99 MONEY LESSONS FROM THE BOOK "HOW TO BUILD A SECURED FINANCIAL FUTURE" By Sunday adelaji 1. Advertising is geared to stir up emotions that cause discontentment with one’s life. 2. Your worth is not in how you look and the things you possess. 3. The pride of life refers to taking your value from things around you. 4. If you free yourself from the trap of the world system, you can serve God in your calling and change the world. 5.The pursuit of wealth is not what our time here on earth is for. 6. The world system does not teach you the laws of money. It teaches you to work hard and to spend money. 7. Comfort or luxury are good but should not be the culmination of your life. 8. Most people are not thinking about their purpose and even if they were, they cannot pursue their purpose because their responsibilities and expenses cannot allow them. 9. Your future depends on the choices you make today. 10. Paying yourself means you must acquire assets and reduce your liabilities. 11. Assets are things that bring money into your pockets. 12. When you put aside money for your future you are paying yourself and building a secured financial future. 13. Paying yourself is not limited only to those who are employed. 14. If you are married, save 10% to 30% of your income. 15. If you are singled, save 30% to 50% of your income. 16. The goal of saving is to invest not for savings sake. 17. If your income is less than the minimum wage of your country, you may have to seek for ways to increase your income while maintaining or even reducing your current standard of living. 18. You need to educate your mind first because the primary cause of poverty is ignorance. 19. There are now opportunities to make money by providing freelance services through the internet. 20. Opportunity comes to the mind that is prepared. 21. Make it your goal to develop yourself to the level that you can produce exceptional work, and differentiate yourself by your level of excellence. 22. You can pay yourself first even when you don’t have a job by taking time to develop and refine your gifts and talents. 23. Pay yourself despite debt. 24. Look at your expenses, and plan on how to drastically scale down on your lifestyle. 25. In honoring God first, we also experience one of the key blessings from God; He preserves us from worshipping mammon. 26. To overcome financial crisis, you must first overcome the poverty of the mind. 27. If your expenses exceed your income, you are never going to be financially free. 28. Find new ways to be frugal. Not mean. Frugality is cutting out spending on what you don’t need, Meanness is eliminating spending on things you need. 29.Only savings and investments qualify as paying yourself. 30. Your ability to save should be driven by your goal. 31. If you are paying 51% to 70% of your income towards meeting your bills, you are a slave to those bills. 32. If you say you cannot save because you have many bills, what you are saying is that you don’t care about your future. 33.Savings is a habit for life. 34. You can still save even if your income is too small or your expenses are too many. 35. The first thing you should acknowledge if you are currently in debt is that your decisions put you in debt. 36. Before borrowing money, you must have several strategies of how you will repay the money. 37. Never borrow money for expenses or to buy a liability 38. Do not use your savings for frivolities. 39. Financial plan governs four areas; your savings, How you spend, How you invest and your giving. 40. Passive income is an income that requires very little of your time to still make money. 41. Get a strong reason to start saving. 42. Invest in knowledge. 43. Keep your expenses low, only spend on necessities. You can buy luxuries with profit from your assets later. 44.A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went 45. Out of your income, allocate money to your basic expenses in terms of percentage of income. The recommended budget allocation is 20/30/50, that is; 20% should go into family giving, tithes and offerings, 30% should be your target saving goal (but start with 10%) and 50% should be your expenses. 46. It doesn’t matter how much you make, as long as you are ignorant of the laws of money, you will never be rich. 47. The first rule of problem solving is always to admit you have a problem. 48. Educate yourself on the laws of money by finding mentors who can teach you or you can investigate their lives, read their biographies, watch their interviews and documentaries. 49. Find out the principles they used to get where they are and apply them diligently. 50. Giving alone will not bring money 51. Prayer and fasting alone will not result into riches. 52. Hard work at your job alone will not make you rich. 53. Some principles of money are; Retention/saving Multiplication/ investment Diligence Money making 54. The discipline of saving is not inherited, it must be acquired. 55. Financial intelligence is the ability to spot opportunities to create money. 56. The first way money is created is exchange of time for money. 57. The more unique and relevant your solutions, the more money you command. 58. The best business for you to invest is yourself 59. If money determines whether you are sad or happy then money controls you. 60. Become wealthy inside before getting money 61. Life takes away from those who don’t have and don’t do anything with what they have and gives to those who have done something with what they have. 62. People who are truly wealthy only spend money from the interest they make from their investment. 63. The rich mind their assets and only buy luxuries last. 64. Gambling is not a strategy to create wealth 65. The rich read daily 66. The rich master their emotions. They have learnt how to act out of wisdom and not emotion. 67. In Africa, some of the wealthiest men and women are wealthy as a result of corruption. 68. Our purpose provides a key to unlocking the wealth in us. 69. Wealthy people are passionate about what they do and they go the extra mile 70. Wealth is meant to bring solutions and the betterment of society 71. Time is the most valuable commodity Learn to place value on what God places value on 72. What makes someone rich is not their lifestyle but their mindset, their perspective on life. 73. Living like the rich is not by coping their lifestyles but by mimicking their habits. 74. Look at how the rich manage their money and invest their time and learn those habits. 75. lust is actually a perverted desire. 76. You cannot satisfy spiritual hunger with material things, spiritual hunger can only be satisfied by God. 77. You need to know who you are, what God has made you to be and you will not need to prove yourself. 78. Involve God in your plans 79. Don’t build your life based on people opinions 80. Ensure your children learn to value you for you, not what they can get from you. 81. Watch out that your possessions do not possess you. 82. Money should not define you. 83. Your purpose should advance the kingdom of God and his righteousness 84. 10,000 hours of deliberate practice are needed to achieve mastery in any field 85. For you to become great in your area of call, you will need to invest time. 86. The principles of wealth creation work best when you focus on the areas you are passionate about. 87. Excellence is a key to greatness 88. People who are concerned with only their stomachs can only produce mediocre products. 89. God is an investor 90. Opportunities are hidden in those problems 91. Aim to develop yourself to the level of investing as a business owner using other people’s money 92. Don’t look at your salary as an end in itself. Begin to look at your salary or income as a seed, its not a fruit to be eaten but a seed. 93. Any area of life can be a successful investment. 94. Don’t allow past failure in the area of investment to hold you back 95. Work is one of the greatest blessings that God has given to humanity, for purpose and fulfillment. 96. Start out by investing in an amount that you can afford to live without. 97. Take risk, but take calculated risk 98. Even as a business owner or entrepreneur, protect yourself and business through insurance. 99. The basic purpose of life insurance is to provide dependents with a source of income in case of death of the income earner. Bonus 100. Many people do not save because they don’t plan to save.