Tomie Balogun is an investment expert and author. A recognized speaker who has been invited to speak in multiple organisations and universities in Africa
She is on a mission is to help millennials learn how to invest correctly, and is a big advocate of investing in small businesses to help them grow. “One of the key things I see is that people take a lot of money out of the country to spend; the money is in the hands of a few.
The best way to do it was by investing with others. She joined an investment club as the best way to invest in others.
An investment club is a group of people who come together to pool their resources and then invest it in assets or business projects.
“When there’s talk about investing, many people think you have to be rich to do it,so they’ll start to do so once they have money,” she said. She believes that investing is not only for the rich, and it is a long-term strategy to creating wealth.
“People want to get rich in 2 or 5 years but if you look at stories of truly successful people, they built over decades,” she says. “I often ask, how much do you need to live a good life? People say billions. There’s a false sense that we need so much, but we don’t need it. Hoarding money is scarcity thinking. You don’t need to pile and stash. Get clarity on what your why is, and what you need to have a good life.” Tomie emphasizes that investment is a process—one that requires discipline and commitment. “Start with your why. Then take steps towards checking your expenses and investing,” Tomie advises. “Take baby steps. There are mutual funds you can start with N2,000; then add to consistently. When it grows, you can take it out and put in other things. If you put your money in a business and see it grow and be sustained for decades, that’s a legacy. That’s enough. Investment is not a product. It’s a plan; a path to a destination.”
“I find that there are many people who have been working for years, yet have no financial security. So they can’t just quit to do an MBA, or even quit because they’re in an unhealthy work environment,” she says as she makes a case for investing. “In the end, the real thing most of us need is the freedom to make choices. Investing allows you to do that. I never want to feel stuck, and that is why I invest. It’s not about piling billions of money in an account. It’s putting your money to work.”
With her wealth of experience Tomie insists that she is still on a journey. “I can’t say I’m totally free, but I’ve learnt that investment is long-term,” she says. “My story has evolved a lot from starting an investment club to stepping out of paid employment. It has given me freedom to make choices.”
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