Investing Archives - Zamai Banje

Category: Investing (page 1 of 4)

A collection of blog posts about investing. Here, Zamai Banje writes and discusses on investing and how it affects young individuals.

June 23, 2025

Financial Wealth: 3 Simple Pillars of Mastering Money

Financial Wealth is not just about accumulating more money.

It’s about defining and achieving a life that aligns with your values and well-being. There is a reason why the endless chase for more fails to bring lasting satisfaction.

From Sahil’s global bestseller book, I will lay out a simple, three-pillar model (plus practical systems) to build sustainable financial security on your terms.

Everything is right in this article, so please stay with me and let’s learn together till the end.

The Big Question: “What’s Your Definition of Enough?”

Once asked by a reporter how much money was enough money, business tycoon and billionaire John D. Rockefeller replied,

“Just a little bit more.”

This is the modern-day Sisyphean struggle. Our hedonic adaptation ensures that each financial win quickly becomes the new baseline for dissatisfaction. Society celebrates perpetual growth in pursuing money, and contentment is mislabelled as laziness.

Yet, we have seen that true wealth includes five pillars: Time, People, Purpose, Health, and Financial Wealth.

Beyond Financial Wealth: 5 Types of Wealth

You Must Define Your “Enough Life”

Your “Enough Life” can be modest or lavish.

Consciously articulate where you live, what you own, what you spend time doing, who you spend time with, and your financial cushion. The truth is…. You can never achieve true financial wealth if your expectations outpace your assets.

Defining your “Enough Life” explicitly shifts the quest from endless accumulation to purposeful balance.

Modern Money is full of Illusions

In recent times, money increasingly feels abstract.

Money has slowly transitioned from a medium of exchange in the reality of the physical world to something that often resembles a fantastical creation of the human imagination. There are more digital banks and different types of online money schemes. It’s like a theme park of gimmicks.

To stay focused on making and keeping money, you must avoid shiny distractions.

Focus on the “boring basics” that reliably build financial wealth. You don’t have to “ride every ride”. Consistency with simple principles over time will help you win.

The Three Pillars of Financial Wealth

Financial Wealth grows by converting short-term net cash flow into long-term compounders via three pillars:

Pillar 1: Income Generation
Cultivate stable and growing cash inflows: primary job, side hustles, passive streams.

This is the basic model. You can also build marketable skills (e.g., sales, writing, software). Then leverage those skills across a risk spectrum (from getting a job to venturing entrepreneurship).

Pillar 2: Expense Management
Keep outflows reliably below inflows.

Manage lifestyle creep. This is when you get that extra money, but instead of saving more of it, you slowly start spending more and more without even really noticing. Focus on the essentials instead.

The essentials are budgeting, automating savings, having a rainy-day fund (6 months of expenses), and conscious spending.

Pillar 3: Long-Term Investment
Invest the gap between income and expenses in low-cost, efficient assets to capture compound interest.

To do this, note that your time in the market beats timing the market. Start investing early. Your earlier investments yield exponentially greater returns.

The 3 Pillars of Financial Wealth

The gap between income and expenses is your most important financial tool. The larger it grows, the more you must invest and compound.

Closing this gap requires a knowledge of the five levels of financial wealth.

The Five Levels of Financial Wealth

Your journey can be mapped across five distinct levels.

Each level is defined by your needs, pleasures, and financial independence:

1: Baseline Needs: Food, shelter, and basic security are covered.

2: Modest Pleasures: Discretionary spending on dining out, simple vacations, education.

3: Saving & Compounding: Focus shifts toward aggressive saving, investing, and fund building.

4: Moderate Independence: Passive income covers a portion of your lifestyle. Active income can be reduced.

5: Complete Independence: Passive returns exceed all expenses; active work becomes optional.

The dollar thresholds in each level are personal and driven by your defined “Enough Life.” And each level requires disciplined application of the three pillars.

Systems for Success: The Financial Wealth Guide

Here are eight high-leverage systems to maximize your financial wealth.

You need not adopt them all. Simply select what resonates.

Defining Your Enough Life
Financial Wealth Hacks I Wish I Knew at Twenty-Two
Seven Pieces of Career Advice (Income Generation)
Six Marketable Meta-Skills (Income Generation)
Seven Basic Principles of Expense Management
Eight Best Investment Assets (Long-Term Investment)
The Return-on-Hassle Spectrum (Long-Term Investment)
The Single Greatest Investment in the World (Self-Investment)

System 1: Defining Your Enough Life

Here are the prompts to craft a vivid image of your ideal life:

Location & Home: House, apartment, multi-location living?
Social Circle: Family proximity, friends, community.
Daily Activities: Work, hobbies, mental focus.
Possessions: Material items that bring genuine joy.
Financial Profile: Necessary income, savings rate, safety net size.

