We all have that one friend who is so money minded and all he can talk or think of is how to make money. Mine happens to be my closest friend and in as much we used to tease him about his money mindset, he’s actually rich now. He’s also really good at managing his finances, and sometimes I feel it is because he’s the first son of his parents and his responsibilities need him to be very smart so he is. Okay, nobody should tell him I said all this about him.
I’ll just call him my financial accountability partner because he’s mostly the one keeping my finances in check. We were discussing about how he became rich last year and it wasn’t as I expected at all. “Every time I decided not to overspend on unnecessary things, I become x richer”, he began. I was very confused but he made me get something right.
Anytime you get a particular amount of money added to your wallet, you become that amount richer. So for all the times that he could have over spent on frivolous things but chose to save, he was x richer in those minutes. Let me make it clearer. If I have $2 and I’m able to use $1 on something I was supposed to use all the $2 for, it makes me $1 richer in those few minutes. It’s fine if you get confused because I was too.
This is probably where most wealthy people started from but that’s exactly not what most youth really want. We want the literal meaning of being rich in 5 minutes. Pooof! Then we probably see money flying all over us yet we don’t even know how to manage our finances. The last time, I heard my friends talking about how they made so much money in one particular investment when they were in university and then they ended up spending everything on clubbing.
Well, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it all starts with what you have. There were times I got so much money and then three days later I found myself sitting beside the calculator trying to find out how the money I had vanished. Meanwhile the money didn’t really vanish, I spent it. On what? I don’t remember. Thank God, I met this my friend. Once again, nobody should tell him I said that.
It took me a while to learn that it’s not about you getting so much money, it’s about you being able to manage what you have and multiplying it. If you ask me, I’d say the journey to attaining financial independence could be long or short depending on you.
If you spend $5 out of the $10 you earn daily on supper every evening knowing deep down you could spend $10 to cook in bulk for the week, then you’re really in for a long ride to your financial freedom. Wait I said ride? Sorry walk rather.
Images are mine