The Roaring 20s
“Optimists Tend To Be Successful and Pessimists Tend To Be Right.” — Mark Zuckerberg
The seed that survived the storm becomes the tree that shelters the village.
It’s wild we’re already almost 5 years since COVID started.
Almost 5 years since the global economy nearly collapsed.
Almost 5 years since “5G causes COVID.”
At the dawn of this decade, all kinds of predictions were thrown around about what the 2020s would bring. Some people claimed housing costs would stagnate. Others were certain that social media’s influence on politics would fade away. And experts boldly proclaimed that tech stocks would be among the worst performers. LOL.
Yet today:
Tech is literally carrying everything
Global housing prices have continued to increase. Particularly in advanced economies.
And Elon Musk, the inaugural head of the United States’ Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), owns X (formerly known as Twitter).
"The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different." - Peter Drucker
Money isn’t everything. But it impacts almost everything.
Does money solve all problems? Absolutely not. But financial freedom opens doors to opportunities that might otherwise stay locked. Yes, these past few years have brought conflict, inflation, and uncertainty, particularly on our continent. Still, amid all this, we can’t ignore the progress that has simultaneously unfolded:
Unprecedented advancement in AI
Medical advances - mRNA technologies, initially used for COVID vaccines, are now being used for malaria (one of the leading causes of death in Africa, especially young children).
7 unicorns in Africa (startups valued over a billion).
Progress is chaotic. Invest anyway.
If you had invested in something, literally anything (like digital pictures, AKA NFTs), in the past five years, you would have made money.
Sometimes, progress doesn’t look like progress in the moment. Consider each of the past five years: Nothing is “normal” about them. Then everything happens everywhere. All at once.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
The same applies to our finances and Africans as a whole. We shouldn’t just sit back and complain about the challenges we face. If we want to see change—especially economic change—we must be more proactive and optimistic.
There is no independence except financial independence.
It empowers us to take control of our lives, make informed decisions, and invest in our futures.
The beauty of investing (and life) is that it’s never too late to start. Every step counts, giving you a sense of agency in a world that often feels uncontrollable.
Yes, the last five years have been unpredictable. The next five might be even more so.
But in that unpredictability lies the greatest potential for learning and growth. By starting, you shift from a passive observer to an active participant. Because if these last five years have taught us anything, it’s that while we can’t predict the future, we can certainly prepare for it—and maybe even profit from it.
Data sources from Money printers Table:
NSE NASI (Kenya)
Morocco
BRVM-CI (WAEMU Countries)
FTSE/JSEASI (South Africa)
S&P 500
NVIDIA
Bitcoin (US$)
I remember when nvidia hit 1 trillion thinking it was over valued hahaha