I naturally consider myself knowledgeable where money management is concerned, so I wouldn’t think a six year old could teach me anything striking. At a recent family birthday dinner, everybody was gathered from far and near to celebrate with Uncle Kola or ‘the SAN’ as we all call him. Daniel had also come with his parents who are my cousins, dressed in his lovely white native. I hadn’t seen this boy in four years, but always heard he was exceptionally smart.
Trust a typical Yoruba party to have good music, people dancing and spraying all manner of currencies and denominations. Daniel was there on the stage with his parents, so he had people spray him some notes too. The way he treated each note handed to him just struck me so much.
1. He was quick to take his money:
While the adults were busy spraying with some even marching on the notes, this boy focused on grabbing whatever anyone handed him. As soon as they did, he didn’t waste any time pocketing his money. Everybody else could be there to have fun, but this boy was there for business. For him, it was ‘get all you can and can all you get’.
2. He took time to arrange his money:
After he had ‘worked’ for his pay, he went to a corner all by himself to count how much he had made. Despite the noise around, Daniel focused on ascertaining what he had realised. I observed how he seperated the Naira notes from the few Dollar notes, then counted out each Naira note, arranging them by their denominations. This young man knew he needed to know exactly what had come in probably before he drew a plan on what to do with it. Call that accounting.
3. He knew whom he could trust with his money:
After arranging all the money, I noticed he secretly handed the higher Naira notes with the Dollar notes to his Dad, but the rest to his Mum. Out of curiosity, I asked why he did it much later. He said though he trusted his Mum generally, he knew his money was safer with his Dad. He had to give some to her since she was going to ask him about the money anyway. What a smart move! He knew Dad was like a reliable savings plan.
Throughout the party, I couldn’t help but wonder how on earth a six year old boy was so deliberate with money. I immediately had flashbacks of how at this age, all we cared about was buying ice cream and puff puff with anything anyone gave us. Not only was Daniel keen on making his money, he also didn’t joke with how it was managed.
Tunji is an OAP at a Lagos radio station who enjoys sharing lessons from daily life and happenings.
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