Money really moves fast and before you say jack, all that money you had surprisingly would have disappeared. With the economy so weak, being concerned about your financial future is rather expected. Cutting down on the things which are not so important would be a prudent thing to do. Did I hear you say HOW?…… Well, here is how.

Cooking your own meals is just fine.

Buying food from outside, especially from restaurants are very expensive and takes extra money from you. Instead of giving that extra up, why don’t you save it by cooking your own food. Buying foodstuff from the market to prepare your own meal is much cheaper and I think you are going to like it once you’ve started, if you’ve never done that. But if you have, you should continue, and you would be surprised at how much you’d save out of that.

Package your own lunch to work.

Yes! You can really do this, it’s cool. I know some one who keeps a little bag where she packs her lunch to work. This is simple, and if you are going to cook your own food, you have to eat it, and I don’t think it matters where you eat that, be it at home or at work or does it? Whiles it’s cool, it also keeps back those few coins in your pocket and little drops of water they say, makes a mighty ocean or doesn’t it?

How about a little vegetable garden?

This actually means that you are going to grow your own vegetables and well, you aren’t going to spend on vegetables. Isn’t that fun? Vegetables generally are quite expensive and you have no idea just how much you would be able to save with your little farm. With this, you could even sell some of your vegetables if you want, and this means a little extra income.

Shop in non expensive places.

Different kinds of shops sell the same products at different prices and sometimes these differences are really outrageous. This is because some of the prices are almost twice the others and we are talking about the same stuff here. So, why don’t you take time off to seek out the cheaper glossary store where you’ll find the same thing you want? In this case, you get to keep your change instead of allowing it to be robbed from you.

Stick to your price list.

Before you go out to shop, make a list of the things you really need and make sure you stick to your list. This would help you prevent impulse buying since this is one of the ways you could really lose money. If you are the type of person who is easily attracted and easily convinced to buy, then, you really need to do this. Don’t just buy, buy with a reason and don’t just spend, money is hard to come by and you earn it, don’t you?

Carry your own reusable bags.

We mostly see the amount we use to buy reusable bags to be so insignificant that we always buy them. But I’m sure if you want to calculate how much you have already spent on those, you’d probably be shocked. What you use to buy these things is money. Why would you keep so many at home and yet buy them every time you shop?

Buy in bulk.

Buying in wholesale is cheaper than buying little by little. You could time yourself and see how long it would take you to use up something, then you can by it to last as long as possible, it really does help.

Replace those drinks with water

This is not to say that you cant have fun and have the number of drinks you want, but we are talking about saving here. So you could replace some of those bottles you have everyday with some fresh water. Whiles its refreshing, you get to keep some extra cedis.
Check where you eat.

If you have to eat out, don’t just eat anywhere. Try to find a restaurant where you would be charged fairly for the food you eat. Some restaurants just exploit people and I know you don’t want to be exploited, you have a lot of important things to do with money you know!

Be flexible when it comes to travelling.

Travelling is money, and you don’t want to spend your life saving travelling around the world. It’s good to travel, but you should do it wisely. You can plan your travels and make sure that you are not doing that to regret later. If you think your travels are taking too much away from you, then you need to do something about it. Something like cutting down on them.

When you finally get used to this, you would realize how big the small everyday spending that appeared to go unnoticed really is and then you would be surprised with just how much you would save. Funny! Isn’t it?

So you want to create wealth? Get seriously rich? Probably be a billionaire? What a noble ambition! Anyway, while you’re at it, I thought you might find it interesting to see those who have been there and done that. Here is a list of the wealthiest people in the world as of February 13, 2009 — based on each person’s total net worth.

Please note that total net worth is a financial term and is an estimate based on the closing stock prices of the stock exchanges on which each person’s company is listed. Due to stock price and exchange rate fluctuations, this list only represents each person’s valuation on a single day — on the February 13, 2009.

Note also that this list does not include heads of state whose wealth is tied to their position.

The actual ranking data is from Forbes’ 2009 List Of World Billionaires, with additional data (e.g. source or worth, etc) from Wikipedia and other online sources. If you want to dig deeper, you can Google any of the billionaires’ name or source of wealth for more information.

This was contained in a report, “Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time For Transformation”, a release from the Accra Office of the World Bank said at the weekend.

The Report said; “the poor state of infrastructure in Sub Saharan Africa – its electricity, water, roads and information and communication technology (ICT) – cuts national economic growth by two percentage points every year and reduces productivity by as much as 40 per cent”.

