3 Smart Ways to Give Your Child/Ward The Best Education

Imagine the smile on the face of your child, looking directly at you, and wearing that beautiful school graduation gown- That look is priceless! One of the ultimate goals of most parents is to give their children/wards the best of education. The best education to an extent adds the icing on the cake to the parenting career.  Sadly factors such as rising school fees, inflation, and general economic situation of a country always pose as obstacles to this great plan that parents have for their children.

Despite these factors, it is still possible to give your children the best education if well planned. We have listed 3 smarts ways every parent can plan for their children’s education, to guarantee them seeing their children in the beautiful graduation gown.

  1. Start early

Planning for your child’s education is a long-term financial goal. The best time to start planning for your child’s future needs is when he or she is born. Assuming your child will go to the University at the age of 18, you will have nearly two decades to create the right-sized fund for your child’s need. The effect of compounded growth will allow you to achieve this goal with small, monthly contributions.

  1. Diligently choose the right school

Children will mostly likely spend more time in school than at home, parents should be diligent when choosing a school for their children/ward.

The type of school a child/ward goes will have a great impact in the life of the child/ward. Before you settle for a school, you should consider the vision, mission and culture of the school to see if it they align with what you want for your child. You also need to fact check from people associated with that school, such as parents who already have their children enrolled in that school to hear what they have to say about the school

  1. Set up an EduTrust

An edutrust is a legal agreement where money is put aside for the sole purpose of educating the children, irrespective of whatever, untold events the future holds.  It is aimed at assisting parents and guardians in securing uninterrupted education for their child(ren) or ward(s).

As a parent, this trust enables you to provide for the education of named beneficiaries. The standard, level of education is determined by you, subject to adequacy of funds in the Trust account. The Trust can comprise of a lifestyle component to provide for other needs of beneficiaries such as vacations, excursions, school trips etc.

We will love to celebrate you and your kids as they graduate from their dream schools. Get started on making that graduation smile a reality today by setting up  an education trust for your child here

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Best Stock trading tips for investing in Nigeria by Warren Buffet

(This article is based on Warren Buffett’s annual investment letters to his shareholders )

Who is Warren Buffet?

Most investors know who Warren Buffet is, but for the benefit of those who don’t, here is a short bio of him:

Warren Buffett is currently the in the world. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors of all time. He is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a company that oversees more than 60 companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen.

Aside from being an investor, he is also a philanthropist he planed to donate over 99% of his wealth. So far he has given more than $41 billion away. In 2010, he and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge, asking billionaires to commit to donating half their wealth to charitable causes.

Warren delved into investment an early age, he bought his first stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.

What can we learn from Warren Buffett?

Invest for the long term

Buffet always encourage investors to see themselves as a part of the company they are investing in, this will make them stick longer with the company, resulting to long term investment.

In his 1996 annual letter to his shareholders, Buffet wrote, “Your goal as an investor should simply be to purchase, at a rational price, a part interest in an easily understandable business whose earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher 5, 10, and 20 years from now.”

Buffet advises investors to invest in companies with strong fundamentals and keep their eyes on the long term. He wrote, “Holding for the long term is key, and the best way to accumulate wealth. If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes”

Investigate the company you are buying into

Warren Buffett has a famous quote: “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.” This simply means that before you invest in any company, go deeper in knowing more and give it a detailed evaluation.

In his 1996 letter to shareholders, he wrote, “What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word “selected”: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.”

In his investment journey, Buffett has heavily invested in financial stocks like Wells Fargo and consumer discretionary stocks like Coca-Cola.

Although he was skeptical about the tech stocks for a large part of his career, on May 15, 2016, he took a giant leap by purchasing 9,811,747 shares of Apple for $108.99 a share, making his first foray into the tech world.

Don’t buy into the market’s emotionalism

According to Buffett, it’s important to stay calm as an investor.

He wrote in his letter, “Remember that the stock market is a manic depressive. Markets will rise and fall for many reasons, but most of the declines will be relatively temporary. It’s important not to be manic depressive along with the markets. You do this by keeping your eye on the future and ignoring short-term market gyrations.”

Take advantage of opportunities

“Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies, and they will briefly rain gold. When downpours of that sort occur, it’s imperative that we rush outdoors carrying washtubs, not teaspoons.” Buffett wrote in his 2016 shareholder letter.

