Asset to a layman on the street is to acquire properties, cars Etc, and asset to a business man is to acquire properties that can be another source of income.
A man that knows what he is doing will not have more than two cars at home for a start, a man that knows what he want to achieve in life will not go and rent a house of 1.5 million whole he can still see the same house at a lesser amount in another place.
Asset is another source of income, it does not take money from you, and rather it increases your income column. An average man does not know the difference between Asset and Liability. We can simply say Asset makes your income column grows while Liability makes your expenditure column grow.
A bachelor can stay in one bedroom flat and uses the remaining money he can use to rent two bedroom flat to start something that can be another source of income for him. These days you see a young man who is lucky to get a good job, renting a two bedroom flat and buying a car of two million and living expensive life on loan in other just to show up among friends and family.
The problem with an average African man is not the western world rather the problem is with us as an individual or as a country. The problem is that an average man in African can not tell you the difference between Asset and Liability even the educated ones are not left out. An average African man want to buy any new electrical gadget that comes up at any time, even the ones he has is still new and in fashion.
Asset can be of any thing that is of value that after some time you can still sale it in higher price. Do you think that that expensive car, shoes, wristwatches, clothes Etc, you bought yesterday will increase? Rather it will decrease by the second you bought those things. The expensive cars you see most people are using in African, Range Rover Ferrari Sport Utility vehicles (SUVs) Etc, how many people are using it in western world where it is be produced? In western world you hardly see a man with more than a car or two, but in African, a man in a rented house is having more than two cars, house rent is there to pay, children school fees is there to pay, feeding is there, his family is there for him to support, and most importantly he will love to live high standard life that will put him in debt and all that can lead to early death.

As a bachelor or a married couple, you need to know the difference between Asset and Liability, how to acquire Asset not Liability, and how to manage your Asset to grow. The first Asset you must acquire is land and houses, because it saves you money to be paying house rent every year and if you have houses on rent the money from there can be use to meet other financial obligations and that gives you rest of mind. One other Asset is by buying shares in good companies that are listed on the stock exchange after getting advices from professional, the money you will use to buy a second car can be use to buy shares. You can still go into business with other people as a partner that is your money is working for you. They are so many Assets we can get and increase our income column.
Your Asset can only grow the more you buy shares in companies, goes into legal business or partnership with people and with time you see yourself in wealth. Wealth is the ability to stop working and you can still survive many days, weeks, months, and years to come. There is a saying that “you don’t jump into wealth, you grow into wealth”. Wealth comes from Asset, and wealth does not come at once, it comes little by little. Wealth grows in your hand.
The only way you can manage your Asset to grow is to be financial literate. Financial literate is different from be a degree holder, masters holder or PhD holder. Financial literate makes you know income and expenditure, numbers and the difference between Asset and Liability and the way to grow your Asset.
The big names you hear today in the world of wealth some started 20 years ago, some 30 years ago, Etc. the question now is have you started at all.

Another asset you can acquire is common stocks, though some people consider them to be liabilities to the company that issue them, they are assets to an investor. Therefore the argument whether common stocks are assets or liabilities is because they mean different things to the company and investors. I would advise you to get common stocks of good companies that have been known to pay dividends; these income stocks can continue to bring passive income for you in many years to come.