Sometimes when you look at some people, you will think they are doing very well financially.
They dress well, use expensive phones, drive nice cars and go to expensive places. When they post pictures online, everything looks fine. You may even look at them and think, “This person has money.”
But that is not always the case, some people only know how to make their lives look expensive. Behind what we see, they may actually be struggling with money.
For example, someone can buy an expensive phone today and still owe somebody money, someone can wear expensive clothes and still have difficulty paying their house rent. Another person can be going to expensive restaurants while having almost nothing left in their account.
The funny thing is that you may never know.
Social media has made this issue even more common. Most people don't post the difficult part of their lives, they post the good things. You will see someone posting pictures from a nice hotel, but you won't know how much debt the person has. You see someone travelling and having fun, but you don't know if the trip was paid for with borrowed money.
That is what I personally call "famous but broke".
Sometimes, people just want others to believe they are doing well.
I have seen people who always want to dress in a particular way because of the kind of image they have created for themselves. If people already see them as someone who has money, they may feel ashamed to suddenly start living a simpler life, this can put someone under a lot of pressure.
Imagine someone earning ₦200,000 every month but spending almost all of it just to maintain a lifestyle that is beyond what they earn. Another person may earn ₦120,000 but be more careful with their money, save little by little and avoid unnecessary spending.
If you see both of them outside, you may think the person earning ₦200,000 is richer but we don't really know what is happening in their accounts.
The person with the bigger salary may have plenty of debts, while the person earning less may actually have some savings.
That is why I don't like judging people's financial situation by what they wear or the things they have.
There are people who don't look rich at all, but they are financially okay. They may still use an old phone because there is nothing wrong with it. They may wear simple clothes and eat at home most of the time. They may not even post what they have.
Meanwhile, another person may be buying things every week just so people will notice them.
For me, this is one of the problems with social media. It makes people compare their lives with what other people are showing.
You see someone your age buying a car, building a house or travelling outside Nigeria, and you start wondering why your own life is not moving like that, but you don't know the full story.
You don't know if the person bought the car with their own money. You don't know if the house was built from years of savings or borrowed money. You don't know what is happening behind those beautiful pictures.
You are seeing only what the person decided to show you, and sometimes, because of this pressure, people start spending money they don't really have.
They want to look successful, they want people to respect them. They don't want anybody to think they are struggling.
But looking rich is not the same as having money.
Personally, I would rather have peace of mind than try to impress people with things I cannot comfortably afford.
Image is ai generated.