Financial Goals are the priorities and targets you set for how you want to spend and save your money.

Some financial goals you might set as an individual include saving to buy a home or pay for rent, go on vacation, start a business, pay off debt, etc. When setting a financial goal, you must determine the length of time it’s going to take to reach your goal.

It can also be said that it is not a person’s ability to save that encourages him/her to save money, but the willingness to save forces him/her to do so.

For you to achieve your financial goals, you need to take proactive measures. Here are some steps to follow in achieving your financial goals:

1. Write out your goals: Writing out your financial goals is the first step to take in achieving them. Because if you don’t write them, you won’t do or see them with your eyes.
2. Track Expenses: Monitoring your expenses is key to achieving your financial goals. Do well to track your expenses daily, weekly or monthly. You can use expense mobile apps to do this and be determined to doing this diligently. Tracking your expenses is very helpful as it helps you to cut down on some unwanted expenses and in turn boost your saving rate.
3. Follow a solid plan: Sometimes, you might be overwhelmed barely looking at a list of your financial goals. This is where creating a solid plan comes in. This helps you to know where you need to start from, decide the next thing to do. Know your money weaknesses and set out a plan to avoid or overcome them. Also, know your money strengths and build on them.
4. Create accountability: Setting and reaching financial is not an easy task, hence the need to have somebody you can always trust to talk through your goals. Because along the way, you will need words of encouragement and some reality checks. He or She will check in on your progress and applaud you. What having accountability does is that, it allows you not to leave your dreams on your shoulders but also allows you pick someone to help you carry the load.
5. Re-evaluate your goals: Change as they say is constant. It’s okay to have a change in your goals but don’t abandon them. Reevaluate your financial goals monthly, quarterly or every six months so they fit where you are and where you are going.

Getting Quick Loans are a sure way of achieving your financial goals. At Credit Direct Limited, we offer low interest emergency loans without collaterals or guarantors. You can apply on www.creditdirect.ng

Personal Finance is defined as the management of money and financial decisions for a person or family including budgeting, income generation, investing, spending, saving, retirement planning and investments.

We will be focusing on explaining the most important areas of personal finance. The most important areas are;

1. Budgeting: This is a process of creating a plan to spend your money. Budgeting ensures that you have enough cash for the things that are important to you and the things that you need.

Having a budget and following it will keep you out of debt. And if you are in debt already, this will help you work your way out of it. The good thing about budgeting is, when you know where your money is going, you can crush your money goals faster.

• Income: This is the money that an individual or business receives in exchange for providing a good or service or through investing capital.

It is the starting point for our financial planning process and there are several sources of income that generate cash that individuals or businesses can use to either save, invest, or spend. Some of which are; salaries, wages, pensions, bonuses, dividends.

• Investing: In finance, an investment is a monetary asset purchased with the idea that the asset will provide income in the future or will later be sold at a higher price for a profit. Though investing carries risk but having the mind to invest makes you stay ahead of inflation, helps you build wealth etc.

• Spending: This is the money that is used for a particular purpose. You either by cash or by credit. Managing expenses is just as important as generating income. If expenses are greater than income, then an individual has a deficit. Good spending habits are critical for good personal finance management.

• Savings: This refers to the money put aside for future use rather spending it immediately. Managing savings is a critical area of personal finance. If there is a surplus between what a person earns as income and what they spend, the difference can be directed towards savings or investments. Savings helps you in emergencies, limits debts, gives you financial freedom, etc.

Good financial management comes down to having a solid plan and sticking to it

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Imagine you having the capability to do whatever you want without having to worry about money. Exciting, yeah? That’s Financial Independence! Before you can embark on this journey to achieving financial independence, you need to take care of the basics like paying off your debts etc. After that is taking care of, below are some of the ways you can achieve financial independence.

