Financial-planning-for-women

The Women Lighthouse Podcast is focused on empowering purpose-driven women to live their dreams. They are starting a three-part series on financial planning for women, addressing the unique challenges they face. The podcast aims to provide knowledge and skills to effectively manage personal finances. The host, Wime Hamilton, introduces a guest, Mrs. Chioma Okorafo, who will teach financial planning and offer practical tips on budgeting, saving, investing, managing debt, and giving. Chioma Okorafo is an experienced business development manager and wealth advisor. The podcast emphasizes the importance of taking control of finances and promoting financial literacy. In the second part of the episode, Chioma discusses the four quadrants of making money: making money, spending money, saving and investing money, and giving money. She encourages listeners to identify their skills and passions to find opportunities for making money, even while working a 9-to-5 job. She gives examples like bakin Hello everyone, you are welcome to the Women Lighthouse Podcast. This is a community for purpose-driven women who desire to live their dreams and aspirations. Our mission is to inspire you to live your dreams one day at a time while serving as a beacon of hope and guidance. We will be addressing various issues related to womanhood. Join me as we explore our journey of life together. I am your host, Wime Hamilton. You're welcome to today's episode of the Women Lighthouse Podcast. It's great to have you on the show today. So, today we are beginning a three-part series on financial planning for women. In today's world, women play a very important role in the society, both in their profession and their personal lives. So, financial planning for women is very important now more than ever because women face unique challenges that involve long life expectancy, gender pay gaps and the likes. So, by taking control of their finances and developing a solid financial plan, women can secure their financial future and achieve their long-term goals. In this series, we want to provide you with knowledge and skills that are necessary to manage your personal finances effectively. And to do this, I have a special guest who will be joining us. Her name is Mrs. Chioma Okorafo. She's going to be teaching you financial planning and guiding you on how to achieve your financial goals. She'll be offering practical tips on budgeting, saving, investing, managing debt, but to not mention fear. And our ultimate goal through this podcast is to encourage you to take control of your finances and promote financial literacy. So, for your background, let me give you a little introduction about our guest. Chioma Okorafo is a business development manager with 17 years of experience as a wealth and financial administrator. She's an expert in creating customized financial solutions and possesses a profound knowledge of the industry. She has a proven track record of delivering excellent customer service. She's devoted to her relationships with her clients and she's a wealth advisor, an author, a counselor and a pacesetter. So, listening to get great tips on how to plan financially for 2024 and the years beyond stay tuned. Hello, everyone. We're here to talk about our finances, how to grow our finances and I'll be as practical as possible. Okay, so let me talk about finances. I like to put it into four quadrants. I like to put it into, we have four or five quadrants and we will walk through those quadrants and then use it to appraise ourselves. So, the first quadrant I would say is how to make money, how to make money. The second one is how to spend the money because money made has to be spent in one way or the other. The third one is how to save and invest the money. The fourth one is how to give the money and giving is in different spheres. So, you can't just keep making without giving leads to legacy, to you creating a support system that outlives you and that's the thing about giving. So, money can be placed, so we're going to place this money in four quadrants because trust me, business is just different or making money or your finances is just beyond you. If the people around you are not able to understand you and understand your wealth system, the truth about this is that you create a leaking pocket before you can even create a saving pocket and that's the truth. So, we'll start with how to make money. The economy, as you all know, this is the system. It's like it's getting from one level of challenge to another. You come today, you hear one story of something that has happened and interestingly, you find out that it was something we're analyzing. Everything in the market has increased but your upkeep money has not increased. Your salary is still there. All of these things is like there's no balance actually because this is what it is. Business is becoming tighter because the goods that you bought yesterday, you come back today and it's like it has increased 20 times and you're really wondering and then if you want to really push everything to your customers, it becomes challenging. That's for people who are business people. It becomes really challenging. Children's school fees might even increase. Your salary has not increased. So, all of these things are becoming... We see that there is a whole lot that has become challenging and we really, really, really need money. It has to grow. It has to grow. The economy is not waiting for us. So, our finances really has to grow. So, let's talk about the quadrants of making money. Thing is, how do you make money? Very, very important. How do you make money? There are several categories of people and so when we are talking about making money, we don't box people into one. There are some people that make money by being business people. There are people who are just entrepreneurs. There are people who are 8 to 4 or 8 to 5 jobs. This is what they do. There are people who are... So, people who have different... There are people who combine the two. So, everybody has his own name and it's important to know that when you're making money. So, for people who are 8 to 4 jobs, you know, one of the things or even entrepreneurs, one of the things I would say or I say to them is what the first question I ask is, what are the skills that you have? What are the things that you like