Have you ever been so broke that you remembered the half-bitten doughnut you threw in the trash can? Then after that remembered the girl you gave an insane seven figure amount but broke up with 6-months later for the guy who bought her a better phone?
Well regardless how much money you earn [or get from your mama], you are supposed to go through a period of shortage. The time where you have more excuses for not attending expensive gigs than actual money in the wallet.
We have all been there. If you haven’t, thank whoever keeps those taps gushing dollars. Some of us have been so broke that sometimes, that if we got a dollar for every time we ran broke, we would be billionaires.
If you are a cook, you stop using a full tomato in one plate of soup and start using it for three meals. If you are this outgoing junkie, then you decide that FIFA-games are the only way out or those late night calls to your crush on high MTN zones.
Brokeness is like a cancer, it enters your bones and milks out all the happiness and injects you with this virus that sheds your muscles and makes you look ripe for a zombie apocalypse. Most of your clothes barely fit especially around lunch hours. You are a complete mess and your wallet has nothing but the torn tickets of the last gig you attended. So, how do we get out of this maze?
First, one of the biggest weaknesses of all youths is living beyond their means. If he earns Ushs. 3000/=, he will want to spend more than 10- times that. He will want to buy very expensive things for everyone who cares to say his name.
We are internationally known as big spenders, the biggest market, a group that can easily be manipulated because of the social pressures. That is how the world sees the youth. So when you have the money, people are looking for you because when you start spending, you become unstoppable and that is how happy the world becomes.
So since you are peoples biggest pay cheque, no one wants to give you financial discipline advice. Products that make you as cool as “some celebrity” will always come in and “cool” gadgets will need buying.
They just make sure that they put it in the right place for you and before you know, you are even using tuition to buy the latest iPhone and taking your girlfriend to that international concert. So basically in a nutshell, we have no financial discipline.
We the youth, usually buy goods not because we need them, but because the society needs them. Sometimes all you need is a modest Samsung phone that can make calls, go to Facebook and send emails, which can go for a price of Ushs. 400k but because you want the public’s opinion, you will end up with an iPhone twice that amount, where in the long run you will have a deficit budget and hence, becoming broke.
And since majority of the campus population get free money on some basis, they lose the value for money. In their brains, they actually think money has to always be available and squandered. They actually forget that money is sweated for and earned. When reality strikes, they are as helpless as a virgin in the playboy mansion.
They will start squatting around. For a given instance, we forget that at this age we are supposed to be modest, save and invest for the age where it will look awkward to line up for jobs with the then campus crop of then. People will ask you what you really did during your prime. No one will listen to the crap where you bought a phone three times your income.
The only way you can actually avert being broke is sitting down, list your income sources and then slowly break down the money. Spend the money on things you actually can’t live without, then after they are sorted, find some portion you can save and invest somewhere in future.
If you really need some money to squander, get an alternative source of income. Find something that will feed your passions. If you can’t then, forego anything that rapes your wallet.
Being broke is always your fault. Otherwise, like it or not, being broke is a disease and you need to avoid it. You have no idea how many people lose opportunities because they didn’t have the right amount of pocket balance to actually chase it.
To be honest, social races are the reasons you are broke. If you can’t afford an iPhone 6, a Konshens concert and tea at Nandos, screw it. Society won’t be there when you can’t even afford PK to break your foul mouth odour
