Being certain in uncertain times

My name is Brenda Namulindwa and I have been a Registered Nurse for more than 6 years. I’m also a financial planner/educator. I embarked on this journey as a financial educator and planner because I saw the lack of financial literacy around us and how it negatively impacts our African community.

Being part of a financial literacy campaign has enabled me to become my own money manager, as well as help multiple families with financial planning to establish lasting legacies for their children and their children’s children. What I have observed is that until we learn the basic fundamentals of how money works, we will always be working and living paycheque to paycheque.

With the uncertainty in the world today, we the African community must rise up and become financially literate and understand the basic financial fundamentals to secure our future. I invite you to embark on this journey to educate yourself and your family, to learn the essentials. I commit to go on this journey with you and your family to educate you and help our African community stand tall financially.  

Our government has also taken a stand because they know that we Canadians are not prepared financially. As the markets are fluctuating, people losing their retirement and education savings, income reduction or cessation, inability to pay bills, mortgages, credit cards or car loans; we must take this COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to learn how to secure our finances.

How do we financially prepare for uncertain times?

Have you protected your income, your family, your health and retirement? If not, here are some basics you can implement now.

1. Answer these crucial questions: What are my goals? What is my vision? When do I want to retire? How much money do I want to save for my children? What legacy do I want to leave behind? How much debt do I have and is my job secure in a recession? Remember, it is not only how much you earn that counts, it is also about how much you keep.

2. Do your financial needs assessment by creating a budget. See how much money is coming in (income, child tax benefit, rent, etc), how much is going into expenses and how much is left over. People do not plan to fail they just fail to plan.  

3. Critical illness insurance: This provides a lump sum amount in case you are diagnosed with a critical illness (stroke, cancer, heart attack, etc). Are you prepared? Be certain in uncertain times.

4. Life insurance:  This is one way to protect yourself and your family. Who pays your debts if you die, can they afford your funeral, will you leave debt or a legacy? There are many options to ensure you take care of your responsibilities and build wealth with life insurance. Life insurance doesn’t insure your life, it insures your family’s ability to continue on without being financially devastated.     

4. Savings (emergency fund):Any time you save using the dollar cost averaging strategy ensures security and growth on your wealth. Dollar cost averaging is the method of buying units over time. For instance: you invest $50 monthly, when the market is up you see your money invested, but when it is down you “see it as a discount, because all the units are on sale” so staying invested and continuing to add more is one strategy to keep your financial savings on track. This is why while the poor are rushing to buy toilet paper the rich are running to buy units because they understand how money works! Growth is good, but managed growth is always better!

~By Brenda Namulindwa for WakenyaCanada

BRENDA NAMULINDWA – Creating Financial Security for Africans Abroad. You can contact Brenda via email at [email protected] or Tel 416-458-3969.

~WakenyaCanada