to do? Look around you. What are the needs of the surrounding that's... I mean, of your surrounding? So, when we're talking about making money, it's very interesting, I mean, it's very important rather, I would say, I would put it that way. It's very important that we start with what are the things you like to do. A lot of us growing up, you know, I used to do certain things. Even when there's... Even when you're not getting anything from me, there's this joy you derive in doing a particular thing, you know? You spend money learning how to do it. I mean, there's a whole lot you put invested into it, but growing up, you know, you start looking for money and, you know, you forgot some of these things that, you know, you love to do. Skills. There are some skills that you learned, you know? There are some talents that you even have, you know, that you have... People have dropped by the doorside and say, you know what, let's just chase this money and move on. And it's really interesting how those things in these days and in this day and age actually make... I mean, people are looking for it. So when we talk about making money, you might be working eight to four jobs, but there's something that you love to do. There's a skill that you have. Some people learn how to bake, you know, when they leave to their parents, I mean, their mom. Their mom is something they love. They love to do all of these cookies, all of the, I mean, cakes, cupcakes and all of those things. They love doing those things. Right now, dessert. Dessert in a party is money making. And what are these desserts? These are the things that some of us already have skills. We already know how to do, you know? We already have all of these things at our fingertips. All we need to do is to brush up, to say, okay, what's the trend? What's happening now? So this is a list of the things that, you know, people do, I mean, desserts in parties. You know, people hire people for desserts, hire people for the main food. They hire people for cocktails and mocktails. And some of us know how to make smoothies, know how to make juices, mix different juices together and get something, a wild taste, you know? There are so many gifts. Is it editing? Some people just naturally are born to edit. When they edit a material here, you can't imagine, you know, you are wondering, did you use AI? So even the use of AI, some people don't even know how to use AI. And you know how to use it to edit. Do you know how much it costs for you to do a proper editing before somebody takes it to school, I mean, to take it to the publishers? So you need to start knowing, okay, what is this thing that I have within me? Search yourself to say, what is this thing that I have within me that I can begin to use or I can harness or I can brush up or I can, you know, clean up to say, ah, even though I'm 8 to 9 job. So just imagine even within, I have somebody in my office that she works the same hours with us and everything. And early in the morning, she comes with a, what do you call this bag? Freezer bag. She comes with about two or three freezer bags packed with smoothie and juice. Freezed. And she puts it there. She takes it. But if before, we resume 8, before 9, 9.30, the entire drink is gone. And she would have made how much for that day? This is aside her salary. And she's not, it's not disturbing her job because she has done it from home. She has freezed it. And she's in the office doing her work. All you do is to come, pay, and she'll tell you transfer. She doesn't have to go from table to table. Everybody knows that this is what she does. It was when she started, she just gave a little card. This is what I do. These are the drinks that I make. Pick the one you want. Regular. If it's regular you want, every day someone comes to drop it for you. Otherwise, whenever you want, you pay. And before one hour, the drinks are off. In fact, people start to order for it the day before. And she makes it 85. So we have to start thinking about how do we make money? Write a list. A list of things that you love to do. A list of things that you can do. You can do. You love to do. You can have them in two separate tables. A list of things I can do. A list of things that I love to do. And the good thing, the thing about these things is that they are sustainable. That even when you don't see the money come in millions as you expect it to do, as you expect it will, it's flowing in. And for the 8 to 5 people, people that do 8 to 5 jobs, you know the essence of this small stuff I decide? You know what it does for you? Most times you see that it's either one side cushions the effect of your daily spending so that you can use one side to do a lump sum investment or a project that you can grow with. So it's very, very important that in this economy, I mean it's not enough to say I work, I'm anyone. Even your salary does not take you home. And that's the truth. Your salary does not take you home. I have a sister of mine that does 8 to 5 jobs. What does she do? So she joined a committee of people that sell dresses online. She has a passion for sales. So what does she do? She just, because that committee, what they do is that, you know when somebody has all talky stuff, that committee sells in wholesale. So what does she do? She will put up stuff and she sells wholesale. She will put up pictures and all she needs to do is use her DP. Her WhatsApp DP. That's all she does. If somebody says, oh they want this, they want that. How many pieces do you want? How many pieces of this do you want? And then she gets it ready for you over the weekend. She says, ah, it will take you five days. What she does over the weekend is to package it because during the weekday she doesn't have that time. She's working. So she's not got somebody to be packaging over the weekend, you know, people's requests. And that's how she does her. So what am I saying? We're talking about the making money. And then for the people who are business people, you're already into business. You know, how to make money. We will go, we will treat for the people who are entrepreneurs. If you're not looking for expansion, we'll talk about it in how to save and invest. Because that's very key for you. There are opportunities and there are things that you can do. While you're in this business, despite the challenges and how the money comes in, you