1. Starting a Business: As we all know, starting a business is not easy as there is not guarantee that it will be successful. It is a risk and we have no choice than to attempt starting one. You must be very sure whether you’re ready to either quit your 8-5 job for your new business or make it a side business. Starting and building a business is one difficult way to achieve financial independence but when the business booms, the payoff is usually huge.
2. Monetizing your skills: Another way to achieving financial independence is by turning your skills into usable products. This is a good way for creative people to monetize their skills or talents. Are you a writer, designer, comedian, you can always put your skills or talents to good use by letting people pay to learn from you or brands pay to advertise their products on your platform?
3. Living an economical lifestyle: This is probably the easiest way to achieving financial independence. How do you live an economical lifestyle? Does it mean you have to be cheap? Living an economical lifestyle is simply tracking and controlling your monthly expenses. It also means you need to save and invest. Many of us have no idea how much we spend every month and it would be shocking to know. Track your monthly expenses, avoid letting your expenses creep up along with your increasing income.

Make financial independence your goal and start working towards it.

Human-to-human connections are the heart and soul of a business. Put simply, business occurs when an individual or group of people deliberately provide services that eases the life of another person in a profitable manner. A business is about solving problems, alleviating pain points, creating a rapport with consumers, and providing delightful customer experiences. Profit only comes when a sound business model is matched with a positive customer experience. At Credit Direct Limited, the knowledge of what business is truly about is what wakes us up daily, motivates us to join the early morning rush, sit in the road rage patiently with a simple purpose to arrive at the office as early as possible to serve our esteemed customers.

Our passion to serve is what propels the sales team to beat the torturous weathers of Sokoto, Gombe and Katsina States and meander through the slippery footpaths of riverine areas in Bayelsa and Rivers States in search of more Nigerians to solve their financial challenges. The joy and amazement on the faces of customers when they get credited with the requested loans within few hours is what motivates our management to workday and night strategizing new ways to make the business meet its promise and deliver a phenomenal experience to customers. Even though the Credit Direct team may get held up in traffic for long hours in Lagos, travel across the country to visit stakeholders or put themselves in harm’s way walking the streets up North seeking another customer to assist, our duty to serve and care for our customers brings fulfillment to everyone in our value chain.

At Credit Direct, we are a long chain of professionals, bond together by one mission – we enable Peace of Mind. The fact that majority of Nigerians still find it difficult to access credit at the point of emergencies motivates us to think deeply about how to solve this critical socio-economic problem. There are the loopholes to fill, there are openings to fix, there are needs to meet, and fortunately there is Credit Direct to meet those needs.

The Credit Direct Brand is all about meeting the needs of those who were uncared for and those with genuine need for money but could not be accommodated not because of any fault of theirs but because the neglect was widespread and deep, because the divide between the affluent and mass market was deliberate to ensure there is always a second class category whenever it is decision making time. Credit Direct continuously disrupt the space and does what a lot of people including experts believe and consider “IMPOSSIBLE” to achieve, what industry legends regarded as a definite loss of revenue and reputation if ventured into. In fact, when we started, 6 months our proposal stayed in the hands of top business executives and government officials and the verdict was “try this at your own peril” why was that the narrative and how did we change the narrative to a winning one? The answer is simple, because the idea was not for “profit” or “loss”. It was not set up for the Balance Sheet figures at the end of every financial year, it was not set up for big board meetings and extravagant Annual General Meetings, it was set up to put smiles on the faces of salaried employees who are real economic actors in the theatre called Nigeria. To bring peace and fulfilment to a father whose child laid on the sick bed and would not be attended to till he makes a deposit. For the mother who toils daily yet cannot afford to pay the fees of the child and he is driven from school on the first day of the third term examination just because her salary had not yet been paid. For the hardworking civil servant whose rent is due, and the landlord has pasted the eviction notice with a short timeline. Now those are the real heroes we were born to help, and yes, we have created a long list of promoters across territories who never knew their potentials till they got their loans on the same day and sometime instantly.

I can never forget the story of a dear customer who came into one of our branches in the North, crying and sobbing that his only son lies sick on the hospital bed and needs to make a payment for immediate surgery or else he would die, he begged and pleaded for a loan, we sat him down and comforted him, gave him a form to complete and requested a few documents to complete the loan request process which he hurriedly left to get the requested documents. He returned in 2 hours and after submission, he sat there waiting, obviously with tons of scenarios playing out in his mind, he paced all round the banking hall muttering prayers under his breathe and at about 3:45pm same day he got an alert, he screamed so loud it caused a stare and with a happy heart, he knelt down in appreciation. For us that was the goal, that is satisfaction. We had fulfilled our purpose that day.

