It is generally believed that life begins at 40. Before you get to that unique age of 40, you should have achieved some financial milestones in life.

I will be sharing with you some financial steps you should take and seek to achieve before the age of 40. If you have exceeded the age of 40, you can still start now to work towards these financial goals as I believe it’s never too late to achieve anything. Below are 6 strategic financial steps you take before age 40 in order to position yourself well for the future.

1. Build marketable skills – If you can do what others can not do, they would be willing to pay you for it. What skills do you have that other people would be willing to pay for? If you don’t have any skill, go and learn one today. This is very important!

Seek to learn a skill that is not common. If everyone can do it, then the value won’t be high. If you learn or develop a rare skill which you can do almost perfectly and which has a good demand, then you can’t go bankrupt as your skill will always provide you income.

Some good skills you can learn are graphic designing, desktop publishing, hair dressing, catering and decoration, tailoring, auto mechanic, generator mechanic, computer networking and repairs, computer programming, web designing, welding and fabrication, script writing, nursing, carpentry, tiling, painting, app development, installation of POP ceiling, electrician work and many others.

2. Pay off your debts – Debt can be a major setback on your journey of financial security, especially debt with compounding interest. You should do everything within your power to pay off all our debt starting from those with the highest interest rate.
Your aim should be to live a debt-free life. Pay off your debts and ensure you do not get back into debt. You have more peace when you are debt- free. Business loans is an exception, however, you should explore other means of raising capital for your business before considering taking a business loan.

3. Start your own business part-time or full–time – If you don’t start a business before age 40, when will you start it? When you get old? Business is a risk and the older you get, the lower your risk appetite and propensity.
Before you get to age 40, try starting a business. You can do it part time if you are an employee. This will help you to learn, grow and gain experience from your mistakes. Business mistakes and failures are better made while you are young than at old age.

4. Build a solid base of passive income streams from paper assets – Paper assets are one of the greatest ways the rich make money almost effortlessly! Warren Buffett is one of the richest men on earth because of paper asset. Imagine you have N50, 000,000 invested in mutual fund at a low annual interest rate of 10%. That means you would make about N5,000,000 annually and about N 416,666 monthly. If you keep rolling over the interest and capital, you would make even more more in subsequent years. That’s why the rich keep getting richer because they use the power of compounding to get richer using paper assets.

Before age 40 is the best time to acquire a good amount of paper assets. Invest in stocks, treasury bills, bonds, mutual funds and other paper assets. Have a stake in a wide range of paper assets.


5. Invest in real estate – Real estate investment is one of the best investments you can ever have because, it always appreciate in value with time. Also, aside food, housing expenses in form of rent constitutes one of the highest family expenditure.

Before your get to age 40, it would be good if you have built your own house. See how you can build your own house with little income here. At worst, even if you haven’t built a house, try and buy a land before you get to 40.

6.Get married and have all your children – You have a more balanced view to life as a married person with children. You may not agree with me, but I know this is true.
Married people hardly jump into action without giving much thought to it. As a married person you think things through and weigh things on several perspectives before making a move.
You think of the consequences of your actions as it will affect your family in one way or another. You rub minds with your spouse and make a more balanced decisions too, including business decisions because, two good heads are better than one.
Also, having your children before age 40 has several advantages as it helps you to grow with your children and it helps you to bear the financial burden of bring up your children while you are young.


There you have it. Getting information does no one any good unless it is utilised. The choice is yours.
What are other important financial steps you think one should also take before the magical age of 40? Let's discuss.

CC: Lalasticalala
Dominique
Puskin
Naijacutee


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What are other important financial steps you think one should also take before the magical age of 40? Let's discuss.