know, there are certain things or certain instruments that you can put your money within a period of time or you want to use it for X, Y, Z. I want to grow it for this period of time. You know, I'll put it over there. So we will have a quadrant or we'll treat that, we will treat a lot in that quadrant. Now, even as an entrepreneur, you know, it's not, we always talk about diversification. What we're talking about is multiple streams of income. In summary, it's to say, when we talk about making money, it's for everybody to have multiple streams of income. Mono streams of income are no longer working. They're no longer working. And for you to effectively manage the multiple streams of income with the things that we do around us, it is very, very important that you have to do what you like and you love to do and what you're passionate about because that's the passion that drives you and keeps you going in spite of the stress and the challenges that you meet along the way. So, you see, when you're preparing a product, or yeah, when you're preparing a product, it's important that, one, you know your market niche. Who are the people you are preparing this product for? So, for instance, Cowbell knew the people they were preparing the products for. And Three Crown, yeah. So, let's use Cowbell. They knew the people they were preparing the products for. So, it was very easy for them. So, it was easy for them to move into sachets, sachet, making of sachet, because they knew their markets. They knew what they wanted. They knew the people they were looking for. They didn't want to do compete with Peak in that, you know, hi, you know, I'm the king of milk kind of, you know. They knew what they wanted. You want to make money, it's first of all to say, who are my client base? Based on your client base, I mean, it's on the basis of your client base that you'll be able to fix your standard or you'll be able to level up your standard or determine your standard and the pricing. Very important. Otherwise, you'll be spending much more and the returns is not coming and you're wondering business is not made for me. Let me just sit down and do other things. And just to put it out there that business is not easy in Nigeria. Business is not easy generally, but in Nigeria the situation around it is really not easy. Because there are certain things that you put in your heart and say at this level, I mean, it's the best, I put in my everything, my soul, and you take it to someone and they're like, if you want us to put it on our shelves, we have to pay, we have to buy it at this amount. And you're wondering, I'm not even making profit from this thing. What most times I tell people is that you look at your standard one. So if I have to make it at this point, then it can't be this standard one. Two, okay, can I sacrifice and put it on the shelves and become popular and see how I can drive my adverts till people really want my product to a certain level that they will be asking me for the product and then I can mark up. Business is strategic. The problem is that we always think it goes one way. In three months, in one month, I should have made it to this level. By second month, it should have gone here. Sometimes one whole year you have not made profits. And that's the challenge of business. And are you willing? And that's why I say it's important to do what you're passionate about when you're making money. Because if you're not passionate about it, three months you have not made any profits. You will say, oh, business is not made for me. And that's the truth. Because I am in business, so I know. But if it's something you're passionate about, even when you're not seeing the profits, you are still saying this thing, we will go there. We'll keep going. What else can I do? You keep thinking about alternatives. What can I do to really mark up? What can I do to mark up? You will be strategic. Sometimes what I do is that I just gather three friends and say, these are my ideas. Oh, yeah, help me. Let's build it together. Another challenge is that we think that sometimes we think we have all the ideas. I gather three friends. Some of them are not my friends. Some of them are my elders. I just say, please, I just need a lunch out with you. And they'll say, okay. I'll put them to sit down outside. I say, see, these are my ideas. This is how far I've gone. I need you to tweak it. I need you to scatter it. I need you to break it. I need you to tell me the cons, the pros, tell me the way forward. I need to move forward from here. And you will see ideas from people that you never thought about. Oh, is this what I'm doing wrong? Okay. I can adjust here. But if you decide to take only you, I mean, you have the answers to all the challenges. You have answers to everything. You find out that you keep entering into more challenges. Sometimes people can give you ideas and connections in just that small strategy meeting that you have called three people or two people to say, help me tweak this idea. You see this year, this year cannot be the same for this, my business. Just two people put them together. Three people say, please, I need ideas. This is what I have done so far. This is how I have made. This is the profit I've made so far, but I need my business to go to the next level. And they will bring in ideas. They will tell you the challenges of what you did. People who you know that, you know, have business strategies or they are good with. You bring them into the room. You'll be amazed. I hope this episode has been informative and helpful in your financial planning journey. Remember, the key to achieving financial security is to make informed decisions and take control of your financial situation. Thank you for tuning in and we look forward to bringing you valuable insights and tips on our next episode as we continue to look into financial planning for women. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the women lighthouse podcast. I hope you were inspired to keep taking steps towards living out your dreams. If you enjoyed this episode, we encourage you to share it with other women and leave us a review on our social media platform, which is in the description below. Also, feel free to subscribe to our channel to get notified of new episodes. Till I come your way on our next episode, keep living, keep dreaming. Bye for now.