By Babajide Komolafe

Recognising that no money is small is also critical to developing a saving habit. The reason why some people don’t save is because they consider what they earn or have too little to save.

Though they can conveniently save N200 or N500 monthly, they do not, because they believe this is small and cannot bring any significant reward.

Recognising that no money is small is also critical to developing a saving habit. The reason why some people don’t save is because they consider what they earn or have too little to save.

For example, N200 monthly savings will produce N2,400 at the end of a year. If this small money is invested at 10% compound interest rate for 10 years, it will become N41,510.
Many business empires were founded with money accumulated overtime from small savings.
So, in your quest to be rich, you must live and manage your money by this principle. Look for ways to reduce the money you spend on items, no matter how small. People may make fun of you, ignore them, and focus on what the small consistent savings will yield in 10 years.
Also begin to save and invest that small money that you can set aside. Daily savings of N50 can give you access to investment in a mutual fund, which currently yields 18 to 20 per cent returns. How? N50 per day translates to N350 per week, and N1,400 per month. At 20 per cent interest rate, this translates to N43,000 in two years.
But you will achieve more than these. This is because once you get used to saving N50 and you begin to experience the feeling that comes with having money somewhere, you will likely increase what you save per month. This is how many people developed the habit of regular savings overtime.
One of the benefits of this regular savings is easy access to loans, which is critical to overcoming poverty and achieving business success. And this is one of the benefits you enjoy when you belong to a cooperative group. Many hitherto poor people or low income workers have used this route to attain financial comfort or even, have thriving businesses. An example is an acquaintance of mine, who, with his wife, today has a thriving family business worth millions of Naira, built from cooperative loans made possible by small monthly savings from the man’s small monthly income. So, stop despising ‘small money.’