Hello, everyone.
I welcome you to my blog. Trust me, when financial experts advise us to avoid living above our means and make sure to cut our coat according to our size, some people just turn a deaf ear and still go about making choices and decisions that can ruin their finances, all because they want to keep up a standard they know deep down they cannot maintain, especially with their type of income. But since people see them at a certain level, they don't want to be seen at a level less than what they are known for. Even when they clearly have not gotten to the level people have placed them at, rather than confessing the truth and correcting the mistake, they begin to stress their finances just to meet up.
With that habit alone, you have already ruined your finances. Now you are living to impress others while displeasing yourself and putting your finances at risk. Once you start living for other people's validation, you have put yourself on track, and you will be doing everything possible to stay on that track. That alone will ruin your finances and a few genuine relationships and friendships you have because they will want to talk you out of it. Living for other people and not yourself is one way to stress yourself mentally, emotionally, and most of all, financially because you will have to keep trying to prove a point.
When I was in college, I had a coursemate like that. He liked to be seen as one of the richest guys in class. He never put his two Android phones in his pockets, whereas the real rich guys tried to put all their phones, sometimes two and sometimes three, in their side bags or pockets. Whenever you sat with him, he kept telling you how he grew up in Port Harcourt, how he wanted to start his building project in the village, how he lived in a one-room apartment off campus, and so many other lies. I could tell he was lying and was only trying to improve his standards, but I had no evidence to prove it.
His lies went on until 500 Level, when someone who knew him very well finally exposed all his lies. He grew up in a village just after school and had been living in his father's bungalow and coming to school from there. He never had any project going anywhere. He was way more broke than most of the guys he made feel like he was richer than them. When some of the quiet guys who did not make mention of any project started their house openings, we were shocked.
Many rich people like and enjoy a low-key life, while wannabe rich guys or rich people are the noisemakers who announce everything even before they start making moves and doing the necessary things. Some rich people understand the risk they put themselves at if they say how rich they are, and they try to keep it a secret, while those who don't understand how the system works shout at the top of their voices and try to announce both the truth and a lie.
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