The author of ‘Practical Steps to Financial Freedom and
Independence,’ Usiere Uko , continues on the subject of
acquiring a university education without going bankrupt
I ran into an old friend some months back at the old wing
of the domestic airport in Lagos currently undergoing
renovation. He works for an international oil company and
is based outside Lagos. He was trying to catch a flight
back to his base. We exchanged pleasantries as his
protocol officers helped with his checking in. I asked what
brought him to Lagos. He came to visit his son at the
University of Lagos. I asked him why he did not join the
bandwagon of sending children abroad. He sure could put
down the money as the rest of his colleagues.
He explained that he was not ready for a project of that
magnitude in addition to some personal projects he was
handling. Secondly, since he needs to keep an eye on his
son, the best option would be to relocate his family
abroad, a concept he did not subscribe to – running two
homes. With the current uncertainty in the oil and gas
sector, he wanted to be sure he had a solid financial
foundation in the event his employers sprung a surprise
on him. If his son wants to go abroad for a master’s
degree, he can get a job and pay for it himself, he
concluded. As he headed towards the boarding gate, he
reminded me that I advised him to put his house in order
a couple of years back. He was doing just that.
An industrial age mindset
The concept of “go to a good school, get good grades
and get a good job” is an idea from the industrial age, a
relic from an age gone by decades ago, replaced by the
information age, which belongs to entrepreneurs (including
entrepreneurial employees). The underlying belief beneath
the idea of getting a good job is that the child will settle
down and take care of the parents – in this case, parents
who, though rich, became poor so that their children can
become rich through acquiring a foreign degree. In the
mind of such parents, this is a fool proof investment with
guaranteed returns. Abel in part 1 of this article
discovered otherwise the hard way. There is nothing
wrong with expecting your children to take care of you in
old age, but if your children are the only financial security
you have, you may find yourself broke for a long while.
When the focus is on getting a job and living happily ever
after, the child is not taught at an early age to be street
smart and financially independent. Rather than think
through creative ways to make money and learn how to
invest when the money gets into their hands, they
become dependants, who sometimes maintain a higher
standard of living than their sponsors, learning at an early
age to be hyper consumers rather than producers.
In part 1 of this article, I mentioned that African and Asian
parents pay for their children’s university education while
in the west, parents tend to hands off after secondary
school. While I am not recommending we adopt the
western model wholesale, there is wisdom in making our
children learn the dignity of labour and value of money
while in the university or even earlier. Interestingly,
businessmen who made their money from scratch
understand this more than folks who came upon money
or are highly paid. They make their children work and
earn their way up. They fly first class while their children
fly economy class until they understand how money
works.
I still remember when I needed to paint my boys quarters
some years back. I gave the job to two lively young men
who I later realised were students of the University of
Lagos. I have run across many artisans who are
university students trying to work and save for school.
A young lady knocked on my gate last year asking for a
cleaning job. Upon questioning, I found out she too was a
student of the University of Lagos. Some students own a
thriving business on campus while in school.
With this type of mindset, these youngsters will not be
idle when they eventually graduate. Rather than put on
the toga of applicants, fold their hands and do nothing or
become a nuisance to society, they will fold their sleeves
and get to work, putting their God-given ingenuity in
action.
When a parent bankrupts himself to send his child to a
foreign university, hoping that when the child graduates,
he will take care of him or her, if the child fails to get a
job after coming home with a foreign degree, what next?
A foreign degree does not guarantee a job
The number of young Nigerians with foreign degrees is
growing by the day while the number of available jobs is
shrinking. The US unemployment hit double digits in 2010
and currently stands at 7.2 per cent, but the bad news is,
most of the jobs are low level jobs, not the dream job a
graduate is hoping for. Detroit is bankrupt. The American
dream has migrated to China. Back home in Nigeria, oil
theft has shrunk revenues by about 40 per cent and the
government’s ability to fund joint ventures has been
adversely affected. States are crying and some companies
are tightening their belt. If ever a foreign degree was a
guarantee for a job, this is no longer the case.
If a foreign degree is no longer a guarantee for a plum
job, is it wise to wipe out your financial security to also
send your child abroad? Foreign trained and locally
trained applicants have one thing in common – they are
all applicants. The option of a local university is always
there, if that is all you can afford without wiping off your
reserves. There is no shame in cutting your coat
according to your cloth, irrespective of what you or others
think your size is.
There is nothing wrong in sending your child or yourself
abroad if you can afford it. This means your financial
independence plan is firmly in place and you have an
asset paying for this luxury. Have at the back of your
mind that jobs are no longer guaranteed and job security
went with the industrial age. Academic IQ is no longer
enough in today’s marketplace. The child needs to
develop emotional intelligence and financial intelligence.
That child may not be in position to take care of you
sometime soon. He may move back home to parents after
graduation, foreign degree, foreign accent and all.
As times change, we need to change with the changing
times rather than remain frozen in an old paradigm. Do
not put your financial future in the hands the company,
pensions or your children. Take control of your financial
future by attaining financial independence and live life on
your own terms.
Punchng.com
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