The Report, which was based on an in-depth assessment of the state of infrastructure in 24 countries in Africa, said 93 billion dollars would be required annually to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and achieve national development targets over a decade.

The Report said to catch up during the next 10 years, fragile States would need to devote more than a third of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to infrastructure development and stressed the need for a massive effort to overhaul Africa’s infrastructure.

It said: “Access to energy is critical for economic growth and poverty alleviation; no country in the world has developed its economy without abundant energy supplies. Today chronic power shortages plague 30 African countries and only one out of four Africans has access to electricity. The entire installed generation capacity of 48 Sub Saharan African countries is 68 gigawatts, no more than Spain’s.”

The Report said only one in three rural dwellers in Africa has access to an all-season road; more than 20 per cent of the population in Cameroon; Ghana; Mauritania; Niger and Tanzania must travel  more than two kilometers to their primary water supply source.

It said Africa was already spending 45 billion dollars annually on infrastructure but providers waste 8.0 billion dollars on excessive staffing; distribution losses; under-collection of revenue and inadequate maintenance, adding, “African utilities (providers) are unable to collect some 2.4 billion dollars of services billed”.  

The Report, however, observed that Africa has recently benefited from some significant improvements in infrastructure with more than 50 per cent of Africans living in the range of GSM mobile phone signals in 2006.

It said five African countries have already met the millennium targets for universal water access and 12 others were on-track to do so and around 80 per cent of African’s main road network was in good to fair condition.

The African Union Commission; African Development Bank; Development Bank of Southern Africa; The New Partnership for Africa’s Development and World Bank conducted the study.

GNA

What About Yours? Do you love your bank? Really? What do you love most about your bank anyway? What bugs you, if any?

What factor(s) did you consider before choosing your bank? Is there any service you’re dying for your bank to provide?

If you have ever banked in another country before, how do the banking services in the said country compare with Ghana’s?

These are the questions that filled our hearts and minds during Episode #3 of the CediWISE Teleseminar series held on Tuesday October 6th, 2009. Audience members heartily shared their banking experiences: the good, the bad, and the really ugly.

We had so much fun! With CediWISE co-founder Belinda as the new moderator, this was by far the best show we’ve had. Click on the button below to listen to the conversation, or click here to download the MP3 file. And if you enjoy this teleseminar, we invite you to join the CediWISE Teleseminar gang live this Tuesday 13th October 2009 At 6:00 PM GMT for the next show.

]]> http://cediwise.com/my-bank-rocks-teleseminar-episode3.html/feed 0 http://cediwise.com/open-your-financial-toolbox-teleseminar-episode-2.html http://cediwise.com/open-your-financial-toolbox-teleseminar-episode-2.html#comments Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:27:03 +0000 Mubarak Sumaila http://cediwise.com/?p=649 A week after successfully holding our very first teleseminar, CediWISE community members gathered around our computers and telephones for once again for our weekly virtual personal finance seminar.

Episode #2 – Open Your Financial Toolbox was all about sharing: audience members share their favorite books, websites, software, and any other resource that helps them manage their personal and small business finances.

Once again, please do forgive us for the not-so-glorious show. We’re sharpening up our presentation and moderation skills everyday. Also this week we lost Internet connection to our US-based conference bridge in the middle of the teleseminar, so the last 15 minutes of the show was not recorded.

Too bad… hey, we’re breaking new grounds here… we’re doing something that no one else has done here in Ghana before, so this hick-ups are bound to happen.

But despite these challenges, we’re determined to fight the odds and evangelize sound financial stewardship to Ghanaians. Click on the button below to listen to the teleseminar recording, or click here to download the MP3 file (14.5MB). And please make it a point to join us this coming Tuesday for our next Teleseminar.

]]> http://cediwise.com/open-your-financial-toolbox-teleseminar-episode-2.html/feed 0 http://cediwise.com/knowing-you-knowing-us-moneytalks-teleseminar.html http://cediwise.com/knowing-you-knowing-us-moneytalks-teleseminar.html#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:51:09 +0000 Mubarak Sumaila http://cediwise.com/?p=494

Ok, we did it… and we managed to survive! On Tuesday the 15th of September 2009, we successfully hosted the first episode of CediWISE MoneyTalks Teleseminar.

In this episode titled Knowing You, Knowing Us, two guests Michael Nyarku and Christopher Bennett joined all three founders of CediWISE on the phone for a great conversation.

We began the teleseminar with a few house keeping announcements, after which all panel members introduced ourselves.

George then led the discussion to explain the chance encounters that led to the founding of CediWISE Media Limited, the parent company behind this website.

