‘You can’t afford to park the bus’

TUNDE OYEDOYIN  

Tunde Oyedoyin is a London-based personal finance coach and founder of Money Intelligence Coaching Academy, a specialist academy of personal finance. He can be reached as follows: +447846089587 (WhatsApp only); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com

A successful person realises his personal responsibility for self-motivation. He starts with himself because he possesses the key to his own ignition switch

         — Kemmons Wilson, founder, Holiday Inn Hotels

While inside the local Tesco store on the last Wednesday of August, the plan was to just pick a couple of things and pop back home. But then, yours truly stopped by at the newspaper section, hoping to take a glance at the headlines.

I scanned some and expectedly, nothing shifted until my eyes got to that of the Daily Mail. Beneath the masthead was “Shield your savings, pension and property from Labour’s Budget of Pain,” which was the title of their Money Mail special report. Though buying a newspaper wasn’t supposed to be part of the reason why I popped out of the house, yours truly couldn’t afford to not instantly make the decision to go home with that paper.

You cannot afford to park the bus when a report like that is out there for the taking. At just over a pound, that is less than that of a medium cup of chocolate at Costa Coffee. Not grabbing the paper would have been an unforced error that could result in losing more than a hundred times the cover price. Who wouldn’t want to exchange that tiny amount to know how to shield their savings?

Here’s the thing, you must keep topping up your financial literacy level. Sadly, though, after graduating and perhaps, going further to eventually landing a job of their dreams or one that puts enough food on the table, it’s very easy to settle into a life of drudgery. For many, it’s okay to just coast along with the daily grind. By so doing, a lot of us have parked the bus.

As it turns out, we do that at our peril. If there’s one single reason why you cannot afford to park the bus, it’s because there’re people and structures out there who are ready to dip their hands into your pockets. They could come in the form of prospective online lovers or simply through signing up for things you never need or use. The government itself may be out to help themselves to your money as is the case here in the United Kingdom. When Sir Keir Starmer’s people release their “budget of pain” next month, many Britons will simply wish they didn’t thumbprint their votes for them in July.

If you’re reading this article and are a regular reader of this column, I say thank you and also congratulate you for not parking the bus. But please, read further in order to keep sharpening your money intelligence level. Moreover, go over previous editions of this column. As they say in social care, it’s in your ‘best interest.’ In addition to reading everything about money matters, watch business and other exciting programmes on the TV, as well. When possible on weekdays, yours truly fits his breakfast and other routine things around the Arise News Morning Show, from eight to eleven. I’d also recently extended it by another half an hour for the global business report. That’s one way of not parking the bus.

As Kemmons Wison, the founder of the globally famous Holiday Inn Hotels puts it in the opening quote cited above, each one of us is personally responsible for our self-motivation. Personal finance is an area that affects us every single day and so, you cannot afford to park the bus by not upgrading and refreshing your financial education. Take it from here, sooner or later, what you’re learning, storing and acquiring will come handy.

Keep something aside for your milestones

Like many Londoners, Mrs O took advantage of the last bank holiday before Christmas to go shopping at the Stratford Westfield on the last Monday of last month. I tagged along.

While there at the Deichmann store, trying out shoes, an elderly Caribbean woman sat next to her on one of their many side chairs to try out a heeled shoe.

Not surprisingly, she sought Mrs O’s opinion and asked if it was fine. She said to go for it. Yours truly nodded too. Out of curiosity, I asked if she had an occasion for it. She replied with a smile, noting: “It’s my sixtieth wedding anniversary, next week.” Wow! We were naturally surprised. May the Lord continue to bless the marriage.

Funnily, she added that all the effort she was making was just “for one evening.” It’s definitely worth celebrating, madam.

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