Introducing Nimi's Standard - A blog series on personal finance

[Stanbic IBTC team]

-This is the introduction to a new blog series authored by Nimi Akinkungbe for the Stanbic IBTC blog. Nimi is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bestman Games Ltd who recently launched the City of Lagos Edition of Monopoly, the first African city edition of the world famous board game. Before Bestman Games, she enjoyed a successful banking career spanning 23 years first at Stanbic IBTC, where she rose to the position of Head, Private Banking and Director of Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Limited, and later at Barclays Bank.-
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Our lives are shaped by many different life events - some exciting and happy, and some very difficult to endure. Life’s big events, good, bad, happy or sad, come with financial consequences. Wherever you are now, planning ahead will help you enjoy the good times and better equip you to cope with the more challenging ones.

In this blog series, we will embark on a journey that embraces an extensive and varied range of issues related to your personal finances. Personal finance involves every aspect of your life that involves money; your personal financial situation can affect your relationships, your lifestyle, standard of living and even your perception of yourself.

The finer details of your personal finances will change as you start out from your childhood through your teens, and your early career in your 20s and 30’s, and on through your 40s and 50s and beyond, but the general principles remain the same. Life events range from the significant milestones of starting a first job, to getting married and starting a family, educating your children, losing a job, relocating, buying a home, caring for aging parents, losing a loved one, and planning for your retirement and your estate. Too many of us get swept up in such events without being prepared financially. By planning ahead of such events, some of which can be anticipated, you can help preserve and protect your financial future.
No matter how much or how little money you have today, no matter how old or young you are, whether you are just starting to build your finances from scratch or are already a savvy investor, the key to securing your financial future is about taking many small disciplined steps over a long period of time. It is about having a plan, and a plan requires commitment, determination, discipline, consistency and time.