After some random chats, the teleseminar ended with some thoughts on where CediWISE is heading.

Before you listen to this episode, please take note this: This is our first teleseminar, and we are all new to this thing. As you listen to the recording below, you’ll hear a lot of speech fillers such as ‘um…’, ‘er…’, ‘eh…’, etc; as well as repeated use of certain words by the moderator (eg ‘basically’, ‘like’, ‘actually’, ‘really’, etc). The technology that we’re using to host and record the teleseminar is also very crude (and expensive!). So the quality of this recording is not great, and this is definitely no indication of what we’re here to offer. We have fully embraced the medium though, so the quality can only go in one direction: up, up and up!

With those notes out of the way, click on the arrow below to listen, or click here to download the MP3 file (14.9MB).

Did you like this teleseminar recording? Do you have some tips about personal finance that you’d like to share with fellow Ghaniaans? Join us live for the next CediWISE Teleseminar event.

Lilian is a young Ghanaian professional who is determined to create wealth and become financially independent, and she doesn’t want to take any chances with her work… the goose that is laying the proverbial golden eggs for her.

Work? Wealth? What is wealth? And how do you go about acquiring wealth? Can you accumulate wealth without taking from others?

Yeah, I know… these questions in themselves smell of acute naivety, or even stupidity, on my part. But do forgive my indulgence in this little game of stupidity, if it is indeed so at all. For, if we are to embark on this journey to wealth together and thrive along the way, which is our primary motive for founding or our new venture CediWISE, I deem it of paramount importance that we set off with the same end in sight.

So just what is wealth? Sure, wealth is not money… you know. Wealth refers to the accumulation of stuff we crave for, such as food, clothes, houses, cars, gadgets, travel to interesting places, and so forth. Thus wealth provides a kind of safety net of protection against an unforeseen decline in one’s living standard. Such unforeseen decline can result from a job loss, the loss of parent or partner, or some other emergency.

Also, wealth can be transformed from one form into another. And today, money, of which currency is one form, is the commonest medium of this transformation or exchange of wealth.

Rich Pal, Poor Pal

As I’ve said above, wealth refers to some accumulation of stuff we want, whether we presently have them in abundant or not. Richness refers to an abundance of such stuff. A wealthy (or rich) person has accumulated such stuff in abundance, whereas a poor fellow has not. The opposite of wealth is destitution, and the opposite of richness is poverty.

Note also, that the concept of wealth is a relative one. It not only varies between societies, but will often vary between different sections or regions in the same society. For instance, if I drove an average “home second-hand” saloon car (that’s just a fancy name here in Ghana for a used car!) to my village today, I’d be flagged the wealthy guy. Yet no one may even notice my presence while driving such a car in Accra.

Likewise… while a person with a net worth of US$1,000,000 in the United States of America would certainly be placed among the wealthiest citizens, such an amount would constitute an extraordinary amount of wealth in a developing nation like Ghana.

Wealth Creation: Not A Zero-sum Game!

If you accept this notion that wealth refers to those things that we crave for, then you would agree with me that creating wealth begins with having clarity about those things that matter to you, those things that you truly value. It’s only then can you set out to accumulate them.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with this concept of wealth, here is one good news to put a smile on your face: the supply of wealth, while limited, is not fixed. Wealth creation is not a zero-sum game. Thus, there is room for everyone, including YOU and I, to acquire wealth without taking from others. Your attitude towards this issue affects the kind of social or economic system that you prefer and the kind of life you are going to live.

I, George Appiah, have made a personal decision to accumulate wealth through conscious and smart life choices, prudent time and financial stewardship, and creating exceptional value for others in exchange for a fair compensation.

This wealth, I reckon, when sufficiently accumulated, will provide a kind of safety net of protection against any unforeseen decline in my ability to practice my trade to earn a living. It will also afford me the rare luxury of never having to worry about where my next meal would come from, so I can direct all my energies into what I truly care about in this life: guiding young ones towards their true north star.

And I, together with my good friends started our new venture CediWISE to share with you my triumphs, my challenges, and the few insights I gleam along the way on this journey to wealth and abundance.

So what is wealth to you? And what is your master plan for acquiring wealth? Share your thoughts with us below.

What would you do as a cheese producer with economic pressure? Just like Giovanni, a cheese producer who has a herd of cattle to feed and staff to pay as he waits for his cheese to be ready, you would need a loan to keep you going won’t you?

A bank has dared to be different from all the rest by helping cheese producers secure a loan from them without a big deal. You maybe wondering how, it is easy. The local parmesan cheese producer gets loans from this bank with his own cheese as collateral.

