Personal Finance
How to build solid income security for yourself
The wise thing to do is to pursue income security and not Job security and separate your income from your job.
The future of work is not Job security but Income security, the ability to earn income regardless of salary.
Work as we know it today will be different post-COVID-19. There will be downsizing, salary slashes, layoffs and so on. The truth is the insecurity in the job Market will triple. If you are still holding on to your job congratulations but not for too long. While we pray that nothing bad happens to your job, we cannot rule out the possibility of it happening someday. You cannot guarantee your job security. Your employers can’t, neither can the government, and here is why.
Job security is not in the hands of your Employer. Job security is in the hands of customers. When customers patronize businesses, organizations make money and are able to keep jobs intact. But when consumers are scared to spend and hoard money. Organizations must trim down jobs to stay alive.
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Additionally, organizations are realizing that certain job roles are no longer important for their survival. They are also shifting from the traditional workforce model to an independent and remote workforce model exposing certain gaps in the system. The only way to protect yourself long-term from the hammer of a job is to secure the one thing that makes a Job important to you. Your Income.
The New security is thus now income security. That is the ability to keep income flowing even when a job ends. This is important because a job is a short-term need while income is a lifetime need.
While you may survive without a job, you cannot survive without income. So the wise thing to do is to pursue income security and not Job security and separate your income from your job. You must be able to create the kind of income that does not require ongoing work to thrive.
So, how do you create this kind of income?
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To create lasting income you must do three things. First, you must increase your savings ability. Second, you must create new income sources within and outside your Organization. And third, you must separate your income from your job and create an independent Income security for yourself. Let me explain each of the points in detail.
The first is to increase savings ability. To create income that is free from job loss you must save a sizable portion of your income each month. The average employee saves 5-10% of their income. This kind of sluggish saving will only extend the number of years you will have to work. The most successful people save 40-50% of their income. They are able to exit the corporate world in their youth and achieve financial stability at a young age.
They increase their savings at every opportunity and short cut their years of active labor. To create income security that stands the test of time you must push your savings beyond average and here is why. It will take you 10 years to save 12 months of your current salary if you save just 10% of your income. How many more ‘ten years’ do you have in the corporate world? Approaching savings with a lazy attitude as this is getting rich never. Without the discipline and commitment to save above average, financial freedom is out of reach for you.
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The second thing you must do is add new sources of income to your existing income. And there are two ways you can do this. The first is to earn more income within your current organization. The second is to find new sources of income outside your organization. Earning more income within your organizations is important because you spend over 70% of your time at work.
Most people do not even have extra time for anything else. This means they can only invest only a small fraction of their time in outside sources of income. And these sources must be high-income sources to create a major change in their lives. Thus the focus on one’s place of employment make sense. To earn more income within your organization you must become a problem solver.
Every organization has problems that need to be solved. The closer the problem is to the bottom line the higher the reward. This means that organizations are constantly looking for people who can solve their problems. If you can solve a problem that is important to your organization you can negotiate a cash or kind reward that can fast-track your journey to financial freedom.
Do you know the top three problems of your organization? Have you found a new way to help your organization make more money? Do you have skills that are in high demand? Are you unique and different? To successfully solve organizational problems, you need creative and negotiation abilities.
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You can also earn money from other sources of income outside your organization part-time. You can earn passive income through your investments and you can earn commission from other organizations willing to pay you for referring customers to them. Salary plus commission is the easiest most effective way to Remove the Ceiling from your Income and earn income that is bigger than your salary.
The third thing you must do is to separate your income from your Job and create an Independent Income for yourself. You do this by first saving big portions of your income. Savings is the only thing that keeps money in your pocket. With your savings you can then create a system of generating passive income and begin to build a solid passive income portfolio that can fund your life.
Funding your life from an uncertain source of income like salary is choosing to suffer financial stress for the rest of your life. Your goal as a smart employee is to create a life that thrives regardless of salary. Because only then can you truly gain control over your time. There is no job security anywhere. The only security that exist is the one you create for yourself today.
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If you want to create income security, increase your ability to solve problems or upgrade your knowledge about investing for long-term financial success, we can help you. To learn more, send an email to the email address at the end of this article.
The best use of your corporate career life is to create a solid independent income that will carry you throughout life and Not to enjoy a temporary prestigious Job life.
About author
Grace Agada is The Senior Financial Happiness Director @ Create Solid Wealth. She is an Author, and Column Contributor in Six National Newspaper. She is a contributor at BellaNaija, Nairametrics and Proshare and she is on a mission to help working-class professionals and CEOs become more financially successful. To learn more about Grace and how she can help you send an email to [email protected]
Financial Services
How to invest in Nigerian Eurobonds
Before investing in Eurobonds, weigh the bond’s risk characteristics and set them against the interest rate to know if it is worth it.
