ANALYSIS: DARLINGTON MWENDABAI
IT IS time we all start formulating family wealth creation plans in a ‘new financial normal’.
In the ‘old financial normal’, families knew more about poverty and debts.
The good news COVID-19 has brought among many is that it is teaching us how to formulate family wealth creation plans.
You should know that wealth simply means prosperity, affluence, capital, treasure, fortune, mammon, riches or means.
Creation means formation, making, conception, construction, manufacture, design, establishment or foundation.
Creation is from a word create, meaning make, generate, produce, fashion, form, build, craft or construct.
If you think it is the duty of Government, church or a rich uncle to make you wealthy, then you are still living in the ‘old financial normal’.
Many of us are experts in drafting company and national documents such as strategic plans. Sadly, we have never drafted a family wealth creation plan.
If you want to know the difference between a rich and a poor family, check what they spend on.
Spending is an art. Some spend wisely, others don’t.
Most families in the country are not only poor financial spenders but good at wasting their time, too.
The lockdown of the global economies means we need to reposition ourselves as families in the ‘new financial normal’.
Our family wealth creation plans need to take account the abilities of every member of the clan to contribute to the prosperity of our household.
These plans are not like those of the ‘old normal’ which are full of lamentations.
The family wealth creation plans I am advocating for are those which look at the strengths of the clan to phase out lip service.
If you not a Christian family, I urge you to consider to be one. Involve God as you create your family wealth creation plans.
Each family is blessed with creativity and innovative minds. Do family skills and talent audits to know what you have in stock.
As the head of a house, you do not have monopoly of wisdom. Involve every member in deciding what wealth to create.
Account for every hour you spend as a family. You have been busy forwarding messages about financial empowerment yet you are deep in debt.
Many of us have been wasting time and busy making noise on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter about failing global economies, including ours, forgetting about our poverty-stricken families.
Can you point at an asset you have added to yourself as a family this year?
The question is, why are you so passionate about unwise debates when you are supposed to craft a wealth creation plan?
Why are you still in debt as a family? When will you stop being in debt?
If you answer these questions, then you are ready to grow your wealth and be financially sound as a family.
Do you spend to please others? If you do, stop and be wise.  Spend time building your assets as a family.
Spend less time with argumentative, lazy, complaining, know-it-all and culture thinkers. They will slow you down financially and you will always be broke.
Spend time with your partner, Jesus Christ. He will teach you the philosophy of wise spending and wealth creation.
Spend time with critical and wow thinkers; you will always float above any financial challenges you are facing currently.
Spend time studying and applying financial education to improve your financial status.
Do not spend time competing with your neighbours. Your neighbour may be financially sound. Develop a habit of setting aside time to think about and list seven ways on how you will use your creativity to grow your family wealth.
Spend more time turning worries into financial products and services.
Remember that finance is a field that is concerned with the allocation (investment) of assets and liabilities over space and time, often under conditions of risk or uncertainty.
We all know our families are still suffering from dependency syndrome, which is being phased out naturally as we embrace ‘financial distance’.
According to me, ‘financial distance’ in the ‘new financial normal’ means families will not spend as they used to in the old normal.
We need to summon every family member to a wealth creation planning meeting starting today.
Thereafter prepare and craft a draft and a final document within 14 days.
The content of the family wealth creation plan should have a debt exit provision as well as clauses to deter members from borrowing without approval of the family board.
I know that rich families have such meetings. The trouble is with us who live on hand-to-mouth arrangements. This should not be so.
It should be known that wealth creation is biblical and each family should pass on financial literacy to its clans.
As we write our plans, remember that King David had a family wealth plan, so was his wisest son, King Solomon.
The same was the case with Job, Jacob, Isaac, Dorcas, Joseph and many others.
In the new ‘financial normal’, let us use our skills and talents to create family wealth. Think, Sink Not.