After producing the cheese, the cheese producers have to wait a long time for their cheese to mature and be ready for the market during which they have to pay wages and other bills. These cheese producers cannot possibly provide huge collaterals for loans from banks. But with the policy of the Parmisan bank they are able to move on in business, and even have their cheese in a safe place. These cheese, whiles serving their purpose in the bank as collateral, they are also safeguarded by the bank’s air conditioned humified vault until the loans are paid back by which time the cheese would have matured. If the cheese producer defaults, the bank has the cheese to sell.

Credem’s Alfredo Germini says “we help finance the parmesan cheese maker because their cheese takes two years before it is ready for sale, that gives them a cash flow. So we take their cheese in return for a cheap loan.”

So, confidently, like Giovanni you would hand over some wheels of parmesan a month and get your loan with which to carry on your business and not risk your business shutting down due to lack of funds.

The parmesan cheese production would definitely be a failure had it not been the creative financing of the Italian producers bank on cheese so right from Giovanni’s cheese making rooms, hundreds of the round yellow wheels of Parmesan bobs up and down in huge bathes of salt water, dried, stored and stamped with a branding iron before being sent to the bank. This is a slow laborious process. The bank has to be given credit to the success of the Parmesan cheese.

I’m hoping by now you have read my article on the secret formula for creating wealth. If you haven’t read it, please go and read it now. If you have read it but find my argument too simplistic, here is a story that, I’m very confident, will convince you of the potency of my formula.

Trent Hamm is the author of personal finance website called The Simple Dollar. Trent recently released a free ebook in which he tells his story about how he emerged from a complete financial meltdown in 2006, to a state of financial peace today. And guess what, it’s the simple secret at work here!

Below is an excerpt from Trent’s free ebook, Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page.

I was born in raised in downstate rural Illinois. Growing up, my family didnʼt have a lot of money, but they did have a lot of love. They taught me the value of living frugally, but it wasnʼt always coupled with great financial lessons. In short, I had little idea how to manage my own money, and when I left home for college, I made a long sequence of financial mistakes.

Flash forward to April 2006. I had a good job, was married, and had an infant son, but I still hadnʼt learned the value of managing my money. To put it simply, I had a financial meltdown, capped off by a long night of soul searching while facing a pile of bills that I simply couldnʼt afford to pay.

That experience woke me up. I dove into personal finance books, reading them by the hundreds. I started throwing the book at our terrible financial state, trying every tactic that I read about. And it worked. Over the course of two years, we paid off two car loans, five figuresʼ worth of credit card debt, five figuresʼ worth of student loan debt, and several personal loans. This turnaround laid the foundation for many things we had only dreamed about to that point – we bought a home, had another child, built a strong emergency fund, and, eventually, I was able to change careers and become a writer, taking a pay drop but living out a dream Iʼd had since I was a child.

How did he do it? It’s the magic formula at work: he spent less than he earned, sought ways to earn more, and did something really smart with the difference.

While some of the specifics are “American” and may not be relevant to those of us here in Ghana, the central issues discussed in Trent Hamm’s free personal finance ebook are applicable to anyone no matter where you live. Download your own free copy of Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page now (5MB PDF file).

PLEASE NOTE: This is a large PDF file, about 5MB in size. For the best result, use an external download manager to download the file. If you don’t have one (or don’t know what I’m talking about), right-click on the image below (command-click for Mac users) and select the option to download / save the linked file.

The way we apply for jobs is changing. More and more savvy Ghanaian employers are turning to the world wide web (www) these days to do their recruitment.

The benefits to these savvy recruiters who use the Internet to find candidates are enormous: it’s cheaper and sometimes even free for them, they can have shorter recruitment cycles, and online recruitment services like JobsInGhana.com give these employers great tools as well as access to a library of resumes to just pick from without even placing an ad.

But here is a pitfall I’ve observed many Ghanaians applying for jobs online fall into: because many people only use the Internet to surf the web, chat and have fun with friends, these people simply display the same laid-back attitude when applying for jobs online as they do when chatting with friends.

Even though I’m not an HR guy, I’ve been involved in recruitment drives for several small technology firms in Ghana — every single one of them through the Internet. And I’ve seen some potentially smart Ghanaian professionals do some really dumb things in their online job applications. On some occasions (when I’ve had too much chocolate and in the best of mood!) I would even call applicants and guide them to properly re-submit their applications.

