Financial intelligence is very critical for us all to survive, especially in these times of recession. We hear it so many times but it seems many of us don’t know what it means. Our ignorance also prevents us from gaining the necessary knowledge that is required about it.
What is financial intelligence?
Financial intelligence is knowing what to do when we want to make financial decisions such that we do not have financial problems. It’s as simple as that.
Usually we all have to spend money and the issue is that we either have a lot of it or too little. Individuals, families and businesses (big or small) face these issues day in day out. When you are faced with this problem, what do you do? How do you get to handle it? All you need is to be financially intelligent and you can face any financial issues that will ever come your way.
Can you interpret your personal financial statement, that of your family or your business?
Do you know what your income and expenses are? Income is money coming into your life while expenses are money going out of your pocket. Do you know it to the nearest Naira or Dollar?
What is your cashflow? Cashflow is the difference between the income you make and the expenses for a given period. For you, is it positive or negative? Have you ever checked that?
What are your assets and what your liabilities? Assets is the balance of what you own that brings money into your pocket. Liabilities, on the other hand, represents money you owe others or anything that takes money away from your pocket.
It is important that you know all these because it gives you an understanding of your financial position and that of any transaction you want to be involved in. Every time you want to buy shares or real estate or want to invest in or start a business, you need financial intelligence. Being financially intelligent helps you to evaluate opportunities and investments properly. This helps you to be able to solve your financial issues to a large extent yourself as numbers are critical. If you don’t know where you are, how can you know how to get to where you are going. Financial intelligence also helps to increase your confidence. As you become more financially intelligent you increase your income, manage your expenses better, increase your assets and also leverage instead of increasing debts.
I’m sure you will agree with me now that financial intelligence is one of the most important skills you need to develop. Start now to develop your financial intelligence. Read books on financial intelligence. They are quite a number of them available. You should also attend seminars and conferences on financial intelligence where you can interact with others. For more enquiries on how to go about that you can contact me.
Gbonjubola Sanni 