Use this vision to measure the gap from current reality and plan actionable steps to bridge it. Then revisit every few years to keep growing consciously.

System 2: Financial Wealth Hacks I Wish I Knew at Twenty-Two

This includes key habits to accelerate your journey:

“$30,000 Questions”: Focus on big-impact financial decisions (investment fees, negotiating salary, mortgage rates) over trivial savings (coffee).
Emergency Fund: Build 6–12 months of cash buffer to reduce money anxiety.
Automate Savings & Investments: Commit a fixed percent of income (e.g., save 10%, invest 20%).
Credit Discipline: Treat credit cards like debit; pay in full monthly.
Quality over Quantity: Buy durable items worth splurging on; cut ruthlessly on the rest.
“Test Everything”: Try premium subscriptions, then downgrade after a review period.
Be Generous & Frugal: Save on things you don’t value; spend without guilt on what matters.
Index Funds Are a Free Lunch: 90%+ of portfolio in low-cost diversified funds.
Stay Invested: Automate monthly contributions; ignore market swings.
Tip More: Small holiday gifts to service workers spread goodwill.
Thirty-Day Rule: Wait before nonessential purchases to curb impulse buys.
Negotiate Recurring Bills: Cable, insurance, phone—save hundreds each year.
Mindset Matters: Knowing your numbers and aligning spending with values improves your money psychology.

System 3: Seven Pieces of Career Advice (Income Generation)

Create Value, Receive Value: Focus on delivering outsized value and money follows.
Swallow the Frog: Do your boss’s hardest tasks first to build momentum.
Master the Basics: Eye contact, punctuality, reliability, kindness. Your small actions with these basics will bring big impact.
Work Hard, Then Smart: Hard work builds your reputation and leverage follows.
Build Storytelling Skills: Data + narrative = persuasive communication.
Be Reputable for “Figuring It Out”: Demonstrate resourcefulness and people will fight to work with you.
Dive Through Cracks: Seize imperfect opportunities to create upward momentum.

System 4: Six Marketable Meta-Skills (Income Generation)

Learn these deployable skills that amplify income engines:

Sales
Storytelling
Design (including AI-directed design)
Writing (clarity of thought)
Software Engineering (leveraging AI)
Data Science

System 5: Seven Basic Principles of Expense Management

Create & Stick to a Budget: Track every category and gamify hitting targets.
Automate Savings: “Pay yourself first.”
Credit Cards = Cash: Zero balances every month.
Rainy-Day Fund: Six months of living expenses.
Budget for Experiences: Treat enjoyment as a planned line item.
Plan for Big Expenses: Weddings, vacations, cars. Avoid new debt.
Manage Expectations: Keep lifestyle creep in check and ensure income outpaces expenses.

System 6: Eight Best Investment Assets (Long-Term Investment)

This is a starting point for research. Not all these assets are necessary for every portfolio:

Stocks: High returns, high volatility.
Bonds: Lower returns, principal safety.
Investment Property: Leverage amplifies returns but low liquidity and management headaches.
REITs: Real estate exposure without landlord chores.
Farmland: Inflation hedge, low correlation, but illiquid and high entry barriers.
Small Businesses/Start-Ups: Potentially outsized returns, high failure risk, time-intensive.
Royalties: Income from copyrights; low correlation but taste-driven risk.
Your Products: Highest control and fulfilment; majority fail, but success scales.

System 7: The Return-on-Hassle Spectrum (Long-Term Investment)

Evaluate your assets not only on risk-adjusted returns but also “hassle-adjusted” returns.

For instance, low-hassle assets (e.g., index and mutual funds) often deliver the best net benefit for most investors. On the other end, start-up investing may offer opportunities for ten times or even a hundred times investment appreciation, but it is also incredibly risky.

System 8: The Single Greatest Investment in the World

Invest in Yourself unconditionally: education, skills, health, and relationships.

Also, apply a Thirty-Day Rule for material purchases. Delay nonessential buys by 30 days and redeploy savings into self-investment.

Still Focus on the Broader Wealth Matrix

Money Solves Money Problems, but not deeper life questions.

Your financial wealth is a tool to cultivate your Time Wealth, Social Wealth, Mental Wealth and Physical Wealth. Financial Wealth is the foundation, not the finish line.

Define your unique “Enough Life,” master the three pillars, apply these high-leverage systems, and deploy your resources to enrich all dimensions of a truly wealthy existence.

That’s all, my friend.

I hope this helps and keeps you grounded.

