Illustratoin by Gary Clement
Illustratoin by Gary Clement

It takes true grit and perseverance to achieve real financial success



What is the secret to success? Answers often include luck, timing, talent, but I would say grit.

It’s the four-letter word that separates the winners from the losers. Grit at its core is perseverance - ideally with passion - for long-term goals. It’s hailed as the ingredient for success. Couple it with self-control and you surpass talent and ability.

The same applies to our financial success: grit gets results.

Angela Lee Duckworth, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, has done the hard graft on grit. Over the course of her research she studied young maths students, military trainees, teachers and sales people – always drilling down to find the ‘thing’ that would indicate who would stick it out and make a success of things versus who would drop out. It was not those with the highest IQ, or the skill. It was those who persevered, they are the ones who found, or should that be created, personal success.

Perseverance is part of grit. The doing of something over and over and over again. It’s about how we behave and how we approach things on a daily basis.

And this, our behaviour and our mindset, is exactly what makes us financial winners. If you think about it, the important thing is not hunting down great investments, but creating great investors. The goal is to create profitable investment behaviour, profitable behaviour with money.

It’s interesting that we can relate to the need to knuckle down and do daily things to get fitter, slimmer, smarter (if passing exams is a measure of it). Yet we don’t do the same with money.

______

Read more:

We must prevent our children from being hypnotised by advertising

How to make sure you get the most from life

The gender retirement gap is frightening for women

Weighing up the pros and cons of buying a house

______

So, to help release the financial grit-guru within, here are a few things to do. These steps are no different to those you would take to achieve in other areas of life:

• Set a realistic goal

Your life and circumstance is unique to you. Your financial goal can be anything pertinent to you, such as getting out of credit card debt, saving six months' emergency fund, saving X dollars a month or starting to invest. Whatever it is, take baby-steps and build on success. There’s no point saying you’ll be a millionaire in Y years. Break it down to realistic, achievable chunks. When you hit your first goal, keep going. You’ll get that feel-good factor, and realise that, yes, you can do it.

• Make it part of daily behaviour

If you want to lose weight you would monitor what you eat every day. If you want to get fitter, you’d be doing something about it daily. It’s the same with working your financial grit. Break down your goal into daily things you can do to move closer to it. Depending on what your goal is, your daily behaviour could include packing lunch, setting no-spend days (or holidays) or reading a book on investing.

•  Stay committed

You will start out small, and if you stick with it, it will pick up and you will do more – as long as you stick with it.

• Don’t go it alone

Having a support network really helps, so seek out friends and family that will join you on the journey, or at the very least hear you out when you are waning and need to talk it through.

• When you’ve achieved your baby step goal, set another

Alongside it have a longer-term goal that it fits into. Write it up, share it with your support group and put it somewhere you can see.

There are also things that are specific to our financial life , so make them part of your grit process too:

• Have a financial meeting with yourself every week

You are the chief financial officer of your life, so block out time, get your papers read, bills paid, policies renewed and statements checked.

• Set aside time every week / quarter, as you see fit, to go over your financial plan, goals, and how it’s going, with yourself/ spouse / family

Again, even if there’s nothing to do in the way of decisions or policies, the mere act of going through the motions, with dedication and discussion, will influence everyone’s financial behaviour - eventually.

Grit. We can define it, observe it, and cite it as a common denominator.

But how do we foster it? The growth mindset is one way. It is the belief that you can develop, learn, and become different to the way you are now, better at things.

You won’t be the only one to benefit, those around you will too.

Nurturing grit in our children happens by default if we’re gritty ourselves. It’s illusive - we can’t quite pinpoint, package, or pass it on – except that we do, by behaving and modeling it for our young ones.

Financial grit is exactly the same. We pass it on by being and doing it.

Success isn’t primarily about skill. It’s about behaviour. This is why talented people often don’t come out on top.

In her TED talk, Professor Duckworth says “grit is stamina, and sticking with your future – not just for the day, not just for the month, but for years".”

Make grit work for you. You’ll be better off for it.

Nima Abu Wardeh is a broadcast journalist, columnist and blogger. Share her journey on finding-nima.com

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
TEACHERS' PAY - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:

- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools

- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say

- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance

- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs

- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills

- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month

- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues

COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Managing the separation process

  • Choose your nursery carefully in the first place
  • Relax – and hopefully your child will follow suit
  • Inform the staff in advance of your child’s likes and dislikes.
  • If you need some extra time to talk to the teachers, make an appointment a few days in advance, rather than attempting to chat on your child’s first day
  • The longer you stay, the more upset your child will become. As difficult as it is, walk away. Say a proper goodbye and reassure your child that you will be back
  • Be patient. Your child might love it one day and hate it the next
  • Stick at it. Don’t give up after the first day or week. It takes time for children to settle into a new routine.And, finally, don’t feel guilty.  
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlmouneer%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dr%20Noha%20Khater%20and%20Rania%20Kadry%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEgypt%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E120%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBootstrapped%2C%20with%20support%20from%20Insead%20and%20Egyptian%20government%2C%20seed%20round%20of%20%3Cbr%3E%243.6%20million%20led%20by%20Global%20Ventures%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Rating: 2/5