Building financial capacity is the bedrock of wealth creation. Financial capacity is acquiring financial literacy to create lasting Wealth. In simple terms, it is understanding how money works in order to create wealth.
Wealth creation is a means to an end not an end in itself. The reasons why you embark on the journey of wealth creation are: one to enjoy the fruits of your labor, to fulfill your purpose, and to pass on the wealth as legacy to your next generation
All these require time. So the challenge we have as humans is that we do not know how much time we have in life, but one thing we do know for sure is that our time is finite. It is so limited that we cannot add a second to it. Therefore in the school of wealth, time is the most valuable asset because it is irreplaceable.. This is why it is crucial to build the capacity to create wealth on time. Our time can be viewed under 4 distinct seasons of life as it relates to wealth creation.
Season one is the age of preparation typically age 0 to 25. This is when people still depend on other people like parents, family and loved ones.
Season two is the age 25 to 35 when people have started with their careers and are expected to be on their feet and start raising family
Season three is age 35 to 45 when people are at the peak of their careers and should be getting ready to wind down. They are expected to have created assets out of the different classes of assets that generate wealth. These are business, commodities, real estate and paper assets.
Season four is the age 45 to 65 when they should now allow the assets they have created in stage three to replace their jobs they have been depending upon
Throughout these four seasons, the common element is time.As we go through these seasons, we lose time, and if we do not build capacity on time, we run the risk of wasting time. For example, someone who is in season four may still be found struggling trying to achieve what people in stage two have already achieved
Why is it that people don’t build this financial capacity on time?
There are many reasons. Here are the three I’d like to share with you.
One, poor family background . People who are born into poor families, may not even have leverage or financial support needed to start building capacity. Some people may have to drop out of school because they do not have enough financial support from parents, and they may have to start all over again after they save . They have to do this, because having a basic education is a component of building strong,financial capacity.
Secondly, Lack of awareness. Most people say having a good education and a good job is the same as building capacity to create wealth.. It is not the same at all. People who make this mistake continue their professions or jobs until they get to season four of life, and suddenly realize that their jobs will come to an end, but they still have a life ahead of them and they have not built enough wealth to sustain them after their job is gone. Then they panic as they think about their retirement ahead of them. I have been there before until I realized otherwise.
Thirdly, lack of proper role models building financial capacity requires exposure to those who have built such capacity. It also requires some support from them directly or indirectly..
Some people are aware that they need to build capacity to create wealth. They just don’t know how to go about it, and they do not have the opportunity to have access to people who can guide them and support them through that journey. Some are not intentional about their search for Mentors or financial role models.. To make matters worse, such role models are typically few and far between and getting access to them may be challenging if one is not intentional.
Now I’d like to talk about the tips that can help us build capacity on time. From my reading,research and experience, there are many tips, I will just share three here.
Number one dream big. There’s a tendency for those who are from poor backgrounds to think they have been limited because of their circumstances. It is said that your past is a place to learn and grow, not a place to live. If you find yourself in the situation of being raised from a humble family, one practical thing you can do to expand your dream is to expose yourself to material information about people who have risen from very humble backgrounds, and have gone further in life to achieve great heights. Reading biographies of such people is one practical way you can expand your capacity to dream big regardless of your backgrounds.
The second solution to the problem of lack of awareness is readiness to learn. For those who have left school a long time and have not upgraded their knowledge and training, they need to read and learn, and this would require a lot of discipline. There could be endless excuses and reasons why they may think they won’t be able to learn. Discipline will help them not to yield to those excuses
The third one is to be intentional about your search for a role model. I can tell you two things about this set of people.
Number one, they will not come looking for you. You have to go out of your way to search for them because they are typically on the go and are very busy which is why they are successful in the first place..Secondly you do not need to access them directly one on one to benefit from their knowledge, skills, expertise and guidance. You can actually do that through a variety of ways such as reading their books, listening to their message, podcast,, and publicly available materials.
Thirdly if you insist on one on one with them, you can initiate a one on one access by having the readiness to be committed to what it takes to get such access
You may be reading now and thinking you have lost time and you suddenly realize that you are in a season of life that you are not prepared for. Or you did not do what you should have done in prior seasons. I want to strongly encourage you not to lose hope. There is still so much ahead of your life that you can accomplish. History is full of those who did not start early, but still finished very strong. It is said that you can move forward with hope, not backward with regret.
As I conclude , I have shared with us some of the reasons why we need to start the journey of wealth creation. I also shared with us some of the reasons why people do not build financial capacity on time and tips that can help us do that.
