Billions of people have set new year’s resolutions for a fruitful 2024. According to Forbes, of the 62% of the people that set new year’s resolution, 38% set their goal to improve their finances.

Here in Africa, about 431 million people are living bellow extreme poverty line. This mean they are living on less than $1.9 a day and about 313 million people are in the middle class. This means that financial freedom and the knowledge of how to gain it is everyone’s business in Africa.

Here are 6 principles of gaining financial freedom from the teachings of worlds renowned personal finance experts.

  1. LEARN TO EARN

The greatest hinderance to achieving financial freedom is income. Most of the people living in extreme poverty today have not figured out how to earn an income.

To earn an income your have to either have a skill or engage in labor. You need to have a skill that solves other peoples’ problems, once acquired, you can start solving their problems for a fee relative to what is being charged in the industry. For instance, you can learn to write or design graphics. Then find people who need the services of a writer or a graphics designer, then sell your services to them for a fee.

Another way to earn income is to labor for other people. You can engage in either labor intensive activities that pay instant wages such as building, security or uber. You can also earn income based on monthly salary after having obtained a qualification from some institution and apply for a job. Although this is a highly competitive route.

  1. START THY PURSE FATTENING

Now that you’ve started earning an income, you want to start having some extra money to start laying the foundation for your riches. Of the total amount of money you earn, save 10% of the money before you start spending anything. That means you are paying yourself first. The route to financial freedom and subsequent riches is hidden in your ability to delay gratification. Hence, saving a harmless part of your income is a very good way to go about it.

  1. CONTROL YOUR SPENDINGS

Saving money alone won’t ensure financial freedom. You have to become a man of discipline to get there and a way to do it is by controlling your expenditure. Live below your means.

Ensure that your lifestyle can be taken care of by 50% to 60% of your income. The remaining can go into savings and investments as you are going to see in the remaining points.

  1. INVEST YOUR SAVINGS

Now that you have saved a meaningful amount of money, if you leave it in your safe it’ll decrease in value after a very long time. Which means, all the effort invested in earning and saving the money is not amounting to anything. So to avoid that, you will find meaningful and low risk places to invest that money that will be yielding a meaningful return of 10% to 15%.

  1. HANDLING YOUR PROFITS TO EARN MORE

Making profit from your initial investments doesn’t mean you’ve arrived. To gain full financial freedom requires a better structure that will make you money even while you sleep.

At this point, you will look for other places to reinvest you profit from you base investment. It’s like employing more workers to get more work done. Only that in this case, your savings are your children, and your profits are your grandchildren. Making your grandchildren earn you an income ensures that you are on your way to incredible financial liberation.

  1. RATIONING YOUR PROFIT TO BECOME MORE

Now you can have your profits sponsor your lifestyle. Which means, dividing your income into lifestyle and investment. This time you want to invest in assets. Landed properties are a very good place to begin.

When you employ these six principles, by the end of 2024 you will be very much on your way to becoming wealthy. Money is an essential part of human life. We all need it to take care of our basic needs. But for us to thrive, we need to make a little more.

Importantly, Settle has enhanced your earning power to exceed your home country in Africa. You can produce a product and sell to any part of Africa and receive an instant settlement without hitch. This is a great multiplier. Your skills and ideas now have a bigger marketplace. Take advantage of this medium and share your success stories with us.