Though cliché, giving is a lifestyle. It should not happen grudgingly or for show off, but genuinely and in moderation.

You can’t give out of anything. If your finances are not in order it may be difficult to live a life of giving. Kikelomo Kuponiyi posits in this book that giving is a critical aspect of sound financial management. But before she arrived at this, she enumerated the core aspects of financial management.

From the title, Your Money and You, it is apparent that the book is about money. Recent happenings have reinforced the fact that nothing stands certain; the world could be rocked by anything at any moment. The pandemic did and some people are still battling with the aftershocks especially in their finances.

That is why this book is important at this point in time. In it, Kikelomo Kuponiyi walks you through the major steps to take in finding a balance in your finances after the shock of the pandemic. She touches on core aspects of savings, investments, loans etc.

She shares that improving your money management could look like cutting down some expenses, but it also goes deeper than just that. She serves information on knowing our perception of money and how it can affect our relationships.

 Money comes and goes and sometimes our money personality type could be a determining factor of how we utilize it. She shares useful tips on spending, tracking your income, maximizing your income, building discipline for savings, some dos and don’ts of loans and so on. For a book of that size, it certainly has a lot packed in it.

An eye-opening part for me in the book would have to be learning that investments are better than savings. I’ve always been keen on saving. But what’s better than having some money saved? It is investing that money you have saved. And what better time to invest than now when one is young and able to bear the loss of a failed investment if that happens? That is another lesson gleaned from this book: the older you get, the more risk-averse you become.

 I also learned a few things about loans and how they operate. Suffice it to say that this book is a gold mine, coupled with how easy to read it is. 

One of my favourite excerpts from this book is ‘You need to lift your eyes away from your issues often to see what is going on in the world around you. As you do, you will find opportunities to add value to people’s lives and make a difference in the world. No matter how small an impact you think you’re making, it will be recognized and appreciated by those to whom it is directed.’ This is culled from the chapter on giving. Giving is a gift.

 Not everyone is blessed with the ability to give. Certainly, not everyone who receives gives. But it is something we must aspire to. And giving is not limited to money. It could be rendering services or just being kind. These acts go a long way.

Kikelomo Kuponiyi’s writing style has always been commendable as seen from her debut Unfolding Grace.

Albeit a different genre from her first book, Your Money and You reads clear and logical as expected of this genre of writing. I like the clarity of thoughts and ideas and the cohesion in sentences to paragraphs and chapters that make up the whole book. It shows that a lot of work has been done to put the book in order.

This book comes in handy if you need a life guide on how to stay focused on attaining your financial goals.

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