Credit Direct went unchallenged in the unsecured consumer finance space for over 4 years (April 2007 to December 2011) and recognized as one of the best performing companies across all business performance indicators. This is a clear evidence to what a company that puts customer satisfaction before profit can achieve in a world of business previously considered to be a one-way ticket to bankruptcy. Our success has inspired others to follow in our footstep, increasing competition in the unsecured lending market. We encourage competition because for us the idea is not to monopolize the market but to solve a socio-economic need. So, while others try to outcompete us, we expand our customer base simply by caring and connecting deeper with our customers. We organized stakeholder’s forum, engagement sessions, understood our customers better and then made heavy investment in Corporate Social Responsibility. We upgraded schools and provided adequate learning tools for students, we provided free health checks for our customers, we trained our customers (Teachers and professionals) on entrepreneurial skills and service, we granted scholarships to students who excelled in their studies as a motivation to others to ensure that they level up and to show that there is reward for hardwork. We provided learning materials and sponsored people living with Disabilities in our own little ways. We sponsored events and projects that help create value for those who truly need our support. Doing all these bring smiles to our customers and we look forward to doing even more as each year pass by.

While we invest in our customers, we are also particular about our staff “our greatest assets” who ensure the brand is fully expressed along the fabric of the country from North to South, from East to West, through the shore lines of the Niger Delta to the Rocky terrains of the north. Indeed, we have the best team ever. The fact that you can leverage staff who are promoters to sell your products and exceed the needs of the customer gives you double assurance that you have built a business and a product that is wholesome.

Our unique way of doing business has endeared us to millions of customers around the country who are the heartbeat of the Credit Direct family. We have created a brand persona that resonates within the industry, we just don’t grant loans we enable PEACE OF MIND.

Our customers are the stars in our epic story, we are only the supporting character.

We are Credit Direct Limited, Nigeria’s Number One Unsecured Consumer Finance Lenders.

Joseph Osodi writes in from our Brand Marketing and Communications desk of Credit Direct Limited.

Do you need quick loans? Do you have an emergency and need a loan? Do you need online loans in Lagos? Call us today on 01 4482225 or send an email to CDLmarketing@fcmb.com.

Defining Leadership

What really is leadership? I can provide several definitions from great authors and leaders, but I will like to work to the basics, looking at its root. Leadership is ‘leader’-‘ship’, i.e. the ship of a leader. What is a ‘ship’? It is a means of transportation from one place to another. So, what does it mean to ‘lead’? The noun meaning of ‘lead’ according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is to be the first, to be in a position of advantage, to be in the forefront or ahead, to be top or take initiative and the verb meaning of ‘lead’ is to serve as a channel, direct a course or to guide on a way, especially by going in advance or forward. A ‘leader’ on the other hand (hold on, before you reach for your dictionary), simply put, is someone who satisfies the above context. To piece the definitions together, leadership means:

• the means of moving ahead
• to direct or chart a course to be the first or to move forward
• to serve as a channel to place others in a position of advantage

Now that we have established the meaning of leadership, let’s discuss what leadership is and what it is not. I will use the elimination approach and start with what leadership is not.

What Leadership Is Not

• Leadership is not a reward for long service – While consulting for several companies in the past, I have seen this error made severally. There seems to be an assumption that since an employee has been in an organisation for a long time, the logical next step is for them to lead. Long service, although may be an advantage to a leader, it is not a requirement for leadership and should not be the sole reason for rewarding people with leadership role.

• Leadership is not a special trait that only a select few possess. It is not inborne; it can be developed. Yes, the charisma may come more easily for some, but leadership is more than that. There are training courses for leadership, you can be mentored/coached to lead, and you can learn to lead from other great leaders. Leadership is not for a select few, anyone can learn to lead.

