By Babajide Komolafe

”I have many responsibilities”. This is another reason why some people don’t invest. Most of the people that make this as excuse are usually middle or high income people.

The reality of our extended family culture is that one can end up being responsible for the upkeep of many family members such that there is nothing to invest. Most people after graduating from school and getting a job, suddenly find themselves in a situation where they constantly receive request for money and help. Of course, after benefiting from such gestures, you would be most unfair and considered an ingrate to ignore such demands especially from relatives. The painful aspect is that nobody cares whether you are saving and investing. In fact you would be lucky if you have any relative advising you to make sure you don’t spend all your money. The expectation is that you should continue to give till you don’t have anything to give. Even then, people will not believe you.

In addition to this is some aspect of our culture that induce people to spend so much on festivities and occasions, leading to unnecessary increase in responsibilities. Consider what people spend on the weddings, burials, birthdays etc.  You would spend money on ‘aso ebi’, spend money on gifts (that may never be used), spend money to fuel your car to attend the occasion, spend money to provide refreshment for several guests (many of them really don’t need to be there).  At the end you may end up spending more than N50,000 depending on how close the celebrant is to you and the location of the occasion. I know of a man, who has to borrow about a million naira to cope with the expenses of the burial of his father-in-law. He had no option. The traditional rite and expectation demand he spends so much. Unfortunately, if he loses his job or something happens such that he does not have money again, tradition would be there to bail him out.

So, if you are not investing because of many responsibilities, you need to wake up to some realities.

The first reality is that you are the one that determines your responsibilities. It is good to be helpful but you must know your limits. You do and cannot have enough to help all the people that you would want to help. So, you must know where to draw the line. As far as family is concerned, your responsibilities are your spouse, children and parents, and the focus must be on their basic needs i.e. Food, shelter, health, clothing and education.

Secondly, the rainy days will certainly come. It is just a matter of time. But if you don’t prepare by saving and investing, you and your family may end up as liabilities, depending on the crumbs that fall from the table of some relatives and friends. I am sure this is not your desire.

The third reality is that, human beings can be very unreliable. Thus you will discover that many of the relatives and friends that make demands on you from time to time, may disappoint you in a shocking manner. Most times not because they don’t want to help, but because they don’t have the ability to help.

Finally, you can say NO to many of the cultural demands that induce spending that  are  not necessary. You can say NO to the ‘aso ebi’, you can say NO to a big budget festivity and choose a low key event. You can decide to spend little and still have a grand occasion.

However, the surest way to overcome the hindrance of ‘many responsibilities’ to investment, is to practice that timeless and basic rule for building wealth, which is, “Pay yourself first”.

There is a saying in my language which literally translated mean, “Coca Cola cannot collect from you, and the money you don’t have”.  Immediately you receive your income, deduct 10 percent or whatever percentage you want to save, and invest it in shares or mutual funds (anything that you cannot quickly access for cash). Once you do this, the money available for the many responsibilities have been reduced, and you can conveniently tell anyone making a demand on you, “I don’t have money.”