If you’ve been sending online job applications but have never gotten any invitations for interviews, perhaps it’s time to sit back and ponder over what mistakes you’ve been making that may have been pissing off these recruiters, and how to void them to improve your chances of getting those needed invitations for job interviews.

Here are the top ten common pitfalls I’ve seen over the years, along with suggestions on how to avoid them.

1. First and foremost, get the mindset right and recognize that it’s the same old job application business. The Internet only facilitates communication, but it doesn’t change any of the established norms and protocols to follow when applying for jobs. Do your homework well, present a professional outlook to your prospective employer, and pray for Mr. & Mrs. Good Luck to drive by your street.
2. Know that the recruiting manager may not speak any of those cool lolspeak and jargons that you use with your friends. I’ve seen job application emails that go like… “PLZ C MY CV ATTACHED. THNX” — or something similar. I love these a lot, because they are so easy to process. A single click on the DELETE button, and I’m done.
3. Attach your CV – don’t just copy and paste! There are so many different email applications out there running on different computer systems with varying HTML rendering capabilities. Some email clients even only support plain text e-mails. What this means is that your carefully crafted CV, when pasted directly into the body of your email, may appear as gibberish at the recipient’s end. You can safely avoid this by sending your documents as file attachments.
4. And while we’re on file attachments, please for the love of God, submit your documents in the requested file format, or use standard document formats that most computers can open if no specific format was requested. I’ve had a graphic designer send me samples of his work in the native CorelDraw (.cdr) format! If you don’t follow this simple rule, your recipient may not be able to open your attachments. Of course you may argue that they can download some application to open the file… but remember you’re competing with hundreds of other applicants and it’s much easier for the HR manager to hit the DELETE button than to download and install an application just for your sake. If no file format was specified, for best results send your CV and cover letter in RTF or PDF format. RTF has the highest probability of opening on the recipient’s computer, while PDF will retain all your exquisite formatting.
5. In in addition to the attachment, add a carefully written teaser to the body of your e-mail. A recent ad I placed online for a Web Developer position for a friend’s small business received over 250 responses in just two days. This is certainly no big deal for a big company with a dedicated HR department. But for a small firm, my friend and I simply couldn’t print out all the 250 CVs and cover letters and sort them out. So we just picked out the few folks who wrote something interesting in the body of the e-mail itself. Bottomline, recruiters are busy — help them to help you. Write sometime convincing in the email itself, to attract the recruiter’s attention even before he/she downloads your attached documents. If you’re lazy like me, simply put a copy of your cover letter in the body of the email, in addition to (not instead of) the attachment.
6. Be available: With newspaper adverts, the adverts have to be submitted at least a week in advance of the publication date, and it’s going to take some time for applications to be received via post. Employers know this, so longer recruitment cycles are the norm. But online, there’s the luxury of immediacy, and it’s not unusual to be called for an Interview a day or two after submitting your applications. So if you’ve gone through the trouble of applying, make yourself available to be contacted for interview.
7. Check your email often. If for some reason you cannot check your mail everyday, indicate this in your application, and ask to be contacted by phone instead. Better still ask a trusted friend (if you have any) to check your mail for you. You don’t want to miss the great opportunity you’ve been waiting for.
8. If you don’t have a phone and you need to give someone else’s phone number, make sure the person knows you by the name you have on your CV and cover letter. If your friends call you Esi Jesus, but the name on your application is Sebastiana Ama Dede Wayo, let your friend who’s phone number you’re you’re putting on your CV and cover letter know this. And pick your contact person carefully — some people are such a bore on the phone!
9. At this time, most Ghanaian companies are simply using the Internet as a bulletin board to post their job adverts, and require candidates to send applications by regular mail. So it’s not always click-click-send. I wouldn’t bother with such jobs, but then I am not looking for a job. My attitude may be different if I were down to my last cedi and job-hunting. If you have to apply for such jobs, just make sure your application can get through before the deadline.
10. And finally, don’t overlook the print media. While we’d all love to sit behind our computers at home and click-click-click our way to our dream jobs, the reality is that most institutions, especially the bigger companies and public institutions, still do their recruitment offline, through the print media. The Daily Graphic, remains the best source of premium jobs in Ghana today. Don’t overlook the print media, baby.

The CediWISE bottom line: Creating wealth is all about earning more, spending less, and doing something smart with the difference. If you feel you’re not being paid what you’re worth, sitting back and complaining will not make a difference. Start today to find a job that will reward you for your true contribution. I hope you find these common sense tips useful in your next online job application.

Have you got any tips to add to this list? Please do share your thoughts using the comments form below. Don’t be shy!