As of 2019, Nigeria’s Eurobonds were regarded as one of the top 5 best-performing Eurobonds in the world.
Although Nigeria’s Eurobonds remain one of the most profitable in the investment world, not many individuals know how to invest in them. The Federal Government and a number of corporate organisations in the country subscribe to Eurobonds and issue them quite often, lending credence to their attractiveness as an investment tool.
What is Eurobond?
Basically, Eurobonds are financial instruments issued by a country or corporate organisation in a currency different from the currency of the issuer.
Nigeria typically issues Eurobond instruments denominated in US dollars. For example, the 6.75% $500 million January 2021 Eurobond was denominated in US dollars.
There is the sovereign, which is referred to as a government bond, and the corporate bond. Eurobonds operate like fixed income securities in terms of bond instruments. It has a coupon, an interest rate paid on bonds (which is paid bi-annually), a price at which the bond will be purchased, and also a yield.
The price and yield have an inverse relationship meaning that when the price goes up, the yield comes down. When the yield is coming down, the instrument is trading at a premium compared to when it was issued.
An investor can buy Eurobonds while the primary auction is ongoing or later, at the secondary market, for those who were unable to participate in the primary auction.
READ: Nigeria’s Eurobond yield hit 12.8% as investors flee emerging markets
How to invest in Nigerian Eurobonds
The process of investing in Eurobonds in Nigeria is not any different from that of investing in local bonds. Both bonds can be bought from either the primary market at the initial offer level or at the secondary market for existing bonds.
All that is required is for the investor to complete the tender for the Federal Government of Nigeria or corporate bonds form, submit the tender through any of the authorized dealers and make the required payment when the bid is successful.
Basically, for banks, your account has to be funded with the desired currency. For instance, to buy a dollar-denominated Eurobond which is the conventional one issued in Nigeria, you have to fund your account with dollars, then send an instruction for the bond purchase.
READ: FG redeems $500 million Eurobond
Be mindful of the bond’s risk profile before investing
Eurobonds can either be corporate or government bonds. Corporate bonds may offer higher interest rates than government-issued Eurobonds but they also come with higher risk.
If you want to invest in Eurobonds, ensure that you weigh the risk characteristics of the bonds and set them against the interest rate to know if it is worth it. Most Eurobonds come with credit ratings, which serve as a measure of their quality and risk profile.
Usually, bonds with the highest quality credit ratings come with the lowest yields while bonds with lower credit ratings offer higher yields. The yield, in this sense, is a measure of the bond issuer’s creditworthiness meaning that the greater the credit risk on an investment, the higher the yield investors would demand to compensate for it.
READ: Investing in Nigerian Bonds – A Beginners Guide
How to obtain an FG Eurobond
When bonds are issued at the primary market, the issuance document contains a list of the banks or brokers that have been authorized to sell the bonds. The FGN issued bonds are purchased through the Primary Dealer Market Makers (PDMMs). These are banks appointed by the Debt Management Office (DMO), to act as authorized dealers of FGN bonds.
Can you fund a Eurobond with a naira account?
Not at the moment! You need a dollar account (domiciliary account) that is funded but your bank can easily guide you on how to obtain one.
Next is to fill out instruction documents after which the bank will send you a market price and the expected yield. The bank then debits your account for the purchase. Every six months or on the specified coupon dates, you will receive your coupon and at maturity, you will get your principal back if the issuer does not default. A coupon or coupon payment is the annual interest rate paid on a bond, expressed as a percentage of the face value and paid from the issue date until maturity.
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Here is a simplified example of the process:
You walk into a branch of your bank and ask to purchase $100,000 worth of Eurobonds. Note that your domiciliary account should already be funded with the amount. You would be required to fill out and sign the letter of instruction which would then be sent to the bank’s treasury unit for processing. The treasury unit responds with the available Eurobond prices and requests you to confirm the purchase. When that is done, the treasury unit executes the deal and holds it in their custody.
You can also sell the bonds at the secondary market.
Minimum investment as an individual
The minimum conventional investment tranche is $200,000, but a $100,000 worth of investment is also permissible. Amounts lower than this are however problematic because the secondary market trades in tranches of $200,000.
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Can people invest through mutual funds?
Basically, what mutual funds do is amass investors’ funds and buy Eurobonds in the secondary market. A mutual fund is just like a vehicle that helps you to buy bonds so that you are not faced with the issuer’s risk directly. Therefore, individuals or institutions can also buy Eurobonds through mutual funds.
Mutual funds make it possible for you to participate in bond-buying with less than the statutory amount since they operate by pooling resources together from a large number of investors.
Financial Literacy
How to grow rich with the power of profitable relationships (Part 2)
The idea that you can build rich relationships with zero value is best left at Disney land.
Hello friends, to catch up on this topic, you can read up on the first part by clicking here. Now let’s continue…
The two rewards for solving high-income problems
There are two rewards you can get for being a high-income problem solver. The first is the value reward and the second is the cash reward.
