We all love money as human beings. That’s just our human nature. The problem is that not everyone wants or is willing to put the energy, the sacrifice and if need be suffer the pain of earning and keeping money.
Given an opportunity, all of us including myself will go for the easiest route to money and wealth. Unfortunately, such a route does not exist in modern economic systems. The only known and time-tested route to sustainable financial success is going up the stairs, one step at a time.
As the economic woes of most people continue to pile up on individuals and households, the demands on your incomes are bound to increase. Again, there are so many people in our communities and society who do not want to adjust their lifestyles to the new realities. In a society where people have turned WhatsApp groups into endless fundraising forums, you will be called upon to make some very tough choices.
Further, while it may look convenient to cut back on certain expenses from your budget, it would be important to carefully choose what to cut back. Here are some rules of the thump on how to adjust without hurting your medium and long-term financial goals.
- Do not rush to cut back on your savings – during hard times, most people would rush to cut on their savings rate or even follow what they had saved to spend it. This is the most foolish choice anyone can ever make. Cutting back on your savings must only be an ‘action of last resort’ when all else has collapsed. For instance, the increase in taxes means almost a long-term loss of that income. That means you shall need to increase your income to compensate for this loss. Your savings if invested well becomes the safest route towards compensating for this loss. That’s why cutting back on your savings may hurt your finances for a long time;
- Direct your money to various baskets and stick to that – the funny thing with money is that it tends to bring funny ideas when we receive it compared to what we had planned for it before it came. The ideas & plans you had for money before you received it will almost always be the right one and in the best of your interest. Ideas that crop up after receiving money are almost certainly bad;
- Send the money to their respective baskets as soon as you receive it – it is foolish to purport to keep the money in your bank account or pockets. So direct it to specific projects/activities as soon as you receive it. These small baby steps eventually build up to a massive force that no one can stop;
- Don’t feel ashamed or guilty to say no if and when necessary – as have always said, no single person can satisfy the individual greed of the many people who want your money. That means you will have to decline invitations to contribute or attend some events of friends, colleagues, acquaintances or sometimes total strangers. When you make such decisions, do not feel bad about it, each one of us is expected to meet our upkeep and financial responsibilities for as long as we are of age and in good health;
- Save yourself first before attempting to help others – as the economy tightens its rope on our necks, responding to your immediate and direct financial responsibilities becomes sacred. Those who have ever taken a flight, before take-off everybody is advised to save themselves first before attempting to help others should anything go wrong. The natural laws of survival call this the ‘law of self-preservation’.