By Babajide Komolafe

In the last edition, I emphasised that you must recognise the reality of inflation and the fact that Nigeria is prone to inflation due to import dependent nature of the economy, and dominance of crude oil in our export and dollar earnings.

This reality has been confirmed by the way the US/Israel war on Iran has impacted the price of crude oil and prices of other goods and services, and thus high risk of increased inflation rate.

In Nigeria the price of fuel jumped by about 50% in most parts of the country. Transportation costs followed immediately. No doubt some individuals may not be able to save and invest in March as much as they had planned.

That is why you must recognise the reality of inflation and its imminent threat to your efforts to build wealth. Now let’s continue with practical ways to reduce the impact of inflation on your wealth building efforts.
Develop a high maintenance culture. Top grade household equipment, including vehicles, are manufactured to deliver quality for more than a decade.

Some can last 20 years. But to unlock that longevity, you must use these items carefully and maintain them religiously. Someone I know, set maintenance standards upon purchase of any household item. This person has a car, a 1996 model, purchased in 2011, which has never developed any engine, gear or major fault. Since purchase, the car is serviced every month (oil change, filter change etc) with comprehensive car wash almost every week. This fellow has ceiling fans purchased in 2014, that look clean and work as if purchased last month.

I also remember a standing fan I saw in the house of an elderly couple years ago. The fan was neat and operating efficiently. The brand name suggested it was bought almost 20 years ago, a fact confirmed by the couple. I also observed that almost every household item in the home of this rich couple was purchased more than a decade ago. The same is true for most rich and wealthy people.

A strict maintenance culture will help you beat inflation. You will not need to spend money to regularly buy durable household and personal items. You can even make more money selling the old items before you buy a new one. This will help you concentrate your resources on basic regular expenses like foods, transport, school fees etc, as well as having the liberty to continue to save.