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Money won't solve all your problems, but it can change how we think.
In my neighborhood in Accra, the day your rent is due is also the day the power company starts sending you those nice little notes to let you know they're going to turn the power off if you don't pay your bill, so you have to start figuring out what to pay, how to hold off paying some other people and how long you can make half a bag of rice last. You also have to think about how much you love your partner or your children using math as well. Now with the new electric meters for each house, you can't bargain with anyone for the bill to be extended it goes off when there's no payment.
I also start washing and reusing ziplock bags and putting them up on the windowsill next to my yellow mug that has a cartoon goat that is broken when my checking account is low on funds. Being in poverty is not very nice when you're up close, it smells like you just walked into a moving bus and no one has been able to sleep for an hour. So when someone talks down on people trying to become rich, I think they don't really understand what they're talking about. It's worse to be poor than rich.
I hate to say it, but I still feel good about myself based on how much money I have in my account, I wish I wasn't so shallow.
Money can't buy peace of mind and it can't help fix the person that stopped talking to you three years ago. It can buy you therapy, but it can't go to therapy for you. Even now while writing I just got sidetracked thinking about the three tomatoes in my refrigerator and are either going to become a stew or a huge mess. But with a budget you get afford to make a cooking mistake.
When someone says money isn't everything, I let them finish their statement, but I remember all of the unpaid bills in my mind as if they were scars and worse thing is those scars have teeth that can bite you from the inside.