Godspeed and cheers.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

Become Your Highest Self: Every Sunday, I share actionable tips from successful people on how to master money, mindset and meaning. Please confirm your subscription via email so the newsletter goes straight into your inbox.
Fast Track Book: Stay relevant, master new skills, and be ready for whatever life throws at you. This is the complete roadmap to speed up your learning process and expand the opportunities available to you. Available on Amazon.
Personal Wealth Maximizer: Take control of your finances and build financial freedom. The Personal Wealth Maximizer give you the exact knowledge and tools to break free from money struggles and build financial confidence.

May 25, 2025

Financial Freedom: At What Point Will Your Money Be Enough?

What does it even mean to have financial freedom?

Being financially free means having enough money, so you don’t have to worry about paying for the things you need.

Imagine having a bank account that’s so loaded that you can use it to buy food, pay for your house, and get the things you want without stressing about running out of money.

This is what financial freedom means.

When you’re financially free, you can choose how you spend your time instead of working to pay bills. You might still work because you enjoy your job, but don’t have to work to survive.

Being financially free helps you live a happier and less stressful life.

When you don’t have to worry about money all the time, you can focus on the things that matter to you, like spending time with family and friends or doing hobbies you love.

For me, attaining financial freedom means living freely with close friends and family around. I will be able to spend weeks watching anime (maybe One Piece at a stretch) without my conscience judging me. I will also have enough money to go to the concerts of my favourite music artists anywhere in the world.

Defining what financial freedom means to you is important.

The 7 Levels of Financial Freedom

The truth is that financial freedom comes in stages or levels.

Understanding these levels is like climbing stairs. You must reach each step before you can get to the next one. When you know how much money you need to be financially free, you can always adjust and see if you’re doing better.

Level 1: Clarity

Know exactly how much money you spend every month.

Write down what you pay for rent, food, black tax, data subscriptions, and everything else. Find out how much you currently spend monthly. Then write out your ideal monthly expenses.

This level is important because you can’t get better with money if you don’t know how you’re spending it. It’s like trying to lose weight without knowing what you eat.

In this level, figure out where you are and where you want to go.

Level 2: Self-Sufficiency

This is when you earn enough money to cover your expenses on your own.

At this level, you have saved up enough money to pay for one whole month of expenses. If you spend 20,000 Naira every month, you have 20,000 Naira saved up.

This is important because it means you can survive for one month if something bad happens, like losing your job. You won’t panic right away because you have a little cushion.

To achieve this level, you have saved your monthly expenses.

Level 3: Breathing Room

In this level, you escape living from salary to salary.

Now you have enough money saved to pay your bills for 3 to 5 months. Using the same example, you’d have 60,000 to 100,000 naira saved up.

This level gives you time to breathe and think if you lose your job or when your business is down. You don’t have to take the first job you find because you have time to look for something better.

The path is clear here – Save 3 to 5 times your monthly expenses to complete Level 3.

Level 4: Stability

This is when you have six months of living expenses saved and your debts repaid.

You have expenses saved up for the next 180 days. This means you can go half a year without working and still pay all your bills.

This level makes you feel secure. Most emergencies or job losses get fixed within six months, so you’re protected from most problems that might happen.

To achieve this level, you have saved 6 times your monthly expenses.

Level 5: Flexibility

In this level, you have two years of living expenses invested.

At this level, you have saved up twenty-four months’ worth of expenses. That’s a lot of money! It means you can live for two whole years without working.

This gives you amazing freedom. You can quit your job to start a business, go back to school, or take care of a sick family member without worrying about money.

Remember again – you need your monthly expenses saved 24 times to be financially flexible.

Level 6: Financial Independence

This is when you can live off the income generated by your investments till the day you die.

You have so much money invested that it makes enough profit to pay for your living expenses forever. You never have to work for money again if you don’t want to.

This is the dream level you must aim for. You can choose to work because you love your job, not because you need the money.

I love this level because work becomes optional at this point.

Level 7: Abundant Wealth

Here, you have more money than you’ll ever need.

Your money is too much at this level. You can buy almost anything you want and help lots of other people, too.

At this level, money isn’t something you think about anymore. Simply focus completely on doing things that make you happy and help make the world better.

I also talk about how to identify your skills and keep moving up these levels of financial freedom in Personal Wealth Maximizer. Check it out if you are truly ready to start your journey in being financially free.

Why is it Important to Know These Levels?

Knowing these levels helps you in three big ways:

First, it shows you exactly where you are right now with your money. You might discover you’re already at Level 2 and didn’t even know it!

Second, it gives you clear goals to work toward. Instead of just saying “I want to save money,” you can say “I want to get to Level 3 by saving up four months of expenses.”