As an investor, you should always stick to the principle of buying low and selling high. With patience you’ll have plenty of opportunities to purchase great stocks at bargain-basement prices, as it’s currently happening with a number of stocks affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the period regarded as the best time to buy stocks.

Excited by all the words of wisdom by Warren? take advantage of current realities by investing in some of the best stocks around the world? Download ARM Stocktrade app today to start investing. You can open a stocktrade account at www.armstocktrade.com and start investing.

What you need to know about Ethical investing

Ethical investing is a type of investing process that considers an investor’s personal principles – could be social, moral, religious, political, or otherwise, before making investment decisions.
At ARM, the overarching focus remains to help everyone regardless of their beliefs or principles realise their ambitions – and so, to support anyone seeking to embark on ethical investing, the ARM Ethical Fund was specially designed.
What is the ARM Ethical Fund?
The ARM Ethical Fund is a mutual fund which invests in Sha’ria compliance securities to help investors invest in line with their religious morals or beliefs. This open-ended mutual fund with a flexible entry and exit scheme, provides long term capital preservation as well as competitive returns amongst other benefits in a professionally managed investment scheme. It is ideal for investing towards medium to long-term goals due to its exposure to equities which is a volatile instrument.
What it invests in and who it is for
The ARM Ethical Fund invests in shares, real estate, fixed income and other Islamic instruments.
The fund will not invest in any company that involves interest-bearing transactions, gambling, alcohol and tobacco, arms and ammunition or adult entertainment.
To ensure that the fund trades in line with Islamic principles, a Sha’ria advisory board chaired by influential Muslim individuals must approve of the investment portfolio before investments are carried out.
While the ARM Ethical Fund invests in Sharia compliance securities, it is open to every individual who is looking to protect his/her religious morals and beliefs.
Fund performance in the past five years
The ARM Ethical Fund has performed positively in the last five (5) years.
The coronavirus pandemic has also left the performance of the fund in the positive zone. Further to the long-term view of the funds, the current status of the stock market supports future growth.
3 benefits of the ARM Ethical Fund
  • Achieve long-term capital growth
  • Invest according to core Islamic values and beliefs
  • Open-ended which simply means that you can sell or buy into the Fund whenever they want.

Click here to sign up for the ARM Ethical Fund or send an email with subject ‘Ethical Fund’ to enquiries@arm.com.ng  and we’ll  get in touch with you with further information.

Financial Market Update

The best performing sector over the month was the banking sector (+4.29%) while the worst performing sector was the oil and gas sector (-15.71%).

We expect the equity market to trade sideways in the near term in the absence of any positive catalyst however we would continue to take advantage of market opportunities to the enhance the value of the pension assets.

Fixed Income 

The fixed income market traded on a bullish note with yields declining across the curve during the month of June. The bullish sentiment was largely supported by the buoyant system liquidity and the reduction in the monetary policy rate from 13.5% to 12.5%.
We expect yields to continue on a downward trajectory largely due to the healthy demand from local investors for federal government securities.

Nigeria Strategy Report (H2 2020 Excerpts) – Crude Oil – Cast in COVID-19 Shadows

In what would seem like ages ago, we had started the year with some optimism for oil markets, following the resolution of the 2-year US-China trade war, with an oil price forecast of $63/bbl. for FY 2020. However, in an unprecedented move, global economic activities were grounded to a halt and country borders were shut; all due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. However, prior to the full-scale impact of the pandemic, a rift between the OPEC+ de facto leaders – Saudi Arabia and Russia – caused a price war wherein the leading suppliers ramped up production in a bid to recover lost market share. A sum of the foregoing factors led to a historic glut in the oil market and a crash in brent oil prices to a two-decade low of $19.33/bbl., while WTI confounded known theories to touch negative territory with a trough of -$34/bbl – both in April. Over H1 20, oil prices was down 37% to $41/bbl in June, with average oil price printing at $42/bbl over H1 20, compared to $62/bbl over H2 19.

