Most times, teachers complain about their salaries which they consider to be meager. This is however not far from reality. But, some teachers on the same salary scale end up building mansions and owning valuable properties which go beyond imagination. Have you as a teacher ever wondered why? – this whole success is about planning.
Let me reiterate this, teachers in Ghana are not the least paid government workers. There are workers on the payroll who receive lesser than the teacher – I, therefore, put it to you that you as a teacher can do something meaningful with your salary if the following mistakes are avoided.
Avoid Too Much borrowing
Many teachers depend on loans for survival. It is not a bad thing. The most successful and powerful businesspeople you see around made it through loan policies. However, what makes it worse is when a person takes a loan to invest in something that does not appreciate but rather depreciate in nature. Some people will invest monies contracted through loan into a flourishing business to make it more flourishing one, others may invest it in building, buying of car for commercial use, setting up a business, etc.- these may help a teacher who invested in his/her loan in the above mentioned will earn extra income from time to time and will help ease the financial burden.
on the other hand, teachers who invest their monies in depreciative assets such as rent, motorbike, fashion, wedding ceremonies may live to curse the teaching profession because these things do not bring in any extra income. As deduction commences on your payslip, the blame game begins because your take-home salary is nothing to write home about. Once again, remember that a loan should be invested in a way that can fetch you extra money.
Avoid too many insurance policies
These companies come to you with sugar-coated words which makes you feel like your financial burdens will be over within the next two, three, four, or five years but it’s a lie. Do you know that most teachers who are lured into investing with these companies end up surrendering their policies? Why will such a thing happen if it is actually a way to end your financial constraints? This goes a long way to tell you that it does not favour the teacher in any way. However, as a teacher, one or two policies can cater for everything. At the policy maturity stage, your own money with very little interest is paid to you. I suggest you invest on your own rather than given it out to insurance companies who pay peanuts as interest at a long period of deduction.
Unnecessary spending
Many young teachers rent an apartment and normally treat as their own. This involves lots of monies which can secure you a plot of land at a certain new site. Getting yourself a single room self-contain will be good for the start. In GES, there is nothing like accumulated salary or allowance which can enable you to raise a building at once or within the shortest possible time. If you will put up a building as a Ghana Education Education staff, you need your affordability and salary to be intact.
