Life is funny but I'm not laughing

An Issue of the Chidera Peters Dispatch (CPD)

Feb 19, 2023

Hiiiii!

Lol, I don’t know why I’m screaming especially as I don’t have a clear direction for this email but one thing I’ve learnt is to do is to just start writing, the words will come and the thoughts will be fleshed out. That being said, how are you doing? And how do you deal with discouragement?

Unrelated photo: valentines dinner date with the Husband.

Earlier in the week, I started feeling discouraged with a heavy focus on things that are not “working” in my life. And by working, I mean not going the way I had planned. I caught myself feeling bad and had to pull myself out of that mental state. Even when it doesn’t seem like it, there is always something to be grateful for. I decided to do a little reflection, thinking back on the things that have played out far better than I could have imagined and also reading through my social media posts from as far back as 2017 to help me put my journey in perspective. And by doing this, a wave of gratitude swept through me. Life may not be going as I have planned but one thing that has been evident in my life is the goodness of God and I cannot deny it.

👩🏽‍💻 What I worked on this week

As you must already know, I got promoted at work and my current workload is testament to this. I spent an exhausting amount of time finalising a marketing strategy, which started from a 5 page to over 30 pages at the moment. I also had to create a hiring document - assessments, job description, 90 day success matrix and also vet a couple applications.

On Friday evening after my 9-5, I had a personal finance audit with my second client for the year, where I worked with her to get a wholistic view of her finances and outline steps to help her cut down costs, save more and budget better. I have opened a few more slots for the coming weeks.

🤔 What’s on my mind

Life is funny. Did you know that there are people who you might admire or look up to, who also admire and look up to you? Crazy right? I know! 😂 and neither of you might know it because you admire each other in secret. This is why I think it’s important that we make conscious effort to say the good we think about others. I’m also making the effort in this area and currently it looks like:

Typing out the nice comment, rather than just saying it in my head. I have had to scroll back up to a post I skipped (SEVERAL TIMES) to write down my comment.
Sharing someone’s work or content that inspired or taught me something so others can learn from it too
Speaking to my family and friends and verbally letting them know the things I appreciate about them and what they perform excellently at.

The point is this: write out or say out the good you think about others. Let them know. Don’t assume they don’t need these little words of encouragement. You never know what a person might be going through and your kind word could be a lifeline.

💷 Money Corner - Investing is not all that

I’m not gonna lie to you; the more I delve into the world of investing and building wealth, the more I realise that it’s not all that it’s been cracked up to be. When I was on the outside, I used to think this investing thing was a “quick” way to make money.

I mean, I knew it would take a long time to get results but silly me thought you’d get like 1 million dollars after investing in the right things for at least 10 years. LOL laugh with me please 😭. In order to hit that kind of returns in such a short time, you have to be investing a HOOGE amount of money monthly. You can imagine my discouragement seeing charts like the one below:

The chart shows a projection of investing £200 monthly at 8% interest rate vs saving £200 monthly for 35 years. While the difference between £446,645 and £84,000 is significant. My eyes cannot look past 35 YEARS!👀 That’s a long time bruhhhhhh 😭. Am I to start flexing when I am 60 something? I’ll be lying if I said the time frame isn’t discouraging and also, £200 monthly is not small money please.

But here’s something that I missed, the point of a chart like this is not to tell you to invest for 35 years before you see good returns but to show you what’s possible. Also, based on the chart above even at 10 years the difference between saving and investing is significant. While a long term approach is best for investing, it doesn’t mean you and I will have to invest for 35 years or more before it becomes beneficial. To further buttress my point, any way you look at it, investing has a better chance at growing your money than saving ever could. So no matter how small you can afford to invest, it’s best to start now. Remember, little drops of water, little grains of sand… (complete it😌).

📹 New youtube video

If you will like to learn more about investing in the UK as a beginner, I have put together a very detailed video containing the basics you need to get started.