Third, it helps you stay motivated. When you see yourself moving from Level 1 to Level 2, you feel proud and want to keep going.

Again, at what Point will you be financially free?

To be financially free, recognise these 7 Levels and complete them one at a time.

Clarity (know your monthly expenses)
Self-sufficiency (Save 1x monthly expenses)
Breathing Room (Save 3 to 5x monthly expenses)
Stability (Save 6x monthly expenses)
Flexibility (Save 24x monthly expenses)
Financial Independence (Make enough money to pay for your living expenses forever)
Abundant Wealth (Have more money than you’ll ever need)

Ultimately, the amount you need comes down to the life you want to live, where you want to live it, what you value, and what brings you joy.

I hope this helps.

Godspeed and Cheers.

Zamai.

May 11, 2025

Time Wealth: How to Invest Your Finite Moments

When you use your time well, you say your time is well spent.

Time is an asset. It’s one of the currencies of life. Controlling your time is crucial for happiness and fulfilment.

Sahil goes further to call it Time wealth.

You can increase your Time Wealth by focusing on awareness, attention, and control. It’s no longer about focusing on money, i.e., financial wealth. You must also prioritise how you spend your limited time.

Time Wealth Quote

The Big Question: How Many Moments Do You Have Remaining?

Time is finite, especially when it concerns your relationships.

For instance, you have limited moments left with loved ones. Cherishing time spent with family, children, friends, and partners is important. We often take small moments for granted and only value them when they are gone.

Confront this reality and take action to invest your time in meaningful ways.

Choosing a partner to share life with is critical, as is finding meaningful work with energising coworkers. As people age, time spent alone increases, and it should be cherished rather than feared.

The Two Types of Time

There is a modern obsession with busyness, which is often equated with worth.

People are busier than ever but have less control over their time due to digital distractions and societal pressures. This perpetual busyness leads to scattered attention and a lack of fulfilment. To understand better, there are two ways to describe time.

There are Chronos and Kairos.

Chronos refers to sequential, quantitative time, while Kairos refers to qualitative time, where certain moments are more significant than others. Recognising and capitalising your kairos moments is crucial for achieving disproportionate growth and results.

The key is to identify moments of greatest time leverage and focus attention on them.

The Three Pillars of Time Wealth

There are three pillars for building Time Wealth:

Awareness: Understanding the finite nature of time as a precious asset.
Attention: The ability to focus on things that matter while ignoring distractions.
Control: The freedom to choose how to spend one’s time.

Awareness is Recognizing Time as Your Most Precious Asset

Awareness involves recognising the impermanence and value of time.

When young, you are a “time billionaire,” but this wealth diminishes with age.

Now, your goal is to value time before it becomes the only thing you value at the end of life.

Attention is Unlocking Results that are Bigger than your Efforts

Attention is the application of mental energy to create progress.

Focused attention is more powerful than scattered attention, leading to concentrated, extraordinary outcomes. Having focused attention involves dedicating yourself to high-leverage opportunities, projects, and people.

This requires careful selection and rejection of tasks.

Control is Your Ultimate Goal

Control allows you to choose what and when to do with your time.

With control, you own your time and make decisions about its allocation. Without control, your time is dictated by others. Combined with awareness and attention, you shift from being a “time taker” to a “time maker.”

Indeed, you can dictate your time and how it is spent.

The Time Wealth Guide: Systems for Success

There are twelve systems for building Time Wealth.

These systems address common anti-goals such as spending too much time on low-value activities, being too busy to prioritise loved ones and losing spontaneity in life.

The Time Wealth Hard Reset (Awareness)

This exercise involves calculating the number of remaining times one will see a loved one based on current frequency and age.

By confronting this numerical reality, you are inspired to create more time with those you care about.

The Energy Calendar (Awareness and Attention)

This system involves tracking daily activities and categorising them as energy-creating (green), neutral (yellow), or energy-draining (red).

Based on this, you can prioritise, delegate, or adjust activities to optimise your energy levels. Energy-creating activities should be amplified, neutral activities maintained or delegated, and energy-draining activities minimised or adjusted.

The goal is to improve your green-to-red ratio, enhancing overall energy and focus.

The Two-List Exercise (Awareness and Attention)

This exercise helps identify and focus on your top professional and personal priorities.

Create a comprehensive list of professional and personal priorities and narrow each list to three to five items. Separate the circled priorities from the rest, labelling them as “Priorities” and “Avoid at All Costs.”

This creates a clear distinction between what to focus on and what to delegate or delete.

