One of the major financial challenges that face a lot of people is not necessarily making money per se, but how and what to spend it on. You cannot be earning on the average income level and expect to be spending the way the likes of Elon Musk spend, because you will go broke even before starting. This is why you have to know what your financial strength can carry per time and stick to it, so that you will not put unnecessary stress on your pocket. If you cannot afford a certain lifestyle at the present, you should not try to force yourself to afford it, just try to make more money first, and the lifestyle will flow naturally.
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A few years back, when we were still in the university, there was this particular classmate of ours then that came from a royal family with all the privileges of royalty. In fact, he normally comes with security to school and his clothes were branded specifically for him and so on. Along the line, we became friends with him and "vibed" along; he was a nice guy. A day came when he invited us to his father's (the King) "ofala festival" which was normally held once a year. This is a very important and well celebrated festival in this part of the world.
While we were contemplating on what to wear to this all-important event, a lot of my friends started putting themselves into strain to buy some designer wears so as to blend in. Some even went as far as borrowing just to be able to acquire such designer clothes. Well, I told some of my friends who cared to listen that we will wear what we have, as long as it is decent and neat. We dry-cleaned our old clothes and kept them ready for the event. On that day, we rocked in our old clothes while the others who strained their pockets to get new clothes also wore theirs.
The funny part of it was that we all stayed together with the Prince; who was our classmate, and no one could even tell the difference. We had a nice time and everyone returned home. A few days time, the project supervisor came to our class to announce the project materials to be bought in the class. By that time, those other students who strained their pocket did not have money to buy the project materials and we conveniently bought it. They tried to live above their financial means just to feel belonged or maybe to impress the Prince who may not even take notice of their impression, and they dipped their hands in their school money and afterwards, they could not afford their project materials. How unwise.
A lot of people try to live a fake life just to impress who may not even be interested in them. At this point in history when access to social media and Internet is readily available, people have been exposed to celebrity lifestyle and some other fake lifestyles and they want to copy it without considering their financial strength. The untold truth is that some of these lifestyles you see on social media are fake and overinflated just to show who they are not. So if you follow them to live their fake lifestyle, you may end up blowing up your pocket.
Image from Pixabay
In order to live within your financial ability, there are some things that can help you and keep you on the right path. Firstly, you need to make an effective financial budget. This budget is to keep your spendings in check. Note that when you are making budget, you have to put your need in priority and apply wisdom to it. You need to make the budget with the money at hand, because that is what you have control of, not the money you plan to get in the future. More so, if what you want to have has a substitute that is cheaper and within your financial means, you can go for it. For example; if you want to buy clothes and you know that designers or branded clothes are way beyond the size of your pocket, then you should go for the generic ones.
Another point to seriously consider is to avoid buying on credit or borrowing, especially what you do not need what you want to buy. The luxury lifestyle you cannot afford today, borrowing will still not make you to afford it, it will only make you to look like you can. So avoid it and do not stress your finances.
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