Ways To Improve Financial Literacy

As an investor, your financial literacy goes beyond having the right knowledge to be able to plan your money.

Financial literacy or financial education can make all the difference in the life of an individual. It is why two people can earn exactly the same amount of money and be at completely difference stages on their wealth journey.

For a regular individual, financial literacy can help you plan your finances ahead, make it easy for you to be able to meet up with financial contingencies, manage debts, manage cash flow and so on. However, as an investor, your financial literacy goes beyond having the right knowledge to be able to plan your money.

It requires that you understand the investment game. You need to have more than a basic understanding of investment/ portfolio management, know how to properly analyse financial statements, and generally know how to make the best investment decisions based on your investment objectives.

One of the first and most important things to do is read. Just the same way reading can change your life on a wider spectrum of things, it can also set you apart from the rest of the money management rookies regardless of how much income you currently earn.

You don’t need to have a financial background to understand basic financial concepts and an understanding of this can make all the difference. Read books to understand the basics of finance as well as the many finance terminologies and strategies available.

Read newspapers to keep up with financial trends. Read about the biggest moves professional investors are making. Reading would show you all the possible ways you can make money as well. This is what Robert Kiyosaki breaks this down into: employment, self-employment, business and investing.

Read to know how to maximize your earnings and how to leverage multiple sources of income to grow. Attending finance-related trainings and taking online courses can also give you a personalised idea of what happens in the modern day world.

While not many people love the idea of having financial advisors, they could also be of help. However, you need to be careful that your advisor is interested primarily in the advancement of your wealth or financial objectives as opposed trying to sell a method or process to you.

It also helps to make use of financial management tools. A good financial tool to manage your investment portfolio is Yochaa. Not only does it make it easier to track your investments, it gives you a comprehensive financial education on a consistent basis.

From its many articles on financial concepts/ strategies, to its live display of current prices on the Nigerian stock market, to even the explore page that gives you a wider glimpse of the financial performance of potential companies you can invest in, there is a lot of information to suck in. On a general note, there are a myriad of steps you can take to improve your financial literacy and one of them is you being here.

In order to update you financial literacy, you need to first be willing to learn and grow. Then you must make the required effort to get there.

Written by Lawretta Egba.