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I am going to try guess a few things about You
You're between the age of 25 and 45 and starting to want more out of life beyond just a monthly pay check
You are looking for something on the side to help you achieve your financial ambitions
You like to learn and know that the more you learn the more you will earn
You want to take control of your life and your finances and do not want to just settle for what life throws your way.
You think different, you want to live with purpose and grow more from where you are
If any of the above feels like you then you have come to the right place. Call this site your new home for making money and bookmark it, subscribe and add us to your mailing list, Why?
Because all that you wish to work on in your life is what the Money Mondays community is about. We are all working to improve our lives and finances and would be happy if you joined us too.
What is Money Mondays about?
Very simple, it is about money, yes money, that thing most people pretend to hate. However you won’t be hearing about paper, Mandela’s face and if there should be animals or not on paper, I will leave that to the SA Mint. Rather you are going to be hearing about investing, wealth creation, self-development and how to take advantage of all the great opportunities that the internet has brought to us as South Africans.
Money Mondays is based on one idea: exploring practical money making ideas. Every week we post new ideas about making money, saving money and investing money.
There are three essential questions we all ask ourselves when it comes to money.
1. How to get money?
2. How to grow money?
3. How to keep money?
Money Mondays explores these three questions in an attempt to offer answers to them.
Through our journey of exploration we will cover topics such as savings, investing, wealth management, lifestyle design, financial independence, and any other topic that helps us get answers to our questions about money. Get ready to share stories on your financial failures, successes, mistakes , personal development, personal growth and product tips and tricks.
Join the rest of the Money Mondays community on social media or in person by registering for a FREE TOUR live event.
And if you like to meet me - Omega, well read on as I share my story.
My life story is what can be described as a typical "missing middle" story.
Finished high school, went to University, couldn't pay my fees, dropped out, then made money and eventually finished a different degree to what I had started studying. There after moved to a bigger city and the events that followed are worthy of being made into a film.
taken at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
So I moved to the big city, got a job at a brokerage firm, lived in Melville, lived in Sandton and travelled around the country. It was a great time. Meeting amazing people around the country and delivering talks on investing. At that time South Africa had been hit with the "forex bug" and social media was a buzz with "millionaires" who had made their "fortunes" from "trading".
The brokerage firm I worked for launched a forex product which resulted in many tragedies. I had just gotten myself a lovely apartment and then bang, just like that, I was out of a job. The company folded after the CEO had been charged with fraud and embezzlement amounting to more than R100 million. And for some reason lenders and creditors did not understand that I wasn't making money anymore so they still wanted their monthly payments.
Life became a race to make ends meet where I got no rest just working to pay bills, savings were running out fast and moving back home became more and more a reality. My unwillingless to go home resulted in a lot of troubles. Debts mounted and financial rock bottom became a reality
I had lost my freedom and ability to be productive. I was now working to just pay back a stupid credit card and an apartment. I had to find a way out of the cycle. In the process of rebuilding my financial life I can estimate that I started more than 6 different companies, none worked as I had no focus and was acting from a place of desperation.
How did I get out of that situation?
I started asking myself some questions about money and my relationship with it, I did not like the answers I got. My financial habits were disasters full of waste and unproductive behaviors. The worst part was how I couldn't admit it to myself that my financial failures were my fault. Eventually I started changing my behaviors. I can testify that the cliches of financial advice are the best, most effective and most simple places to start from. We all know them:
1. Save 10% of all income
2. Live on less than 80% of your income
3. Do not buy on credit things that you can save for
4. Create an emergency fund
These are just 4 cliches that helped me address my poor financial state.
Try them and you will see which behaviors they immediately expose in you that must stop. Once I cut off bad financial habits and replaced them with good ones everything changed. I started to feel better about my life and started to live better. My business career as an entrepreneur took of and success started coming in my direction. These days I get to travel and explore my passions without fear of financial disaster striking me
As much as life is great, I still have my fair share of challenges and let me put this on record: I am NOT A MILLIONAIRE (not yet) however I do make an income from investing in stocks etc and each day I get to work on my passions and dreams and have them feed into my income streams.
I do not aim to be a beach bum sipping on mojitos while earning high dividends from stocks, no, that's not me. I enjoy investing and I enjoy working and building so I will forever be working.
The core difference between me and you (novice investor) is that I actually pay my bills through the income I get from investing and I would like to share with you how that is possible and how to do it.
So why did I start this blog?
I have been meaning to start this blog for the past 3 years. Back in 2017 I started a blog called the Nomad Traders, it focused on financial markets and travelling, I eventually shut it down as I couldn't write consistently and felt contextually misaligned with "my voice".
There is a lot of financial information out there on the internet and some of it is really good stuff and some is bad however most is framed from a western context and no I am not a communist, I just use “western” colloquially here. I wanted to produce financial content that is directly for the African context. Money Mondays was thus born from that.
Furthermore I wanted to demystify retail investing and also encourage people to invest while teaching the things I have learnt and know. Most importantly I started this blog to share information with people who are African(regardless of race or nationality) and who want to start investing or improve their financial lives and I hope I can really help and add value to peoples lives through this blog.
"If you just want to help and share information and already making money with investing, why do you charge fees for the classes you give?" This is a common question and a good one.
Here is the simple answer:
The money that I earn from teaching or public speaking engagements is used to grow my investment capital which results in greater returns for my portfolio. Generally speaking investments into other activities always come from external sources, thus I constantly must be sourcing more external capital to grow my personal wealth. Organize your finances the same way and you will see what I mean.
"Work at your job however mind your own business"
Your job is where you get external capital to invest in your business, thus understanding the difference between the two is important or you will end up spending your whole investment capital and live paycheck to paycheck instead of building a system that will let you live of investment returns.
What more can I say but say welcome to the Money Mondays community. We hope you will gain a lot through the lessons and stories we share here. Sign-up to the mailing list to get free tips, hacks and tricks to master your financial life and achieve financial independence.
I am happy you're here.
If you don't know where to start just click here
Omega