I walk into the nearby mall and ... Look at that! This is too much! How on earth can I not afford that? That gown! And it's on sale too! Arrrgh!
Oh oh! Is that Linda I see walking towards me? I need to duck before she notices me! Quick into that grocery store. Phew!
Erh .... wait a minute, I hope she isn't headed to this particular store. Oh God, please help me.
Oh no! Gracie's in here? No she can not see me now! But........, how do I avoid her and not get seen by Linda outside? Oh my life!
Another sms remind alert from the credit house! Why is my life so financially complicated? How did I get here, neck deep in debts, close to choking and seemingly with no way out?
I can't sleep comfortably on my bed at night. My brain is in overdrive. I toss and turn and finally give up trying, just get up to begin pacing around the room with my mind occupied with searching for a solution to this mess. A way, no anyway out!
Now it is morning and my mobile goes off ringing desperately. A quick look and it is the landlord. My house rent is way over due and I have given so many excuses that nothing will work this time. Oh my world! When is this nightmare ever going to end?
Admittedly I started this chain reaction of anxiety by one or two poor decisions that I still could have checked if I had just denied myself of some luxury a long time ago. This is a typical example of repercussions of un-postponed gratifications especially when I still had the opportunity to.
This may be a weakness for so many of us but it is a weakness with a cure. The problem is in not having the determination to postpone certain gratifications and adequate planning/budgeting. You should see my blog post on My 2018 Total Makeover. Also wanting to create an impression to the world that isn't at all necessary. A competitive spirit is another culprit.
A writer once said 80% of people do not notice you and the other 20% who appear to, are actually happy that you are in a situation of crisis (paraphrased). Simply put, no one actually notices you or really ever care! So what then is the point of all the drama?
The fact that some one else could afford that designers outfit for instance should not be enough reason to get your feathers all ruffled. Before you begin the journey into competing (very unhealthy I tell you) for class, style and what not, you need to stand back and ascertain situations. That person you would really love to be like may have done a whole lot of planning, probably years before even with a very good income and is only now just reaping the benefits of planning, saving a great deal, investing like crazy and so on. True there are a lot of people now especially among the womenfolk who plan and spend with other people's income, but do you really want to be like that?
To the real girl, self respect is big deal. The feeling of accomplishment that comes from being your own financial master. Confidently making your own financial decisions from your own wallet and account is priceless. Not having to go to bed hungry if you suddenly had a fight with your boyfriend. Not having to swallow your pride to go crawling back to an undeserving friend to seek forgiveness for a fault that is clearly not yours just because they hold the yam and the knife.
There are also those who although they earn well, can not just succeed in managing with their available resources. They are decent, good girls who like to live the life too but cannot manage to do so without having to owe. These set of girls are so accustomed to making almost every single purchase on credit. They spend with their next sets of monthly incomes in view. This makes them end up working to pay off debts every single month and so they are practically always broke. Trust me yours truly has been in this category and I can tell you that it is no fun. You work a great job and have a pay package that many still fast and pray to attain yet you can simply not account for what tangible things you achieved with each month's income. These type of girls like I said are not leaches. They do not leach on others. They are intelligent and hard working but somehow intelligence eludes them when it comes to effectively making great financial plans. They are clearly aware of the cause of their financial difficulties. They may be hard working, but are very lazy in making determined changes to the very cause of their woes.
Sadly though, sellers take real advantage of the weaknesses of these kinds of persons. The encouragement to go ahead and buy and then pay in installments is a trap they know these kinds of persons can not ignore. Strangely enough, while these people are still owing, the sellers bring in more and come straight at them to add more to what they already owe with the assurance that they will be allowed to take their time in making the necessary payments. This is a trick that most often than not works. In a state of debts, the victims feel obliged to please these sellers by adding to their debts just because they want to avoid being harassed for what they owe. This might sound sort of silly but there are really people who do that. Oh yes! Hard though it is to believe.
At the end of the day, such people begin to loose whatever respect they might have had. People who respected them begin to disdain them. They are spoken to without respect, they are mocked, gossiped about. In all they loose face and this brings in more problems for them as depression very likely begins to set in. They begin to ask themselves such questions as "how did I get here?" "how did I not see this coming?". Truth is that any debt not quickly addressed will grow on you. If you also do not see anything wrong with the fact that you have not yet paid a debt you owe, you also will not see anything wrong in accumulating even more debts. One uncleared debt grows into two, then into three and before you know it, you are owing at every turn. You just wake up one day and discover that your income for months to come can not clear the debts that have accumulated.
Do not forget that real needs will always come up and there is the danger of postponing paying off a debt so as to address a need that has presented itself. This makes it even more difficult to attend to the pending debts.
The good news with all these is that there is still a way out. Yes there is.
The way about this is quite a slow and painful process which if you are determined to face, will eventually bring you out of debts.
