I aspire to be a millionaire at some point in my life, hopefully, sooner and I’m doing a lot to make that dream a reality. As a result, I read a lot of things, and listen to a lot that encourages me to stay firm on that journey and I research a lot about the subject because knowledge is power, so they say. And I believe it’s easy to achieve everything you want when you know how to do it, hence I read about how I can get my hands on my first million.

There are stories all over the internet that regularly suggest how to be financially free, how the most successful have done it, and what successful people do versus unsuccessful people. I read a lot of those and more. Once you have read a couple of them, you find a lot of similarities. It’s even easy to think they’re written by one person, even though that’s not the case.

Firstly, it’s all opinions from people who aspire to be successful or people who studied the lifestyle and attributes of successful people and sometimes it’s people who are almost there so they’re sharing their knowledge either themselves or through people who did research using them as their subjects, but there are similarities in their stories if you pay too much attention to what they say.

One of the few things that comes out a lot is, to be financially free at an earlier age than most people, you must have the right partner, someone who shares the same vision as yourself. They say it doesn’t help focusing on making money when you have someone who just wants to spend it. It doesn’t help to focus on getting rid of bad debt when you have someone who jumps on the opportunity of having a good credit score to accumulate more debt.

I recently had a clear understanding of how a good partner can change your life for the better, and make you a better person. I witnessed that through a couple that I know.

Here is the quick story. For the sake of not revealing too much, I’m gonna use fake names and I won’t mention my relationship with them.

It started a few years ago, I went to a funeral, and there was Themba, whom I have a close relationship with. He was divorced at the time, so he came with a new woman, someone I'd never met before. I must say for a girlfriend she was just perfect because she was just like him. She couldn’t put her glass down, she just couldn’t stop talking too. I was worried because I heard stories that the life I saw in those few days was the life they lived every day. It got me worried because it meant to me he would never change or do better for himself knowing his struggles in life over the years, even though he was finally in a better job then.

Two years later he called me to check if I was going home for the holidays. In our conversation, he told me about plans he had during the holiday, and paying a lobola was one of those.

Not to judge, I didn’t ask who he was paying lobola for, but I was really concerned with the person he was with the last time I saw him and her lady wasn’t really the person I’d recommend for any man to get married to. But it wasn’t my place to say, and it was already too late to convince him to think twice because the lady was already there, and they had made arrangements already.

Fast forward I got there to find a different lady, the complete opposite to what I’ve known about him over the years. After talking to the lady for a few minutes, I was already convinced that Themba had made the right choice and I felt relieved too to learn that he was getting married to someone else, not the lady I met a few years prior.

Catching up, they told me that they bought a car, cash, something most of us only dream of. As if that wasn’t enough, they built a house, a big house within two weeks, from start to completion. That made me proud and very happy, and I can't wait to see what they’ll do next. Maybe they’ll be the first people I know to make a million from working a day job. He has managed to stay in one job for the longest time, something unusual about him. He still loves his liquor, but when you look at the progress he’s made, there's no doubt he found himself a better partner and you can easily tell the impact that has in his life.

As for me, I got to witness what I've been reading, a bit of a testimonial that, when you have a good partner your financials can take a quick turn to positive because they usually focus on building with you not spending every cent that becomes available.

I wish we all find those kinds of partners, the builders. Those who find you with the bare minimum and build with you, those who understand the value of money, the importance of growing it as opposed to spending it carelessly. I wish we find those who will be part of us to build and take us to great things. I wish we notice when we find them, we appreciate and protect them.

"It’s all about one day at a time, one day at a time"

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