By Babajide Komolafe

It is possible to invest and not lose money. Examples abound of people who invested and did not lose money; hence the fear of losing money is not a justifiable reason for not investing.

To avoid losing money in the quest to invest and make more money, all you need to do is observe the last three laws of money, as taught in the book, “The Richest Man in Babylon”.

Money stays with those who entrust it to wise people: Before you give your money to anybody or organization to invest or manage for you, or even to invest in them, you must be sure they are wise, competent and trustworthy. There is a media company that sold shares in 2008. Many people bought the shares of the company, not knowing that the owner of the company does not pay staff regularly.

They were attracted by the domineering size of the company and its prominence in the media industry, but it has one of the worst reputations when it comes to staff welfare. But those who gave their money to the company and its owner did not know or they knew and decided to ignore this fact.

Today, more than five years after they bought the shares of the company, the company has not paid a dime as dividend, and the shares of the company, bought then at N5 per share,  is now trading at 50 kobo.  Of course if the owner does not pay the staff, why should he pay dividend to investors?

There are also examples of people who gave their money to stock brokers, bankers or fund managers, expecting that the money would be invested or managed profitably for them, only to discover that the so called professionals that they gave their money to were either fake, or lacked the competence to invest or manage the money, and hence the money was lost.

It   is a simple but powerful law. This law in effect is saying credibility and competence matters. So before you give your money to anybody or organization, do some little findings, via the internet, via news publications, via people working in the company or doing business with it, as well as its neighbour, to be sure that that person, or the Chief Executive and the management of that organization are trustworthy, with history of proven competence and achievement. Doing this will spare you the agony of losing your hard earned money.