By all means, Use the Investment Professionals

Netflix is always coming to my rescue these days. Today, another one of those movies that inspires a good post came along as a recommendation. I saw it earlier, but, then, I was still seeing a particular movie, I guess, so I shrugged it off.
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However, today, Ozark is getting boring as a result of the death of Del, so I looked forward to a different movie when I clicked my Netflix account open.

It was there. On the recommended list. Ijogbon. Finding treasure and getting into trouble, I had seen the preview a couple of times so I knew exactly what to expect. Although a lot of previews had given me enough spoilers, I was encouraged to watch hoping that I'll find a meaningful angle to write something around.

Did I find it? Yes, I did.

It turned out, the children had big dreams. Like everyone else, they hated their birthplace and looked forward to greener pastures. Relocation. To the regions where social media claims are doing better and prosperously.

So fickle fate decided to favor them by turning some of those reckless abandons into finding diamonds inside a male bag hidden under dried leaves and sticks in the bush.

The owner of the bag had received and wanted to deliver them to God knows where but his life was cut short when someone pursued him to the dead end of the forest and took his life with a gun. He had safely hidden the bag under those tweaks of leaves and branches before his life was taken from him.

Once the children found car tracks and followed the trail down to the forest, the girl among the two boys tripped and fell over a few branches. This fall led to the bag's discovery and of course, the diamonds.

They gathered everything and ran off to their hideout where they would discuss the way forward. It wasn't until the third boy in the group found out about them that they took the next step.

It's entirely this next step that birthed this post. While they were contemplating how to clarify the worth of the diamonds they found, one of them asked,

Who in this town do you think would know about diamonds? Ijogbon

And it struck me! It was a wise question. A question that I did not wait to see if they figured out the answer or not. That's because right after that question, I remembered, Arkad, The Richest Man in Babylon.

His story and how he lost his first savings came running down my memory.

You see, Arkad wasn't always a wealthy person. No! He worked as a scribe in the House of Records. According to George S. Clason, Arkad labored day and night, grinding at his work and getting little pay, not even enough for all the beautiful things his soul would desire until Algamish visited his workplace.

Algamish had asked for a copy of the Ninth Law, and he requested that the job be finished in two days. Arkad couldn't deliver this, and once Algamish came, he would have beaten him up, if not that he wasn't a slave.

But Arkad saw an opportunity where everyone would have seen nothing. He made a deal with Algamish, to finish his work by the next day if he promised to tell him how to become as wealthy as him.

Algamish promised to do so if he kept his word, and all through the night Arkad labored and completed the job.

In the morning, as promised Algamish told him how to build wealth. It's the simple three rules that you should be familiar with by now. Make money. Keep money. Invest money!

But this isn't the climax of this post at all.

It's the part where the children asked who would know better about diamonds that I am targeting.

Once Arkad learned his ways of wealth-building, he went to work. He paid himself first. He saved 10% of all his earnings until Algamish showed up one year later and asked him how he was faring.

Arkad gladly told Algamish that he did carry it out as judiciously as possible but that he gave it to Azmur, the brickmaker, who told him he was traveling over the seas and would buy rare jewels for them to sell at a high price and share the earnings.

At this point, Algamish laughed hard, afterall all fools must learn, he completed.

It turned out, that Arkad lost his money because the pieces of jewelry were fake. Since Azmur was a bricklayer, there was no way he could tell fake pieces of jewelry from good ones. And Algamish did tell Arkad to save again and the next time he wants to invest he should take advice from those in the right position to give it.

It's a simple rule of wealth. I think Richard Templar has it written as one of his rules. When it comes to investing especially with the high rate at which you can lose your money, it's better to know who you are taking investment advice from.

Like Arkad, you shouldn't rely on the abilities of an Azmur to buy and sell pieces of jewelry when his expertise is in bricklaying. It's a proper way to lose your money.

The next time he wanted advice about jewels he went to those who made them. If he ever took advice from those who are inexperienced in any investing matters, he will pay dearly and all of his money tree will be highjacked from the root.

So once the children found the diamonds and one of them asked who would be in a better position to give diamond advice, I knew they were financially intelligent children.

This is why you are often advised to do your own research and of course, invest an amount you can afford to lose. It's better to safe than sorry.