From my 2020 photo collection
As a young school leaver, I did not pay many bills; I lived with my aunt, who paid about 30% of the feeding bills, though I also paid about 20 to 25% of my salary at the time. I had a mobile Nokia phone, but I barely paid my Internet bills.
I had a deal with my boss back then: he paid my Internet bills, and I wore the clothes of my cousin, who also lived with my aunt.
Life was not easy; we earned almost nothing, but it was not difficult to live a moderate life, and we were happier despite not being able to afford any form of luxury.
No, why?
Life became more difficult for me when I turned 25, though it is still not as difficult as it is now, but I recall that being between the ages of 25 and 28 was a wake-up call.
The realization that we needed to work harder or risk capitulating. I lost my parents, my aunt lost her husband and source of income, and my cousin moved out of the house because he was 30 and wanted a better life.
Then I began to incur medical expenses, health problems became common, and life seemed more difficult.
Then rents began to rise, food became the new digital gold, and inflation began to erode the country's native currency. In 2017, I was working when I became ill and was bedridden for more than three weeks.
I took this wonderful picture on my iPhone 12 in 2022, together with the first one. A true definition of paycheck to paycheck
Apparently, I realized that you can not live paycheck to paycheck anymore. Salaries increased by only 20% in seven years, while the cost of living increased by more than 200%.
The risk with the job was that medical expenses could eat up all of your earnings in six months, assuming you save enough. That was when I resigned the jobs and basically started doing other stuffs on the side.
Back then, not having a 9 to 5 felt really bad on the surface, but it meant I did not have to constantly incur medical expenses due to my condition.
In reality, 90% of the world's population is arguably living to work and working to live; most of the time, this is not because money is becoming inherently smaller; rather, we incur default financial expenses that do not care whether we have the money or not.
Earning a living is defined as earning enough money to cover basic living expenses.
As we get older, the need for companionship grows, and while it is logical to stay alone throughout one's life and save money, people would rather incur these costs because they want to make meaning out of their lives.
Some of what we do is not financially logical; it does not make sense.
Things like paying a lot of money to see a movie at the cinema, eating out at expensive restaurants with a loved one or loved ones when we can easily cook at home, but what is the point of life if we do not spend our money to create meaningful memories?
Why do not we consider the financial consequences of our actions more often? This is because they appeal to us so much.
Life becomes meaningful when we do things that are not necessarily logical but make us happy.
Sometimes people spend a large portion of their earnings on drinking or ordering their favorite food simply to enjoy the essence of working.
They have had to deal with a nagging boss, a toxic working environment, low pay, and everything else, and all they want is to enjoy the taste of their money when they get paid.
Aside from these, life has become deceptively difficult.
Products made 20 years ago are more durable than those available today. Mobile phones from 2014 to 2018 were of the highest quality; today, phones do not come with chargers.
Samsung and Apple now manufacture mediocre phones and sell them for twice the price of better phones produced 7 to 8 years ago.
We now have subscription services such as Netflix and Amazon, and many people binge watch them on a monthly basis, despite the fact that these companies provide poor service.
However, as previously stated, all of these are necessary to keep people from falling into a depressive state. A little fun can keep people happy, and it is sometimes worthwhile to spend money on them.
As we get older, we realize we can not grind as much as we used to, and if we do not plan for periods like this, we may end up living a terrible life because we can not afford to grind anymore.
Whether we like it or not, life becomes more difficult as civilization advances. It is as if we need to do more to fill the void, earning less, spending more, and incurring debts to pay it forward, much like a massive ponzi scheme.
Interested in some more of my works
Interested in some more of my works
