The Three Laws to Becoming Rich- Things You Aren't Taught in Schools (Law 2)

How can saving 1/10th of what you earn help to make you rich?

When I was 20 years old, I was finishing up my bachelors degree in accounting. I applied for an administrative assistant job.

In the end, I was actually hired as a manager. This meant that I would have the most responsibility I had ever had in my life, but I would also be earning money I could have only dreamt.

Since I had worked to pay my way through university, I had zero debt, and for the first time in my life, I had more money than I ever needed.

I didn’t have to worry about payday anymore, since my account was no longer running dry. Every two weeks, I’d see the number growing. Every payday, I was richer than the one before and I started itching.

What to do with all this money? (whe yuh mi wa duh?)

I went to the bank, got a loan, and bought my first car.

Ten years ago, my black pontiac vibe made me popular amongst all the party people in the city. My family was proud.

Nobody in my immediate family had owned a car before. And, here I was, making changes and buying “assets.”

The car was fun for the first few weeks. As the payments became due, I found that I was slowly starting to feel just as poor as before. Repairs needed to be done, gas needed to be paid for, friends wanted to be picked up, the things started piling up.

Luckily I had a dear friend that helped me through it, and a year later, I got a scholarship, sold the car, paid off the loan, and learned my first lesson about money.

Not all assets are good assets!

The second lesson learned (haard ears pikney goh da market twice)

I never wanted to be in that situation again. I never wanted to have to worry about money while I was earning so much.

After I was done with my masters degree, I started working. This time I was making more money than before. I kept telling myself that I deserved all the nice clothes and long vacations I was taking.

I had a fun and adventurous time in my early 20’s, yet, it wasn’t until my last trip that I realized that although I hadn’t bought another car, I was finding myself in a similar situation.

My savings were gone. I was sitting there waiting for the 7th of the month to be paid, and just couldn’t figure out how it came back to this.

I learned my second lesson.

Your savings are not for buying experiences.

I had to change something, because although I had a decent salary, lived on a budget, saved money every month, and helped my family a bit, I was back to where I was before. So I started educating myself about money.

I gave myself a budget for learning, and doing things that would help me become the person I wanted to be. Financially, spiritually, emotionally and mentally. Then I got to work.

The First Law of Becomming Rich

If you keep 1/10th of what we earn, in ten years, you will have one year’s earnings saved. As your savings grow, so will your confidence, and desire to earn more. As this desire increases, so will your effort to earn more, and as you earn more, you will also keep more. (click here to read the first law)

Keeping your money under your mattress or buried in your backyard will eventually result in you losing money, if not from a thief, from inflation which is the sneakiest thief of all. It is robbing you of more than it has ever before. (If you want to learn more about inflation and how it makes you lose your money click here to read that blog post.)

The Second Law of Becomming Rich

"Make your money your slave, and their children and children’s children too"

This simply means, make your money work for you. This is the part that is never covered in school. We are never taught how to do this, and so we must embark on this journey ourselves.

Each person must carve out their own piece of the pie by their efforts, determination and ability to learn from mistakes.

Learn to identify safe investments (laan fi talk money)

Small investments will teach you to learn about identifying risk, and evaluating return. It will help you to develop good money habits. It will teach you how to research, and educate you with the terminologies around money we never seem to learn, while helping you to develop an eye for opportunity.

All the money you make from these smaller safer investments, should then be put to work for you again. Re-invested into newer investments. Your knowledge and experience will also continue to grow.

As you begin to build confidence with investing your money, understanding how to evaluate return and develop the discipline to continue doing this, your small pot will begin to grow.

While doing this, keep following law number one. Keep on saving 1/10th of your earnings, and living within your means. Enjoy the life you have, and do the things you want to do without limiting yourself.

What are not safe investments (noh buy puss ina bag)

Safe investments don't mean putting your money in a bank and letting it earn interest for you. If you compare the interest you earn from a bank, with the inflation rate, you will realize that the two percent interest rate that you earn with your money sitting in a savings account only benefits the banks who earn a lot more by making it work for them.

So a savings account means you are seeing your money lose its value.

The Challenge

Take 20 minutes everyday to learn about investing. Learn about the safest investments that can help you to outperform inflation. Learn about the language used when investing. Read books, and search for videos that teach you about money, investment, property management and other important aspects of growing wealth. Do this, until your little pot of gold is ready for its first investment. And do it more after.

The final rule is the hardest, and the easiest at the same time. Come back next week when we go over it. Remember that next week I will share the book that taught me these valuable lessons, so you can go looking for them too.