The value reward is earned when you enter into relationships solely to extract value. This means that someone has what you need to succeed and you have what they need to succeed. And both of you are willing to enter into a value for value exchange relationship.
For example, if you need a job and you meet someone that can help you get a job. And if this person needs contacts or a certain service that you can provide. Both of you can enter into a value for value exchange relationship and solve your problems. The important thing for this kind of relationship to work is that both of you must come to the table with value. And the value must be comparable and worthy of the exchange.
READ: How to move from middle class to upper class (Part 3)
The idea that you can build rich relationships with zero value is best left at Disney land. Frankly, it never truly works this way. In the corridors of wealth and power, it is value for value. This is why the rich keep getting richer. They are always exchanging value that creates more wealth. If you want to be rich or build profitable relationships you must approach relationship building this way. You must bring value to get value. And you must constantly strive to increase your personal value every day. The value for value exchange is common in the relationship among peers, friends, and business partners. It is also common in the relationship between the older and younger generation.
Right now, there are certain relationships that you need in your life. But those relationships will not just fall on your laps for nothing. You need to have what these relationships need to attract them to you. And you must become a person of value to attract them. Success in the value for value exchange relationship thus begins with first becoming a person of value.
READ: How to earn over 20% returns in real estate in Nigeria
Sometimes a financial reward is what you get in return for solving high-income problems. This is common where there is a customer involved. And where a problem can be solved using products or services. When you engage in a customer-type relationship you must offer products and services, that can solve customers’ problems in exchange for cash. And there are two ways to achieve this.
The first way is to sell your own products and services to customers. This is a slow and laborious way especially if you are a working professional. The second way is to find products and services that are already selling. And are owned by companies or organizations that you care about. And then sell them in exchange for income. This is the faster way. All you need to do here is connect people who need a solution to the companies that can offer those solutions. This is what I call Relationship Brokering and it simply means connecting two people who need each other and getting paid for your connection. To succeed as a relationship broker, you must become a value connector and this brings us to the second point.
2. Become a value connector
Becoming a value connector means connecting people with a similar problem that you have solved or are solving with the organizations that have helped you solve the problem or are helping you solve the problem in exchange for cash. It is connecting people that need help with those that can help them. And it means that you must first solve a personal problem for yourself, then partner with the company that helped you. And then find people with similar problems who are ready to solve them.
Successful value connectors thus build three kinds of relationships. They build-relationship with business owners. They build relationships with customers and they build relationships with other value connectors. The key to succeeding as a value connector or broker is to focus on solving high-income problems for yourself. And to choose companies that you have used, tested, and trusted.
You must also ensure that the company you choose has a good reward system that can help you earn a high income or at least is willing to negotiate one with you. If you do this successfully you will not only transform your life, you will transform the lives of other people and enlarge your income in the process.
The beautiful thing about being a value connector or broker is that you don’t work alone. You work in partnership with reputable organizations and people that can increase your value and credibility. All you need to do is be the one that connects people who need help with the companies that can help them.
Perhaps you are thinking to yourself where do I find these companies, how do I know which problems are high income-producing problems, how do I negotiate a reward for myself and how do I do all of these with my busy work schedule etc. The solution is to join a problem-solving platform.
3. Join a problem-solving platform.
A problem-solving platform is a platform that exposes you to a diverse range of problem-solving opportunities that produce high income, help you build rich relationships, and develop high-income skills. This means that you don’t need to set anything up all by yourself. All you need to do is join a platform that has already set it up for you. So if you want a one-stop-shop for solving high-income problems, entering into value for value exchange relationships, or developing high-income skills our platform is the answer.
Our Relationship Brokering platform is focused on helping people solve financial, investing, retirement, wealth, business, and relationship or networking problems. So, if you want to solve any of these problems for yourself. And want to help other people solve this kind of problem in exchange for cash. You can join our platform. However, you must qualify to be considered. To learn more, send an email to [email protected].
About the author
Grace Agada is the most sought-after Financial Planning expert in the country and is quoted frequently in leading Newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Grace is a Renowned Keynote Speaker, Author, and Column Contributor in Punch Newspaper, This Day Newspaper, Vanguard newspaper, Business Day Newspaper, Leadership Newspaper, The Tribune Newspaper, and Online Platforms like Nairametrics, Proshare, and Bellanaija. Grace is the Founder of “The University of Wealth” The author of “The Financial Freedom MBA Program”, “The Better Life in Retirement Planning Blueprint” and “The Wealthy Business Blueprint”. Grace is on a mission to shrink the middle class and populate the upper class. She has been featured on BBC Africa. Business Day TV. Inspiration FM. and inside Naijatv. And she consults for Numerous Top Organizations, Company Directors, CEOs, Senior Executives, and High-Income Professionals.
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