Prioritise Your Financial Expenditures

Story was told of a Nigerian athlete who was among the team that won the 1996 Olympic gold medal in football category. During his time in active football, he earned handsomely well and he felt like it will continue forever. He lived in affluence and spent lavishly and extravagantly on vain things without having a single investment. Something happened that led him to retiring earlier than he expected and that was how he went back to square one. Because he had no investment to fall back on and his little savings got exhausted on medical bills, he is now on the mercies of his former teammates and other people just to survive. It was a story of "how are the mighty fallen", simply because he did not spend wisely.

It is worthy to note that it is what you do in the days of abundance that will determine what happens when challenges come. A farmer that eats all his harvests because they are plentiful will have nothing to plant when the planting season comes. When spending, you should always have plans for the future. If you consume your future today, what will you do when you get to the future? Before you make expenditure, you should be able to determine if they fall between your needs or your wants, then you will know how to prioritise it.

The truth is that there may be more things you want to spend on than you have the resources available for. However, with proper prioritization, you will know which ones to favour over the other. One thing to always know is that, it is not the money you spend that will multiply back to you but the one you invest. So for every income that comes to you, you should also make plans for part of it to be invested. In this era, investment has been made so easy that, even from your device, you can connect to the rest of the world and you can invest with ease.

There is also the cryptocurrency investment which one can also take advantage of. Many other investment opportunities abound, like stock market, etc, which you can even do with the little money in your hand. The reason people do not invest is not because they do not see what to invest in, but because they do not want to invest. As long as you have the willingness to invest, you will realize that the money in your hand is more than enough for it. Trust me, you need to invest to prepare for the uncertainties in the future.

As you are also investing, you should make room for saving - saving for contingencies and saving for emergencies. More often than not, emergencies are not anticipated, neither do they give note of warning before they come. So you do not have to wait until they come before you run around to get ready, you should be read and save up for eventualities before they come. It is true that no one prays for the worst, obviously we always hope for the best. However, this does not mean that you should not save, get ready and then brace up in case the unexpected happens.

If emergencies happen, you will understand that your own help is the quickest and the most readily available. So always take that into consideration as regards your finances. After you have invested and saved part of your income, and you now want to spend, you should also do that wisely. Before you spend on your wants, make sure that you have spent on your necessities (your needs) first. If you spend on your wants first and the budget gets exhausted, how will you be able to afford your needs?

More so, when buying things, do so because you need those things, not because you want to impress someone or because of peer pressure or because of what someone may think. The truth is, if you go broke while doing all these, those people may not save you, so be wise in your spendings. If you cannot afford to acquire a particular product (like a stone-coated Rolex wristwatch) and it has a cheaper alternative, nothing stops you from going for the alternative. After all, they both tell time. Always tailor down your expenditures to what you can comfortably afford.

Thanks for reading