Again, I lost my job.

This time I wasn't mad at the fact that I got sacked. I weep because I caused it. On that call, my boss reiterated the major principles of the team, and indeed I lagged. While I can't state it here, one of the critical themes of those principles was input. He also mentioned that you can't always control the outcomes. However, you need to sweat the input.

These words stuck with me, and I knew exactly where I messed up. The same evening, I took to Twitter, randomly scrolling and searching for memes. Then again, I stumbled on a post highlighting the importance of systems and referencing the book Atomic Habits. In the first chapter, James Clear said, " A handful of problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about your goals and not enough designing systems". He said, "fix the input, and the output would fix themselves".

Aren't these words similar to that of my boss? You may wonder, "how does it relate to my finances?"

I'd tell you, It takes a systemic approach to achieve your financial goals**.** If you plan to gather N5,000,000 before Christmas. How do you intend to achieve it? In order not to just bark, but also bite, you have to consider certain factors. Factors like your monthly income, expenses, monthly savings, etc., should be placed into consideration.

After identifying your process, the next step is to change what you are doing wrongly. Are you making up to N5 million monthly? If you are not making a substantial monthly income, it's impossible to hit a big savings goal. Now, you'd need to find an extra source of income or a better job. You'd need to put in more effort to get a better job—so you won't lose your job as I did.

Some of you would think saving is crucial to hitting your target. It is not. Your spending habits also matter. If you save well but spend anyhow, you may not achieve as much as possible. So, you can improve your financial lifestyle by reducing your spending.

Mind you, it takes consistent efforts.

It is referred to as compounding or compound investing in the financial world.

Making Sense of Compounding

I strongly believe that it is not much about picking the best assets, company, or crypto token that can do 100x in 2 months that makes you wealthy. Wealth comes from gradually accumulating good investments over time. Time is a powerful tool here. With time, you can invest in many assets, lose money, make money, accumulate wealth, and be profitable.

What is Compound Investing?

Compound investing is an investment strategy centered on accumulating interests over time. It is also when the interest you earn on assets can be reinvested to make more interest. Make sense?

Say you invest $1000 at 10% APR. At the end of the year, you make $100 on your initial $1000. To compound, you reinvest $1100(Capital + Year1 interest) and make $1210. If you do this continually, you make significantly more than you would have just invested $1000 yearly.

Aside from the analogy given above, compounding has other meanings. Compounding would also mean doing something over and over such that it accumulates.

For example, You want to finish a 500-page book instead of picking it and trying to finish it in a day. You go five pages daily. The exciting thing is if you decide to read only five pages daily for 100 days, you get to finish the book without feeling fatigued. You even retain the information better.

This is also applicable to your career, business, and finances. Those who earnestly desire to get to the senior level would put consistent effort into their craft. They would need to gain more experience by working on more projects, managing interns, and showing up daily.

When you consistently save 5 - 20% of your monthly income for years, you wouldn't know how much you will have. If you always engage in the NFT world, learn about blockchain technology, buy tokens, and gather stocks, you might get lucky with time. Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.

How Do You Start Compounding?

1. Set your Goals

2. Break down your goals into achievable steps

3. Break down those steps into smaller steps.

4. Carry out those steps one at a time.

That sums it all up. To start compounding, you must focus less on the end goal and make consistent input. That said, I'd wrap up this piece with the famous quote:

Little Drops of Water Makes a Large Ocean