“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln
Basic human logic is: As soon as I have enough money, I’ll get _ which will enable me to do _ which will then make me happy. We, consciously or not, think that the more money and stuff we have the happier we will be. We hustle tirelessly for hours so that we can buy those high end phones, a few months down the line those expensive phones become too monotonous, forcing us to go back into hustling so that we get another phone that will make us happy.
As J.R.R Tolkien puts it, “If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” Money won’t buy happiness, but will buy you experience.
Cost of getting into debt
We live in a society where credit is more abundant than food. Banks constantly beg us to take loans, we can buy high end phones on credit, airtime on credit, or even travel around the world on credit. It’s only after we are unable to clear our credit that we experience the danger of getting into debt. There’s nothing as painful as losing all that you worked for since you took out a loan you we unable to repay. At the end of the day, if you are unable to repay your loan, the bank will come knocking on you door and reposes whatever you have that is sufficient enough to repay the debt.
Cost of falling into temptation
We all have our weaknesses, for some it’s living an exorbitant lifestyle for others is desire to please. At the end of the day we find ourselves having spent money on things, we shouldn’t have wasted money on. It’s after urgent and demanding expenses arise that we realize we should have spent our money wisely rather than wasted it.
Cost of failing to save
Statistics show that 46 percent of Kenyans can’t save, mean reason being they don’t have enough to save. Financial experts disagree. They say it’s not about how much we earn but how we spend our money. This means 46 percent of Kenyans would rather spend than save. It’s only after emergencies arise that this 46 percent would wish they had saved rather than spend.
Money won’t always be around
We have all heard of that guy who was once rich but died a poor person. The reality of life is, like a seasonal river, money comes and goes, the trick is to make the most out of the money we make. Rather than carelessly spend it, we could either save it or put it into some wise investment. It’s better to have money working for you, rather than you working for money.
In as much as we have our weakness and desire to spoil ourselves is always there, money will never buy us happiness, but it will buy us experience.