First thing you need to determine to do is to stay away from adding any more debts to what is already existing. You will also need to cut down a lot on your personal expenses. You will find that in every month, you might be spending as much as 75% of your income to pay debts. Do not forget that these debts were accumulated over a period of time and so it should not be expected that it would be that easy to clear off. Most times the high income earners face the danger of greater debts. The higher the income, the higher the debts.
I would advise that whilst being focused on paying off these debts, it would be a good idea to also start learning to save. You know the scripture that says "he that is faithful in a little will be faithful in a lot (paraphrased)". So it would be a good idea to keep something from each month's income whilst paying off debts. It does not really matter at this point how little, so long as something is kept aside. Remember that little drops of water can form an ocean if consistently added. This way, you wont be completely cashless by the time you eventually pay off the debts.
Second is to not make a single expense on any income before you have devised a financial plan to follow. Financial planning is not only for Accountants, people! It is as simple as taking note of the amount of that particular income, if you are a christian like I am, you would take out your tithes and offerings for the period, takeout what is to be saved. Note that savings should always be taken out before expenses are made.
Next should be taking out what you have planned to take care of your self with for the period. This will certainly be frugal having in mind that it is not party at this time. Before now, it is a good idea to make a complete list of all you owe and then plan on how each will be paid off as you receive your income. It could be by taking one item at a time and completely paying off on it before going to the next or by taking two or three items and paying them in halves per period for instance until they are completely paid off. This has the advantage of making more persons know that you are making effort to pay them and keep them at ease.
Like I said earlier, it is no fun party and so you will need a great deal of patience and consistency. The advantage is that you will discover that you can actually manage with less money than you originally thought possible and a smart person would take advantage of this by not going too high in personal upkeep even after all debts have been cleared out. It would be a great idea to take advantage of increasing your savings substantially after paying off all debts. I do not support that you live wretched when you can live better. Take good care of yourself. eat well. You can do this without going overboard with your expenses.
It might be a good idea to review where you shop because you can very possibly get the same good products cheaper elsewhere.
It is a good idea to not purchase anything that you do not really have need for. I have made so many similar mistakes and these mistakes come from impulsive buying. I have made purchases that after reaching home I realize I did not really need to purchase and will clearly not be making use of. And so the next thing is to dump the item until someone who appreciates that item comes along and you have a gift for such a person. Otherwise you become suck with a property you do not care to have.
For grocery shopping and other home supplies, bulk purchase is the way to go. It ends up being cheaper and more lasting than smaller purchases. I have always preferred to stuck up in my pantry after every paycheck. With this habit, you find that because of the way you bought them. you may not need to repurchase for another month or two or even three! You would only need to top up on a few supplies if you make this a regular habit and at the end of the day, your monthly or periodic expenses are greatly reduced.
For clothing, including shoes, bags and jewelry, it is also good to purchase periodically and not at any time you think you should. They also need to be planned. True that a shoe could cave in when it is least expected or a lovely handbag reacts to the weather and begins to deteriorate. I learned from a few acquaintances, the importance of periodic wardrobe supplies. It could be annually, every six months. The bottom line is to learn to hold on to the next planned shopping before making any purchase.
Another serious avenue where most of us spend is in internet data. Especially mobile phone data. First is to ensure that your wifi has a password so that data thieves do not prey on you. I had an aunt who was novice to this and had to suffer spending a decent amount on data before I realized that her phone had been vulnerable to cyber thieves all along. Neighbors around had been depending on her data for their internet use. Second is to not leave your data on at anytime that you are not online. You will be amazed at how long your data would last if you took these precautions seriously. I personally preferred to leave my data on because I wanted to know immediately I received a new email especially official. In that case I had an excuse but if you choose to do that, then ensure your phone is set in such a way that other data draining applications can be turned off.
At your house, it is a good idea to turn off any power point or outlet that is not being used. For instance if you are spending time in the sitting room, then the bedroom lights, kitchen lights, bathroom light etc (unless someone is there at the time for those who do not live alone) should be turned off. There are those who leave the security lights turned off until they are going to bed, by which time they have turned off every other light in the house. Another idea is to always use energy saving bulbs. They may be costlier than the conventional yellow light bulbs but they save you a lot of money on electricity units. The yellow light bulbs also generate a lot of heat in the house too.
Above all people, leave loans well alone! Need I say much? Okay, hear this, you never pay a loan without some added interest. Need to hear more? I think not. In the first instance, you would hardly ever need a loan if you plan your finances properly I tell you.
I know it seems like a lot of work but once it becomes a habit, I promise you would not think about it as work anymore. This also goes for when you see the benefits for practicing them.
It is time to begin doing things differently and better. With great planning in place, economic recession is only a story told and heard.
You are welcome to leave your comments.
You are welcome to leave your comments.