying financial institution, less overdrafts from a bank and any qualifying institution, repayable on demand.  What then is the difference between break- even analysis and payback period on the basis of cash flow? The term break-even analysis as commonly used, does not capture the true meaning of the interrelationships it explores. Break-even analysis is not only concerned with the level of activity which produces the break-even point (where neither profit nor loss is produced). It is more concerned with how costs and profits behave at other levels. This is why the alternative term. Cost-volume-profit (c-v-p) is often used.  Break-even analysis or c-v-p analysis is relied upon for short term planning and decision making. It uses principles of mar...

House (asset) rich, cash poor is a product of you putting most of your wealth (equity) in real estate that's difficult to convert into cash.  Investing in real estate is a good financial decision but it may constitute a problem if you don't have sufficient liquid cash in the pocket and bank to maintain your lifestyle and, pay short term debts as they mature. Being house rich, cash poor is an uncomfortable position where the struggle to hold onto real estate would cause you to keep on postponing, enjoying the benefits of being a homeowner. To solve this problem, you striking a balance between your real estate asset and your liquid assets (top among them is cash) is necessary. This stability would translate into having sufficient funds in your savings or checking accounts to settle current liabilities as they fall due. Apart from cash, other highly liquid assets are stocks and bonds, but it's more complicated to convert them into cash.

  Why should you be bothered about nterest rates? "Interest rates are to asset prices what gravity is to the apple. When there are low interest rates, there is a very low gravitational pull on asset prices." - Warren Buffett. Prices of assets, cost of borrowing and rewards for savings are tied to the rise, fall and stability of interest rates. Interest rate for borrowing (cost of borrowing) is the percentage of the loan amount. The higher this percentage is, the more the interest to be paid back in addition to the principal.. At lower interest rates, borrowing to buy big assets is more attractive than borrowing to aave.  At lower savings rate, a percentage of savings paid into a savings account is less than at higher savings rate. So, it makes more sense to borrow to spend and buy assets rather than borrow to save and be rewarded with low interests. At lower interest rates, spenders pay less interest and have more money to increase their spendings on consumer goods. This lead...

  These reasons are, to have the time to learn the true meaning of life and enjoy its beautiful gifts, found in abundance outside the work environment. Have you forgotten that life's pleasant and exciting surprises, are presented to travellers? Surprises and nature's strange things told and found in books seem fictitious until they're lived and experienced. So, go ahead, take a career break and find out what life is all about. Another reason is, so that life will not leave you behind. Life leaves behind the redundant.  It's an ever changing dynamic world out there. Acquiring a new set of skills keeps you ahead of the game. A new set of skills can hardly be acquired without taking a career break. "Work is a rubber ball." Gary Keller observed and continued, "If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls- family, health, friends, integrity- are made of glass." Your family is a glass ball, if you drop it, it could be irrovocably  shattered.  ...

"Returns matter a lot. It's our capital." — Abigail Johnson The accumulation of wealth from investments in stocks is determined by the long run rate of return on investments. Many investors find companies that pay regular and increasing dividends attractive.  Investors believe that a company with a history of strong dividend growth are on the path of long term profitability and that, part of their profits, would consistently be appropriated to grow their dividend. However, what is the primary input of the stock valuation method, investors in dividend growth stocks use to determine the best stocks to invest in? It's the dividend growth rate. What is the dividend growth rate?  The dividend growth rate is the percentage rate of growth that a company's stock's dividend experineces within a given period of time. It's calculated annually. Examples of companies with dividend growth stocks for the month of February, 2023. - fool.com

? Thorough project management knowledge, skills and techniques are necessary for the successful execution of a project from iniatiation to closing.  One of the tools for a successful  project execution is an effective project cost management.knowledge. Project Cost Management includes necessary techniques or processes for the completion of projects within approved budget. These processes are estimation of costs, determination of budget and control of costs. 1. Estimation of costs - The establishment of monetary resources required to successfully complete a project is crucial. Some of the techniques used to estimate costs include  a. parametric estimating - the parametric cost estimates are calculated by using the relationship between historical data and other variables such as cost, budget and duration. b. reserve analysis - cost estimates sometimes include reserve analysis- this analysis is relevant to cost estimates that contain cost uncertainty.  The uncertainty i...

Recently, job cut has become a constant reality. The reason is, many economies are frequently in and out of depression. Businesses would always do all they could to push total revenue above total costs. If sustained profitability is the oxygen of every successful business, cutting costs would always be applied to avoid suffocation. Job cut is most busineeses'  primary cost cutting tool. What this means is, right now, someone has just lost a job or is about to lose a job for no fault of theirs. But...that wouldn't be the end of life. There's life after a job loss. A weak economy could recover quickly, grow rapidly and give businesses opportunities to hire again. But one would have to be alive, sound and prepared when the next employment opportunity shows up.   This post gives useful tips on how to prepare for a job loss and survive a layoff. 1. Invest in continuous learning. Don't stop learning after you've secured your dream job. Having a dream job is not the same a...

 Argentina and Brazil are set to begin preparatory work to establish the second largest currency bloc in the world. The name suggested for the new currency is "sur".  The "sur" when it officially becomes a medium of exchange in the two largest latin American economies, would facilitate comparisons of prices and other key investment decision parameters.  What else should investors expect? A look at lessons from "euro", the largest currency union would be helpful. The euro eliminates currency risk within the eurozone. It facilitates and promotes cross border invesments by businesses. Businesses operating in both Argentina and Brazil would no longer face currency risks if and when sur becomes a daily currency in both countries. Elimination of currency risks and facilitation of price comparison would enable cross border businesses in the two countries to lower costs and increase profits. How? Businesses would have a range of best deals from suppliers to choose...

Every budget is a test of your capability to balance your expenses and your income. It's a tough test that many of us fail. The reason is simple, most of us are never prepared to live within our means. Most of us when we have a little, we want to prove to those who don't really care about us that we have arrived  and when we're sent packing from the heaven the people built for us, we go outside our means to buy mansions in the hottest part of hell in attempt to prove to the world that we are still in heaven. Who really cares about where you're , what you have and how you are at any time of your life? Maybe your loved ones, outside them you're alone. So, if you want to balance your budget and achieve financial freedom, you've to die to what people think of your lifestyle, how they live without fiscal discipline and live within your means.

What's the primary job of every entrepreneur? Take profitable risks, do everything legitimate to at least preserve capital when profit can't be made. This job wouldn't be done when a business survives the volatile early stage, breaks even, enjoys profitability for few years and then goes bankrupt as a result of venturing into risky ventures. The going concern concept would be defeated.  So, what long term business survival options do some entrepreneurs pick to preserve their assets when they go into volatile ventures? One of them is the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) also known as Spechial Vehicle Entity (SPE). A special purpose vehicle or special purpose entity is defined as a subsidiary created by a parent company for a special purpose. The special purpose most often, is to isolate a parent company from financial risk by providing securitization of assets  The above is made possible by the fact that SPV has Its legal status as a separate company. This status makes its obli...