My 2018 Total Makeover

I have been away like forever from blogging and only too glad to be back eventually! I missed you all guys, I really did.

Now this particular blog should have been out much earlier judging by the title and intent. I had it in draft form for a while and only just put it all together. Well... better late than never, right?

I have been doing a lot of makeover in my life this year and for a lot of us, it is about time!

I have been gradually doing a total makeover in my little apartment (I could be referred to as a stash rat of sorts), my attitude to money, my attitude to work, as a christian, my attitude to service to God, my relationships and so on.

Now a few of the information I am sharing are information I have known for a few years but just stashed away in the back of my mind (hmm stashing again, lol) for later and that later never came until recently when I saw the need to give yours truly a real talking to.

I have been on so many blogs including the Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruz YouTubes lately, specifically since this January and I have been asking myself why I didn't do this much earlier in my life again? Also in speaking with some persons around me, I realized that many people are yet to even start to hear about him in this environment where I find myself. Well, no wonder it took me a while to get on the horse so to speak.

There is this woman on the Dave Ramsey show who said paraphrased, "If I knew what I know now when I was 22, my life would have been so much more better". Yes that mirrors me too. Like most people on that particular show say, I didn't have any money management training whilst growing up. My parents handled everything money related, well almost everything and I never got to take responsibility for money. Now this is not a strong enough reason to be 'broke' I know but, it happens.

I am not following a hundred percent of the Dave Ramsey model (not that I disagree, but living in an entirely different kind of economy from the US has made me do my own modifications while adapting from the basic ideas) and for the first time in my adult life, I am boasting all be it little savings at this point, because just like Dave says, clearing out all debts is major. You know, 'Debt is dumb, cash is king' is his usual chant (I am so much on Dave Ramsey's and some other motivators these days but then what you surround yourself with goes a long way to determine who you become eventually. I subscribe to being a better me so, yeah!).

Funny how nowadays my cash tides me to the next paycheck which never used to happen before even while paying off huge debts monthly. I also never need to call up a friend like I used to, to borrow some cash. From the start, I made a list of my income and my regular monthly expenses, after which I made a list of all my debts and boy, was it a long and alarming list! From there I could see that I was merely working to pay someone and living on next to nothing even with a good income. This really painted a clear picture of where all my money was going.

There had been times when after pay day I would begin to wonder almost immediately about what exactly had happened to my money.

Now if you live in a society like I do where a lot of people attribute a lot of unfortunate experience to demonic attacks (not that demonic attacks are not real, they are), you would understand why I had had a series of misdirected prayer points (I see now that some of them were). I had believed for a long time that my money problems among other things was demonically inflicted. You will find that I am not the only one with this kind of thinking. It is so shocking to see that rather than take responsibility for our actions, many of us are quick to point fingers away from ourselves. This is what I was doing for a very long time until I really really had had enough!

This was when I paused and asked myself this salient question 'How did I get to this place, how did I get here?' and that was the beginning of my slow and painful journey to recovery. Slow and painful because when you had to start from rock bottom to climb up again and with a huge load of debts practically dripping off your shoulders to the tune of nearly a million Naira in an economy fighting hard against recession, you would understand slow and painful.

I drew a picture of where I wanted to, in fact, needed to be at by this time but knew that it had to go through a process, what Dave again refers to as 'living on rice and beans, beans and rice' stage.

Taking a critical look at my income, expenses and debts, I realized that I was not really living on much myself and would have bagged me some neat savings if I had but started on this journey much earlier in my life.

I can imagine that for some persons, this will seem like a no-brainer and if it is, well done to you, but after I have spent a lot of time reading blogs and watching YouTube channels, I realized that a lot of persons have walked this rope and many more still will. Yes, that is because like me at that time, there are still a lot of people who have not struck reality yet.

I should say here that I am blessed that I finally came to this point in my life where I have a little savings which I am determined to build on with time and which I know will begin to grow substantially once in my own way I can give the 'debt free shout' of Dave Ramsey. I am still on the journey. Guys you need to google for Dave Ramsey and listen/watch him. He is one man that is helping a lot of people take back their destinies in their own hands especially through their finances. Guys you need to check this chap out. He has the key to living debt free, tried and tested. You really need to watch people scream out the debt free shout to understand the liberating feeling of living debt free. It is truly phenomenal.

There is this regular saying of his that has stuck in my thoughts and which acts as a prompt to make me awaken whenever I come to a pause in my journey and it crosses my thoughts, 'Debt is dumb, cash is king'. Debt is indeed dumb. It is a dumb act to allow oneself to go into debt especially deliberately as is stylish these days and that leads me to one hilarious sounding saying of same Dave Ramsey which goes thus again paraphrased, '.....paid off house mortgage has replaced the BMW as the new status symbol of choice'! Well it should. Of what use is a luxury car and lifestyle when you are a debtor anyway? I mean up until a point, I did not really pay much mind to my actions that were leading me deeper and deeper into debts. The same Dave said 'the borrower is a slave to the lender'. Sure most know this but hey, I would rather pay off a house mortgage and begin paying for everything else I need to purchase with cash. 'If you can't pay cash, you can't afford it' Correct, Dave Ramsey again. There has to be an end to voluntary slavery if the borrower is a slave to the lender.Huh? Voluntary slavery? Exactly! That is what happens when you seek out a loan, borrow money, get an overdraft, purchase on credit or hire purchase and so much more. You could take a sneak peek into my post on debts * another face of slavery.

When I started this makeover journey, I did not know the extent of similar situations around. I just thought to myself to google and see if there was anyone who had a similar experience like I was facing so that I could learn from how they were able to solve their problem and borrow a leaf or two from them and I was amazed at the extent of information out there on the internet on the topic. It was shocking too to see that the bloggers and You-tubers mostly applied similar solutions and that this had been around for years too! Now, how did I miss that one? Especially being someone who prides herself with fishing for information a lot to keep up to date. I realized that I just wasn't looking for the most relevant kind of information for me all this while. Note to self.

Since I began this journey, I have had what could be called epic fails and thankfully some you-tubers had sent out a warning of such possibility and that the solution was not to throw in the towel but to keep on at it until you got it right eventually. Guys this is the same thing as breaking from a bad habit. So do not expect automatic or instant success but, if that is your own unique experience, then kudos to you.

The whole idea is total makeover friends. Let's start from somewhere and start now.

You are welcome to drop your comments below on this.