Somalilandsun: I had a discussion with 3 young men in their mid-20s as they were coming back from university. We shared ideas about their dreams and aspirations – the do’s and don’ts about life.They were fiercely ambitious and really wanted to make it big in life. There was a sense of
urgency in their respective tones which I found both inspiring and contagious. Largely, they reminded me of my early years from graduating university… I had asked them,
“If you were given $100k, how will you spend it?” I listened diligently to each of their proposals.
Using a calculator, we deducted the following amounts they proposed to
spend on various items; Buy a car for $8 thousand . Rent a house in a good neighborhood for $500pm, Buy furniture and other items at around $ 10,000. In total $40,000 will go directly into buying a car, clothes, other luxury items, renting a house and rewarding parents. About $10, 000 will be spent towards further education. This means that within the first month there will be about $ 30,000 remaining… Do you agree?
I learned that about 70% of their proposals will be spent on items that bring no returns. The remaining 40% will either be saved or invested. You may think they are wrong but are you any different? What proportion of your income do you save? How much do you invest in the future? This is our mentality. We are trained to spend. We forget that money is also supposed to be saved and invested. Most of the young guys only think about business later on in life and not immediately after college.
Finally we need to train ourselves to save and then invest the little money we receive via salary in our early years as fresh graduates.
By Abdisalaan Ahmed
