Investing is just like buying and eating suya. Here’s our spicy investment guide for beginner investors in Nigeria.
With charred spices filling the air as little droplets of oil kept stoking the already beaming coals, we stayed watching the skilled mai suya — which means the seller of beef kebabs in Hausa — graciously turn around fine slices of beef. He would continually turn them around till he achieved the desired texture, which will, in turn, send signals of joy to your brain at every bite. I was always curious about how one knew exactly when the suya was ready, but that day all I wanted to do was take my taste buds on a trip so I forgot to ask.
The Investment Guide Stoke!
As we walked back home, with our steaming suya properly garnished with fine yaji — suya pepper just in case you’re lost — and vegetables, my friend started to question my suya buying habit and that triggered a thought. I realized that I was an ardent suya consumer, buying at least a thousand naira suya every day, and that got me thinking about my investments. I am well aware that some people buy more than that, but with my present salary that is what I can comfortably afford every day; anyway that is not the point. If I could afford to buy that amount of suya every day, which is not a necessity, I definitely could start investing twice of that every day.
Taking that into consideration I decided to stoke my investment flame, such that for anything I could live without but spent money on every day, I would invest twice of that amount every day. With time, I realized I could not equally match double value investments for each luxury spending in my life which led to another decision; if I cannot afford to invest twice the amount of an item I can live without I would not get it. This investment guide started with suya remember? So let’s delve more into what suya or any other grilled meat meal can teach us about investing.
Marinate Your Savings
There is something special about the taste of suya and it comes from the process of marinating it in a blend of amazing spices. This is what makes it different from regular meat that is only seasoned before cooking. Raw meat stored up in the freezer will not taste as good as marinated meat kept in the freezer when both are cooked or grilled after a while.
Marinated meat, that is meat dipped in a fine mix of spices and kept for some time, is what gives your suya a unique taste as the heat of coal cooks up meat which has soaked up beautiful juices that take your taste buds on a pleasurable date.
The lesson here? When I started the double amount journey, I did not start investing outrightly. What I did was to separate the money in another bank account, so it was basically savings and not investing, no additional value. Don’t just save money let your money soak up some juicy interests — if it isn’t against your religion. That way, when you have a need to use it you have some extra toppings and it will not feel like eating sparsely spiced meat when you could be eating suya.
Be Patient with the Process
Still, on marinating, your suya — I mean proper suya by the way — won’t have those beautiful flavours playing around each layer if your mallam kept tampering with the sauce every moment. That is the same reason why properly barbecue tastes super great; the meat gets locked up with the spices and is allowed to soak them up without any disturbance. So that even when you crack into the bones of chicken suya you still get to taste the juices, because the process was not tampered with.
Similarly, if you want to enjoy great interests you need to make a decision not to tamper with your investments. This is easier with the lock-up feature on Cowrywise. I made a decision to lock mine up for two years, that way I cannot tamper it until the maturity date and I also get to earn juicy returns.
To make that easier, you can follow my friend’s pattern. She has various investment plans for different tenures. Some for three months, some for six months and some others locked up for years — like the one set aside for her children’s university fees. That way she can get to access them at different periods based on her projected needs, so getting cash strapped will not happen. Interestingly, she has all these plans running on one account which makes it quite easier and less stressful for her.
The Final Bite
When all is done properly and you sit down to have your suya/grilled chicken you end savouring each moment till the final bite because someone was patient enough to marinate the meat the right way.
Similarly, that is what happens when you go about your investment journey the right way. Here is a summary of what you should have learnt from this simple investment guide:
● Invest twice the amount of anything you spend money daily on but isn’t a need.
● If you cannot do the above for any item you probably should stop spending on it.
● Marinate your investments.
Try getting some great suya this week and use the save as you earn investment option on Cowrywise to make this process easier. I hope to share more tips some other time.