• Leadership is not just about influence. That you have great charisma and can sway people with your words or style or get them to submit to you doesn’t necessarily make you a leader. Influence is beneficial in leadership when combined with other attributes. Influence alone does not make you a leader. While I am on this table, let me shake it well, that you are a social media influencer does not make you a leader. We shouldn’t misconstrue these things.

• Leadership is not superiority; it doesn’t mean you are the smartest person in the room. Superior talent, skill, network, qualification, etc. does not make you a leader. That you are a leader, does not mean you are superior – you do not become a leader because you are superior neither do you become superior because you are now a leader.

• Leadership is not a personality type. No one personality type is best for leadership. Your being introverted or extroverted does not place you in a better position to be a leader.

• Leadership is not about instilling fear in people. While good leadership comes with reverence, the leader does not start out with that objective. In fact, fear and reverence are two different things. When people flee at your presence or tremble at the thought of you, it is no longer leadership!

• Leadership does not mean been exalted, somewhat like been on a pedestal where you cannot be reached, addressed or even corrected. Leadership does not mean closing the access that others have to you. It doesn’t mean you are above the law.

• Leadership does not mean using others to achieve your goals. I have saved this one for last because I know some people will raise their eye brows here. You thought leadership was about setting goals and marshalling the team to achieve them. That will make you a good manager, not necessarily a leader. Sorry to burst your bubble.

I have identified what leadership is not so that you can eliminate them from your mind set and begin to rethink leadership.

What Leadership Is

Going by the definition of leadership provided in this article, I will use the analogy of the ship. I will liken the ship to the organisation or entity, the captain to the leader, the people on board the ship to the followers. There are three primary responsibilities that every leader must excel at:

1. Clarify the Destination: I consider this the most important job of the leader because every other activity carried out by the leader revolves around this. If the vision is not properly crafted and communicated, the ship will be headed nowhere. There will be confusion, resources will be wasted – you don’t know what’s needed or how much is needed, etc. A properly crafted vision must be one that is shared and one that advances the collective. It may emanate from the leader, but everyone on the ship must buy into it. Otherwise, one follower will reach for one sail to increase the speed and the other will be trying to make a turn at the same time. What you have is chaos, and eventually, destruction of the ship. The destination or vision must be clear, shared and well communicated. Clarifying and communicating the vision also helps ensure you have the right people on the ship. The people on the ship are not taking a jolly ride, they must be people who also desire to go to the planned destination. It shouldn’t just be the leader’s vision, it should be everyone’s vision.

• Chart the Course: There is a Yoruba adage that means, there are several entry points into the market. When a clear picture of the destination or vision has been shared, the leader must chart the course to the destination. How do we get there? in what state do we want to get there? when must we get there? Craft a strategy, develop a plan to get there. The plan must be clear; clear enough for everyone to grasp it without you being there. It shouldn’t be your plan; it should be our plan.

• Sail, adjust, sail: Once the vision is clear, and the strategic plan has been adopted, all that’s left is to sail. Harness the collective capacity of the people and sail. Sail according to plan, sail towards the vision. The winds will blow, course-correct and continue sailing. If circumstances make you lose sight of the vision, review the vision now and again to strengthen your focus and ignite passion. Keep inspiring the people to keep their gaze on the vision and fully apply themselves and you will arrive the destination soon enough.

Three simple responsibilities, you may say, but the establishment and sustainability of organisations rest on the leader’s ability to skilfully execute them. Successful leadership requires trust, heart and grit – I call them the pillars of leadership. I will talk about them in the next publication.

Are you currently in a leadership role? Do a quick self-assessment on how well you are faring on these responsibilities. Also check yourself against what leadership is not. If you see areas that you are doing well, give yourself a pat on the back. If you identify areas of improvement, pen them down and seek ways to close the gap. We need more leaders. Leaders who will help us see a new horizon, who will skilfully chart the course despite our diversity and advance the cause of our organisations.

-Oluwatosin Oyebola

Do you need Quick Loans online? Do you need Loans without Collateral? Are you stranded and you cant get out fast? Call us today for quick loans within hours, No Collateral, No Guarantor, No Account Opening, No Pre-Liquidation Charges. 01 4482225 or 0700CREDITDIRECT.