Last Updated on March 24, 2024 by Namooki
I have a tradition after I get my monthly pay. Here it goes; I get to the bank around 7:50 am. I sort out my business, and I am out at 9 am. I don’t head home immediately. Oh no. You know what I do? I head straight to my favorite Shawarma spot to get my usual – Chicken shawarma with double sausage, no pepper (I mean… who adds pepper to their shawarma. *Shrugs in disbelief*). Bear in mind that it’s a weekday and in the morning. The eatery is quiet, serene, and calm at that time of the day. The attendant brings in my order, and I sit down quietly, enjoying my shawarma alone! With every bite, I tell myself,
“You have done well this month. I am proud of you. You deserve more”.
Call it self-therapy, call it self-affirmation; it is simply my way of patting myself on the back. Like the famous ad catchphrase, “If I don’t take care of myself… who will?”.
If you don’t take care of myself… who will?
What do I do next? Well, I come back to reality and sort out my monthly bills. It sounds cliché, but I use the simple 50-30-20 rule. 50% of the money received is to sort out my monthly bills, 30% is for my savings (You can decide to further divide this into two: 15% for emergency savings, 15% for medium to long term savings), 20% goes into investment (could be stocks, buying bonds, or any form of STABLE!! investment). However, I have heard others use the 20% for any indulgence (ice cream, get those sneakers you have always wanted to buy).
What We Do Here
In Nigeria, people like to enjoy themselves! What! It’s work hard and play hard(er) over here. A funny street interview I saw on YouTube where a man was asked If He could become the President of Nigeria, what would He do? Without hesitation, He said the first thing is to prepare a buffet table. He will eat! And then sleep for five days. With almost 63% of the population living on less than $2 a day, you can see why enjoying yourself after a long, hard month is a priority for a Nigerian.
A Healthy Framework
So, what should be the framework for spending your money? I found the answer in “Ketekete” by Ebenezer Obey. It’s a song about the horse, the old man and his son. The story goes that a certain old man and his young son set out on a journey. It started with the son riding the horse and the old man walking.
All was good until they came across a fellow traveller who accused the son of being disrespectful by allowing his old man to walk while He was riding. The father decided to switch positions with the son. Another traveller complained! He condemned the old man for taking advantage of the poor boy and making him walk. This time, they both decided to climb on the horse and as you can guess, another traveller mocked them for placing such weight on the horse alongside their belongings. Perplexed, the old man and his son decided to walk, and still, another traveller mocked them, asking them what the point of having a horse was if you couldn’t ride on it.
Where am I going with this story? The most common interpretation is that you cannot please everybody. Everyone will always have something to say, whether the old man rides on the horse, the son, or both. This can also illustrate how you should think about spending your money. Let’s take the major elements in this story.
Ketekete And You
- The Horse: The horse can represent your revenue generator, your bread and butter. It’s what keeps you moving. It carries your financial “load” along your journey to FI.
- The Son: Your loved ones.
- The Father: Well, that’s you!
Allowing your son (loved one) to ride on the horse while you walk could mean you are working hard to make sure your loved ones are well catered for. Riding the horse might mean a season where you can relax from all the hard work. Enjoy the fruit of your labour. Your offspring will have to, at some point, walk… work hard to take care of their own family and contribute to your welfare as well.
In your life’s journey, the framework for how you spend is to ask if your spending is consistently setting you up to be more productive and better prepared for the future or if you are consistently spending your resources on liabilities. This vacation I am about to take with my family, this new iPhone I am about to purchase, this new laptop I am getting, this solar system I am installing at home, this new car I am getting for my spouse and so on… Is this me walking…. making sacrifices so that I can ride on the horse later? Or is this me indulging on the horse ride now, purchasing liabilities at the expense of caring for loved ones? Spending all my resources on the now and having no plans for reaching my financial goals.
Prioritised Spending
As a fully remote worker, constant power is my top priority. I could have spent a little over a hundred thousand naira on a gasoline generator, and that would be it. Problem solved. However, I decided to set up a solar system. Yes, it cost me five times the cost of a medium-sized generator, and I had to spread the payment for about five months as I couldn’t afford it all at once. But it was a sacrifice that paid off. It was worth every naira! A few months later, the price of gasoline went astronomically high, and I was able to save so much on buying gasoline. My neighbour was so inspired that He decided to follow suit and set up a solar system.
Maybe You Should Replace Your Horse
In conclusion, I would not say you shouldn’t treat yourself well. By all means, indulge yourself; after all, what is the point of making all that money? So, what do you indulge in? What is your shawarma? Yours could be games, shoes, eating out, whatever it is; you have earned the right! However, I aim to get you to think about how you enjoy your money from a balanced perspective.
So, what do you need to do at the present time? Maybe the first task is to replace your horse, your bread and butter, your financial burden carrier… you get my point. Get a stronger one. Work on getting a better job; the higher your income, the more realistic your FI journey will get.