Lofty titles like Chief Financial Officer awe most of us. The combination of words leaves no room but for such an effect. The bigger the corporation the more hungrily the holder of the title wags their tails. While not all of us can be the holder of the purse strings of some big corporation, the same effect can still be realized if we mind our money as closely as the Chief Financial Officers mind other peoples money.
Building a personal fortune is the underlying goal of almost each one of us out there barely making through Mondays as we head off to our eight to five and even those among us who are brave enough to eke out a living running their own businesses or on the hustle. The surprising thing is that personal wealth still remains elusive as we fail to employ similar efforts in minding our money once made through activity x and y.
If you work for a corporation, you might have noticed how effort is made towards accounting for every shilling spent to the extent that persons are employed just to take care of this end of the business. Here are a few things that you can small-scale onto your personal finances and watch as the in-tray spills over.
Tax Department- Mind your taxes
Minding your taxes involves simple things as were you buy your condoms to more complex tax returns affairs. Condoms you ask? Buying condoms from a drug store may be more expensive as it may attract an extra service charge while at the supermarket, value added tax may be the only government levied charge.
Pay as you earn taxation returns are calculated from net earnings after all obligatory deductions have been made. This simple observation points out the double savings you might make when enrolled to a retirement benefits fund. Taxes are also important when negotiating for a pay hike as it is prudent to ensure that the pay hike does not simply take your earnings into the next tax bracket such that the net gains negotiated are all lost in taxes.
Account for all expenditure
If you have worked at a corporation you might have noted the requirement to provide receipts or credit card trail to back up your expenditure whenever on business trips or when on company duty. Similar expense tracking efforts can be applied in personal finances through such means as astute and disciplined budgeting, receipting of expenses where possible such as keeping supermarket till receipts for expenditure tracking rather than throwing them, debit cards for refueling your car and even keeping the bill from your lunch expenditure at the restaurant or from fast food outlet whenever you spoil the kids with pizzas and greasy heart unfriendly stuff.
From such measures it becomes easier to make such decisions such as backyard barbeque visa-vies eating out which may have a positive influence on your personal finances.
Make hard decisions
Whenever companies fail to make sufficient returns on their investments, the human resource team and other management teams meet up to discuss cost cutting measures which almost invariably involves the hardest decisions of them all: Job cuts. Irrespective on the possible public relations that can come out of such a politically and socially incorrect move, in order to save the company, this route is well traveled by many executives.
Similarly, the individual must be ready to make decisions that have the potential to make them loose face socially. For instance, it may mean that the four wheeler, V12 engine fuel guzzler is sold off and a hybrid Toyota suffices or even ditching your car for public transport. Exotic holidays may need be substituted for picnics and designer wear for retail wear. Simply put, what needs to be done ought be done.
Be on the look out for new revenue streams
As companies are always seeking to: Diversify revenue sources, expand regionally, capture new markets and introduce new products and services; the individual ought use all that is at their disposal. For instance, have you though about making your hobby a money making venture? That kitchen garden could bring in a few quarters from the sale of organic produce. All that is needed is a bit of innovation and the the will to do it.
The title of Chief Financial Officer might as well be yours if more attention is paid to management of personal finance. You might as well get to wag your tail as the fortunes under your control continue to swell, only that this time unlike the guy at your office who wears that title, the fortune belongs to you.
Till next time, mind your personal finances like a corporation minds its money and grow rich.
Building a personal fortune is the underlying goal of almost each one of us out there barely making through Mondays as we head off to our eight to five and even those among us who are brave enough to eke out a living running their own businesses or on the hustle. The surprising thing is that personal wealth still remains elusive as we fail to employ similar efforts in minding our money once made through activity x and y.
If you work for a corporation, you might have noticed how effort is made towards accounting for every shilling spent to the extent that persons are employed just to take care of this end of the business. Here are a few things that you can small-scale onto your personal finances and watch as the in-tray spills over.
Tax Department- Mind your taxes
Minding your taxes involves simple things as were you buy your condoms to more complex tax returns affairs. Condoms you ask? Buying condoms from a drug store may be more expensive as it may attract an extra service charge while at the supermarket, value added tax may be the only government levied charge.
Pay as you earn taxation returns are calculated from net earnings after all obligatory deductions have been made. This simple observation points out the double savings you might make when enrolled to a retirement benefits fund. Taxes are also important when negotiating for a pay hike as it is prudent to ensure that the pay hike does not simply take your earnings into the next tax bracket such that the net gains negotiated are all lost in taxes.
Account for all expenditure
If you have worked at a corporation you might have noted the requirement to provide receipts or credit card trail to back up your expenditure whenever on business trips or when on company duty. Similar expense tracking efforts can be applied in personal finances through such means as astute and disciplined budgeting, receipting of expenses where possible such as keeping supermarket till receipts for expenditure tracking rather than throwing them, debit cards for refueling your car and even keeping the bill from your lunch expenditure at the restaurant or from fast food outlet whenever you spoil the kids with pizzas and greasy heart unfriendly stuff.
From such measures it becomes easier to make such decisions such as backyard barbeque visa-vies eating out which may have a positive influence on your personal finances.
Make hard decisions
Whenever companies fail to make sufficient returns on their investments, the human resource team and other management teams meet up to discuss cost cutting measures which almost invariably involves the hardest decisions of them all: Job cuts. Irrespective on the possible public relations that can come out of such a politically and socially incorrect move, in order to save the company, this route is well traveled by many executives.
Similarly, the individual must be ready to make decisions that have the potential to make them loose face socially. For instance, it may mean that the four wheeler, V12 engine fuel guzzler is sold off and a hybrid Toyota suffices or even ditching your car for public transport. Exotic holidays may need be substituted for picnics and designer wear for retail wear. Simply put, what needs to be done ought be done.
Be on the look out for new revenue streams
As companies are always seeking to: Diversify revenue sources, expand regionally, capture new markets and introduce new products and services; the individual ought use all that is at their disposal. For instance, have you though about making your hobby a money making venture? That kitchen garden could bring in a few quarters from the sale of organic produce. All that is needed is a bit of innovation and the the will to do it.
The title of Chief Financial Officer might as well be yours if more attention is paid to management of personal finance. You might as well get to wag your tail as the fortunes under your control continue to swell, only that this time unlike the guy at your office who wears that title, the fortune belongs to you.
Till next time, mind your personal finances like a corporation minds its money and grow rich.
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