Blazing Your Trail To Financial Freedom

On The Path Of Winners

By Bayo Ogunmupe

Blazing Your Trail To Financial Freedom

YOUR journey to financial freedom begins with your aims in life. Then, you set out goals with which to achieve your aims.

  The kind of vehicle you use and the speed you move will be determined by the correctness of your aspirations.

  However, to arrive at your place of destiny, you must find the correct trail to your pot of gold.

  “The labour of fools wearies them, for they do not know how to go to the city,” Eccl 10:15. Then, how do you find the path that leads to wealth?

  There are three steps or ways to wealth and anyone desiring financial freedom must pass through these steps.

  Financial intelligence, also known as the investment mindset, is the first step on your way to wealth. Albeit, going to school does not confer financial mindset on you, because schools don't teach it.

  One with the investment mindset understands the inner workings of money. He understands how to make, manage and multiply money. He knows the place of inflation, cash flow and delayed gratification on the path to wealth.

  This shows that financial intelligence does not come from undergoing formal education. It comes by personal development and capacity building, particularly through self-education, business seminars and the right association.

  If you want to be rich, seek financial intelligence. Beware of what you study, for education has been used as a way to keep people in bondage.

  That was why education started in ancient Egypt and it has kept Egyptians in bondage to their rulers to this day.

  But the school system today is to qualify people to get jobs. College education is getting you prepared for getting a job, instead of creating a job.

  If you have to spend four to eight years in the university to become an applicant, don't you think you are in bondage?

  He that teaches not his child a trade is teaching them to be thieves.

  The second step to financial intelligence is financial planning. When you fail to plan, it means you are planning to fail.

  “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish, lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying ‘this man began to build and was not able to finish,” Luke 14: 28-31.

  This quotation from the Bible shows Jesus validating the importance of planning in every human endeavour. Adequate planning determines the result you get from any aspect of life.

  Many people have financial intelligence, but fail to achieve financial freedom, because they failed to plan to actualise their dreams.

  Never expect to arrive at a level of wealth you never planned for, for the dream you never worked for, never becomes a reality.

  To achieve a desired goal or objective, financial planning has action steps, strategy and structure. You cannot be a goal-getter without being a financial goal-setter. What is your plan for the remainder of your life?

 Let me motivate you unto creating a financial plan for your future. You are expected to move through the three stages of an earthly existence.

  First, the learning stage, which covers the early days of your life to the 25th year, which marks the end of your learning stage at which you are expected to have acquired all the skills to tackle your financial needs.

  At this stage, you acquire qualifications and get connected with God. You grow in maturity and the understanding of the basics of life. You would have discovered your vision and purpose in life.

  The second stage is the Earning Stage. This is the period of your life at which you make a living by earning an income. It is the period between 25 and 50 years.

  You should be married and become a parent. You should use your financial intelligence to secure your financial freedom.

  If at this stage, you are still trying to make a career, you are devoid of investment mindset, operating below standard and behind schedule.

  The last is the turning stage. It is between 50 and 80 years. Here, you must have gained riches, retired from your vocation and begin to mentor and impact on the next generation with your wealth and experience.

  This is the stage to secure your life. There is no social security in Nigeria, and we have billions of naira in unpaid pensions, with pensioners living in penury.

  “Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise. Which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.

  “How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall your poverty come on you, like a prowler, and your need, like an armed man,” Proverbs 6:6-11.

  Our champion this week is William Juxon, Archbishop of Canterbury and minister to King Charles 1 on the Scaffold.

  Born in 1582 in Chester, Juxon died in June 1663 in London.

  As lord high treasurer, Juxon was the last English clergyman to hold both secular and clerical offices in the medieval tradition of clerical state service.

  He studied Law at St. John’s College, Oxford, but turned to Theology and was ordained a priest before 1615, when he became rector of St. Giles, Oxford.

  In 1621, Juxon succeeded his friend, William Laud, as president of St. John’s and later was vice chancellor of Oxford University.

  Then, he became chaplain to Charles 1 and was made dean of Worcester in 1627. In 1632, Juxon was nominated bishop of Hereford, but in 1633, he was made bishop of London instead, again succeeding Laud.

  In 1636, Charles appointed Juxon as lord high treasurer, a post last held by a cleric during the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509).

  Resigning his post in 1641, Juxon continued to advise the king during the civil war (1642-1648), with Charles defeat.

  In 1649, Charles was executed, with Juxon the only priest to accompany him to the scaffold.

  Then, Oliver Cromwell deprived Juxon of his bishopric and he went into retirement.

  On the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Juxon was named archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held until his death.

  His memoirs, edited by Williams Marah, were published in 1869.