1. You cannot in all honesty be using a phone that costs over 1 Million or even half a million, when you are still a student or dependent, and not be a thief or wayward. You have to have very rich parents, lavish relations or sugar daddies or sugar mummies, to be able to sustain the lifestyle. Even if it is a gift, let the giver convert it to what you can invest until you can afford it yourself.
There are very good affordable phones that can do everything you are doing on that your current multi million naira phone. In most cases, those who own these phones don’t even know what to do with them other than pictures, social media apps, Netflix and games, and all these are available in any regular affordable smartphone that can save you money. And these fair-weather users usually have an insatiable appetite to change phones after short use so they can compete with their friends and peers.
It is wasteful, unless you are not stressing anyone else to live that life. This is not to say using an expensive phone is a bad thing. It is to say that using a phone you can afford from your earnings is better.
2. Rent: Move to a place your present reality can afford. Don’t because of ego and so called class, put yourself in a situation where you have to go cap in hand to pay rents. Whether it is rent for a personal or family apartment or office, once the odds are against your finances, don’t hesitate. Weigh the cost effectiveness and change location. Don’t let pride suffocate you. If your income recovers, you can still change to your choice location or build or buy yours.
3. Health: Payment of health bills out-of-pocket, either for or family, is not sustainable. Get a health insurance cover. It is far cheaper both in the short, medium and long term. If you or your family members do not fall ill, let your premium for that year be used to cater for others who fell ill. You never can tell when your turn will come and whether you will be buoyant or not. It is the insurance that will save you in the long run. That’s how lasting societies are built.
4. Car: Whether you are buying a car as a necessity or as luxury, just know that, a car is a liability. You will spend money on it everyday and that doesn’t increase its value either. You buy petrol. You pay for the tear and wear in the mechanic workshop. Road Safety and Police and VIO will stop you and extort you daily. You pay for third party insurance. You will renew papers. So, if by your calculation, using public transport is cheaper, bring your shoulders down, park that car and take public transport.
5. Fake life: The ‘fake it until you make it’ slogan doesn’t work for everyone. When you fake it, even the person who is supposed to help you go begin call you, Boss. Reduce the fake life. It is not sustainable. Be real. Real is better. It brings peace of mind.
6. Hair: Some of you poor kids like me; your hair can buy a plot of land and you know what? The men you want to impress don’t even know the difference. Stop the competition and think of what to do with that money to grow it.
7. School fees: Just like rent, quickly change the schools of your children if the fees are escalating beyond your income. Don’t ever let peer pressure or what people will say, make you put yourself in a tight corner. If the private school they are attending is costing you a fortune you can’t afford, move them to a public school. Public schools in Lagos for instance are far better than very many private schools, with plenty freebies and benefits. It is the concocted social status and nonsense shakara that is making some parents insist on keeping their wards in private schools against all odds. Advice yourself before you start begging others to pay fees.
8. Hook up and Gigolo: With the biting economy, both customers, sugar daddies and sugar mummies, are tightening their purses and are not willing to pay well again. You have to be extremely lucky to meet the ones that still pay well and also be more lucky not to end up in their money making soups. Yahoo go kill you collect your body parts. Hook up now na pay as you go, and e no dey bring take-home again. The take home now na diseases. Unless you want to collect person spouse, and that one doesn’t usually last long and always ends in pain and regrets.
9. Government Appointment: Appointment no be work. Unless you are a thief and a crook, a government appointment isn’t meant to make you rich. No be work. Na service. It doesn’t last. It is not a profession. There are more former appointees who are poorer now than those who became richer after appointments. Not that some of those who returned rich were supposed to, but because they stole to become rich. So if you are in government as an appointee, know you don’t have a job yet, you only have a service to render. Plan your life after that service or……
If you disagree with me, no vex. Na so I think am. I may not be right.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo is the Publisher of CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, a Cross Riverian, and writes from Lagos.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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