Manage Your Money, Manage Your Life: Strategies that Work
I know a guy. He’s the kind of guy who makes you feel seen. Whenever he gets paid, he doesn’t think twice before paying everyone’s bills. All you need do is ask and he’ll pay for whatever you want. I love his generosity but I worry for him. It doesn’t take him more than a week to go from a cheerful giver to a grumpy young man always complaining about people. But people aren’t the problem; his poor money habits are.
So, let’s talk money management.
Even if you don't have the ambition of being the richest man in the world, you should want to be able to meet your needs, get some nice things you want and not be in debts.
I know I want that so I've learnt to manage my money & I can tell you for a fact there's a peace that comes with it.
If you want to find that peace that comes from having your money under control, try the following. They're methods I've tried & they've worked well for me so far.
- Track your expenses first: Most people will tell you to budget first and that may be okay too but I think its wiser to track your money spending patterns. This way, you know where to allocate what resources.
- Have a budgets in 3 categories: Based on what you find out while tracking your money spending patterns create a budgets in 3 categories. Category 1 will have all the things you need to spend money on such as soap, food, deodorant, tithes (if you're into that), savings, etc. The second category will have items you want that are not really luxury but which you can survive without for now. Examples will be new shoes (as long as you have some other functional shoes), sharwama, hangouts with friends, etc. The third category can have anything which you'll buy if you make extra money that month or week(this depends on how often you get paid).
- Don't go out with more cash than you'll need plus just a little extra. So, let's assume you spend 2,000 naira every day to and from work. You can have 2,500 or 3,000 in your wallet but don't have 10,000. Once you move around with cash, they'll find ways to leave you.
- Practice delayed gratification: If something that's not on your budget comes along, unless it's a life or death situation, try delaying the expense. Let's assume someone you like comes around selling something you don't need but want to patronise them. Tell them you'd buy it next time & budget for it before you do. If you get a craving, tell yourself tomorrow & if tomorrow comes tell yourself tomorrow again. Before you know it cravings won't have such hold on you.
- Say no to debts: Unless you're taking a loan to invest, don't take a loan. Don't agree to buy something you don't need because the person says you can pay next month. It's a trap.
- Buy what you can in bulk if you can and if it's something you always use.
- If you’re not good with keeping money for yourself, find someone you can trust to keep it. Alternatively, open an account, don’t ask for mobile banking or Atm. Use that account to keep money you don’t need to use. Better still, open a piggyvest account. You can set it to deduct any amount automatically so it forces you to save
Learning money management is an important aspect of personal growth. You however should know that it won’t happen overnight. You have to try and try until it becomes second nature.
Cheers to your success 🥂