For the rest of 2020, our forecast points to likelihood of a net deficit in market balance. With demand expected to print at an average of 95.9mbpd and supply at 92.7mbpd, the oil market could be in a net deficit position of 3.2mbpd over H2 20 from a net surplus of 7.6mbpd in H1. That said, while we could see some recovery in prices, we think it is unlikely prices return to the highs of $60-70 levels as it did at the start of the year. Thus, we project oil prices could print at an average of $40 over H2 20 and we leave our FY 20 oil price forecast unchanged from our last update of $40.5. Overall, we project oil prices could print within a range of $33-$42 for FY 20, with our base case printing at $40.5. That said, the threat of a second wave of the pandemic is a key downside risk to our forecast.

What if she never took the walk?

Funmi woke up on Tuesday morning to dress up for work, but this day was unlike every other. This was her last day at work and she felt a sense of utter relief and uncertainty. Relief because she had used the retirement lifestyle planner to walk into tomorrow and plan her future ahead of time, determined how much she needed to live a comfortable lifestyle at retirement and made additional voluntary contributions to match what her employer was remitting to her retirement saving. So, in that aspect, she was covered.
Her uncertainty stemmed from the fact that she wasn’t sure what to do with all the money she had accumulated and the free time she was about to have on her hands.
Several thoughts crossed her mind and as she drove to work, her mind traveled back to the day she took the decision to plan for a better tomorrow. She had stumbled on the Walk Into Tomorrow platform via social media and decided to check it out just for fun, but on getting there, she got the shock of her life. After accessing her risk profile and inputting all the information required, she realized that she was nowhere near having enough for the lifestyle she desired at retirement.
That day, she reached out to the HR of her company about making Additional Voluntary Contributions. Today, she had millions at her disposal to maintain a comfortable future without being a burden on her two sons who had their own families to cater to.  “What if she never took that walk into tomorrow” she thought. Her phone beeped her back to reality and she picked it up to see that Bisola, her close friend and colleague had sent her a blog post by ARM Pension about tips to beat retirement boredom and her face lit up. She clicked it and skimmed through – it had all she needed to keep her occupied post retirement.
She heaved a sigh of relief and smiled – tomorrow suddenly looked super good for her!
Three lessons from Funmi’s story:
  1. Walk Into Tomorrow to plan your ideal retirement
  2. Ensure you have enough saved for tomorrow
  3. Know what to do with your tomorrow when it comes.

Learn more about AVC at www.armpension.com/avc and don’t forget to download the ARM Engage app from Google Playstore or Apple store for easier access to your RSA.

The thing with this weather

The gods must be angry… or maybe the one in charge of rains must be. Otherwise I fail to understand how the sky has refused to exercise restraint in the amount of downpour that has turned some parts of Lagos into a mini ocean.

As I wait in the frustrating Lagos traffic which is usually worse when it rains, I watched the torrents hit the ground and create a splash. First, it started with drops barely wetting the ground, and then the thunder roared and lightening flashed before the rain poured uncontrollably causing streams of water to emerge.

With nowhere to go until the rain was satisfied with its torment, I hit the brakes and let my mind wander to the past and then back to the present to paint scenarios about the future.

I have had a rough past living barely from hand to mouth before a celebrity bought my footwear, posted something about it on her Instagram page and suddenly my small business took off. With a very comfortable present, now the clothier for many celebrities, I wonder how the future will be.

I make most of my shoes myself and I put in time and money to deliver the best. I can do this because I’m strong and young. Will I be able to do this when I’m 55? Or will I even want to be doing this at that age? How about working just for the fun of it at 55 because I already have a stash somewhere to cater to my needs?

“That sounds like a good plan right?” I ask myself and nod in agreement before whipping out my phone and going to Google to check the best way to do this since I don’t work for a big organization with a pension plan. Out pops ARM Pension Micro Pension Plan – the best retirement plan for every worker. My eyes open wide as excitement courses through me. I long-press to open a new tab but a loud honk sounds and I look up to see that the still traffic had started moving.

I put away my phone but not before bookmarking the page. I’ll take a good look when I get home and who knows, just like the drops of rain, I might start pooling my own stream of retirement stash little by little. For now, let me concentrate on conquering this intimidating traffic.

The Micro Pension Plan is for every self-employed, skilled worker, freelancer or small business. Click here to learn more about the Micro Pension Plan and download the ARM Engage app from Google Store or Apple store for easier access with RSA registration and more.