How To Stay Poor For The Rest Of Your Life

[ 6 min read].

When I saw the meme below on social media the other day, I laughed so hard, I had tears in my eyes, my sides hurt and I almost dropped my phone on the floor. I probably found it so funny because I could relate. This was typical for me in my school days. As my monthly pocket money ran out, it was Tesco’s value bread with canned baked beans and sausage for breakfast, rice and ketchup with no stew or chicken for dinner. Notice I didn’t mention lunch? You’d be surprised how many hours a £0.25p loaf of bread will sustain you.

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Wanting to share the joke, I passed my phone to the closest person to me. This fellow,  (let’s call him John) an acquaintance, who I had met on just a handful of occasions, read the meme and also burst into a loud bellowing roar of laughter before passing my phone to the next man sitting around our table.  Before my phone had gone round everyone and a lot sooner than I expected, John’s laughter started to recede, fading into a light chuckle and I almost thought for a second, I heard a faint whimper before his facial expression turned sombre and downcast. Apparently, for him, this picture was more than just a joke but a glaring autobiographical account of his present circumstances. Approaching his 40s, he was still not financially independent and often spent the latter part of each month, flat broke.

I asked about him from mutual friends and the story I heard back was the same each time. “That guy? I hope you didn’t lend him money because you might as well kiss that money goodbye”.  “I don’t know what he does with his money and he’s always forming big boy”.

In previous blog posts, I covered some of the habits that you need to imbibe if you want to be financially independent (Read: 7 Habits That Will Get You On The Road To Financial Independence) but in this post, we are going to look at those habits that will guarantee that you become and remain poor. If you are hell bent on falling below your potential, being a source of embarrassment and frustration for your family members or you desire to be a financial pariah that friends evade, this post is for you. Here are 5 tips that will can follow if you want to stay poor for the rest of your life.

“If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake”. – Bill Gates

Spend More Than You Earn

What the old folks refer to as living beyond your means. This is a sure banker, guaranteed tip that will make you poor. If you continue to spend more than you earn, you have a shortfall, right? If you continue spending, even for legitimate living expenses, you will need to cover the shortfall and most times, the easiest way is with debt. Ultimately, this four letter word will become a crushing weight that steals your peace and destroys your relationships.

Debt deals two blows because not only are you digging a home you will have to fill with your future income, the interest charges can make it almost impossible to climb back out again without deliberate intervention. I’m not saying that debt is bad by the way, but augmenting your lifestyle with borrowed money that’s ill advised.

What is unfortunate about people who go broke by spending more than they can afford is that they are handing over their destiny in the shape of money to Mr. A or Mrs. B thus helping them achieve their own destiny faster. Every time you order that bottle of V.S.O.P. at the club, you are moving the club owner closer to his financial goals and moving yourself further from yours.

What you should be doing is living within your means and saving the difference. This is old school but it works. You don’t get more basic than this when it comes to financial planning. It’s not enough to save the difference under a mattress or in a bank though, when it accumulates sufficiently, you then need to invest in something that will generate a second source of income for you.

Try To Keep Up With The Balogun’s

I don’t know who the Mr. & Mrs. Balogun are in your life. It could be a neighbour, a colleague, sibling or an old school mate. When they buy a car, you have to buy a bigger and flashier one. They go on an exotic holiday, you travel for one week and post pictures on Facebook that make it look like you were away for a month. They move to a new house, you harass your husband to his wits’ end until he rents a duplex in Lekki.

If you are trying to keep up in this manner, you will finish yourself. These stories always end the same way; with embarrassment or disgrace. Someone pointed out a lady to me some time ago when I was picking up my kids from school. The lady drove a luxurious jeep with vanity number plates. She was dressed like a Hollywood movie star and she walked with one heck of a chip on her shoulder. As she sauntered into the school compound, my fellow parent said to me “Na wa for some people o! This woman and her husband have not paid school fees for their children and she is acting like she owns the whole school”. Apparently, practically every parent and teacher in the school knew their gist.

If you want to stay poor, keep buying material things to show people that you are better than they are in some way. If you don’t want to be poor though, then, act your wage. Don’t go broke trying to look rich.