4. The Eisenhower Matrix (Awareness and Attention)

This matrix categorises tasks based on urgency and importance:

Important and Urgent: Do now! These tasks require immediate attention and contribute to long-term goals.
Important and Not Urgent: Plan. Focus on these tasks to build long-term value.
Not Important and Urgent: Delegate. These tasks drain time and energy without contributing to long-term goals.
Not Important and Not Urgent: Delete. Eliminate these time-wasting activities.

The Eisenhower Matrix

The Index Card To-Do System (Attention)

This simple system involves preparing a 3×5 index card each night with a short list of 3-5 tasks for the next day.

The list should include important tasks that align with long-term goals. Its simplicity promotes focus and momentum. This allows you to accomplish more of what matters.

Parkinson’s Law (Attention)

Parkinson’s law states that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.

By establishing constraints and shorter time frames, you become more efficient and productive. You work like a lion. Short sprints of focused work followed by rest.

Repeat this pattern till task completion.

The Anti-Procrastination System (Attention)

This system involves three steps to overcome procrastination:

Deconstruction: Break down intimidating tasks into smaller, manageable steps.
Plan and Stake Creation: Develop a plan of attack with specific, time-bound micro-tasks. Create stakes, such as public declarations, social pressure, rewards, and penalties, to drive better outcomes.
Action: Start with the first action to create initial movement, using techniques such as planning a sync session, rewarding initial movement, or using the lion technique.

8. The Flow State Boot-Up Sequence (Attention)

This system focuses on creating a routine to enter a flow state, a state of deep, focused work.

Here, you build a personal boot-up sequence using the five senses:

Touch: Engage in a specific movement or body action.
Taste: Consume a specific drink, chewing gum, or snack.
Sight: Focus on a specific visual element in the environment.
Sound: Listen to a specific sound in the environment.
Smell: Inhale a specific scent in the environment.

The Flow State Boot-Up Sequence

Effective Delegation (Attention and Control)

This system emphasises the importance of delegating tasks to create time leverage.

The three core principles of effective delegation are:

Appropriate Task Profiling: Delegate low-risk, high-reversibility tasks that require minimal oversight, and high-risk, low-reversibility tasks that need significant oversight.
Clear Expectations: Establish clear expectations for every task, including deliverables, timelines, feedback loops, and risk profile.
Infinite Feedback Loops: Establish continuous, iterative feedback loops to enable participants to learn and improve.

Delegation can be implemented at three levels: direct, semiautonomous, and autonomous, allowing for increasing independence and efficiency.

10. The Art of No (Control)

Learning to say no is crucial for taking control of your time.

Two shortcuts to do this are:

The Right Now Test (Personal): When deciding whether to take on a personal commitment, ask, “Would I do this right now?” If the answer is no, decline the commitment.

The New Opportunity Test (Professional): For professional commitments, first, reference the two lists from the earlier exercise. If it’s not aligned with professional priorities, then say no. Then ask, “Is this a ‘Hell yeah!’ opportunity?” If not, decline the opportunity. If it’s aligned, then consider it will take twice as long and be half as rewarding as expected. If the opportunity is not worth it, then decline it. This streamlines commitments and helps individuals focus on what truly matters.

How to Manage Your Time: Time-Blocking and the Four Types of Professional Time

Allocate specific time windows for distinct tasks, managing life through a calendar rather than a to-do list.

The four types of professional time are:

Management: Meetings, calls, presentations, and email processing.
Creation: Writing, coding, building, and preparing.
Consumption: Reading, listening, and studying.
Ideation: Brainstorming, journaling, walking, and self-reflecting.

Starting on a Monday, at the end of each weekday, colour-code the events from that day according to this key:

Red: Management, Green: Creation, Blue: Consumption & Yellow: Ideation to understand which elements are dominating.

An optimal balance is:

Batching Management Time: Allocate discrete blocks for Management Time.
Increasing Creation Time: Carve out distinct windows for Creation Time.
Creating Space for Consumption and Ideation: Schedule dedicated blocks for reading, listening, learning, and thinking.

How to Fill Your Newly Created Time: The Energy Creators

The ultimate question after creating new time is how to fill it.

Choose activities, pursuits, and people that align with your goals and values. These additional energy creators give insights on pursuing what makes you happy.

Time Wealth: The Energy Creators

Use Your “Time Wealth” to shift perspective.

By cultivating awareness, attention, and control, you reclaim your time and invest it in meaningful relationships, fulfilling work, and personal growth.

The systems provided offer practical strategies for building your time Wealth and achieving a more balanced and purposeful life.

That’s all for now. You can read the other forms of wealth here: Beyond Money: A Guide to the 5 Types of Wealth