 

Depend On Your Salary Alone

If you want to stay poor, do not earn any money other than your monthly salary. Chances are if you are reading this post, you have some responsibilities to family members. Responsibilities which are competing for already tight resources.

I remember when I was a young man with two young children, while one kids had just started school and I was adjusting to accommodating tuition fees, uniforms and such in my expenses, the other was consuming baby formula and nappies faster than I could keep up.  At the end of each month…what do I mean at the end of each month? Before the month barely started, I would already be broke. Nobody told me that it was unsustainable, nobody told me to get my hustle on. It was clear I needed to make some more money so I went out and did just that.

Ever heard of Parkinson’s Law, even people earning N5 million monthly are complaining. You need to get out of your comfort zone and stretch yourself. Soon the stretch will be the new normal. Get a side hustle. It doesn’t have to be another job, it can be something that you can do without interfering with your existing job.

Don’t Plan For Retirement

Is there anything sadder than seeing an old and tired person who still NEEDS to work to survive? Those who are too old or too sick to work live off stipends from their children. As you read this, some may be saying, “But that’s our culture. Your parents take care of you when you are young and you take care of them when they get old. That’s why it’s good to have many children”.

Well, which kind of parent would you prefer to be when you retire? One who spends his days filled with the frustration of unfulfilled desires, living off stipends and a diminishing pension or a parent who leaves instructions on how assets and businesses he has built should be sustained and grown for generations to come. Wouldn’t you prefer to be someone who changes the destiny of your descendant?

While you are earning a salary, you can bank on next month’s pay cheque to tide you over for a few weeks. The reputation of your employer and your ID card will also help in securing another pay day loan but what happens after your very last pay cheque? Have you given it any thought? I ask again, where will your money come from after your last pay cheque? You might be saying “I’d have started my business by then.” Ok, so what steps have you taken so far towards starting that business? Do you even know what that business will be?

I know it’s not easy. There are many things competing for your finite funds today but you should also do something today that your future self will thank you for.

Blame Everyone Else For Your Situation

I know a lady who over the last 10 years or so that I’ve known her, has started and abandoned almost as many businesses. She started an event planning business, then a catering business. She tried her hands at outsourcing domestic staff and even delivered sand to construction sites at a point.  The only thing more than the number of businesses she has started and closed is her number of excuses for why they failed. “It’s not easy in this country.” She would say. “The council boys won’t let you rest. The Ibo boys have crashed the prices” and so on.

What perhaps no one has told her is that in every industry she has entered and pulled out from, there are companies that are thriving. The leaders in these companies have persevered through hardship and have followed their dreams to the top. If they could do it, why couldn’t this lady?

It’s a matter of attitude. I have seen first-hand (even in myself) how a bad attitude can turn an opportunity into an unending nightmare and also how a positive, never-say-die attitude can overcome even the most dire circumstances.

Whoever said, “Nothing good comes easy” wasn’t smoking something when he said it. It’s the stone cold truth. No amount of blaming the government, the economy or anybody else will make your circumstances easier. Those who are living their dreams today are those who took responsibility for themselves and their actions and slayed their dragons until there were no more left. Blame everyone else for your mishaps, your disadvantages and your circumstances and chances are that you will never progress beyond them. Decide that you will not live a mediocre life, take responsibility for your life and watch yourself soar.

Enough Talk, Act Now

Being rich or poor starts in the mind. Someone by the name of Patrick Meagher once said, “Some people are so poor, all they have is money.” Oprah Winfrey is also noted for saying, “If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.”

After reading this post, which direction would you say you are heading? Richer or poorer?  You may have some tough questions to ask yourself if some of the above apply to you. Find a quiet room you can spend at least 1 hour in. Take with you only a pen and a pad (leave your phone outside of the room) and think about how you are going to get your financial life back on track so you don’t end up poor. I’ll sign off with another quote by Bill Gates, “If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it’s your mistake”.

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Insurance distribution professional and financial planner. Passionate about personal financial management. Host blogger at www.talkingmoney.com.ng.

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