Lessons of the Month
It’s been a while since I wrote on here, so I’ll just give a little update.
Ever since I was a kid, I remember being bad with money. I never really minded how I administered the cash; I just knew that I needed lunch, so I’ll have to let my Php 20 fit on what I wanted to eat. If I wanted the sidewalk vendors’ toys that were so ubiquitous around the schools in my time, they have to be able to fit my budget. If I couldn’t buy it with my lunch money, I’ll have to wait a few days more.
I didn’t know how to wait.
There were days when I borrowed money to buy a set of jackstone stars and ball. And while I paid my friends back, even at that age, it was odd that I already took on the concept of borrowing to get what I WANTED.
As my boss observed, people are divided into two: the Spenders and the Savers. Sadly, I’m a SPENDER.
Fast forward to today. The biggest pain in my life had been learning how to manage my money. Since I left the house in 2007 and tried to make a go of my life at the age of 22, I couldn’t seem to apply the concept of budgeting and giving myself an allowance. Zoom up to the present, though I’ve learned, and I’m slowly (talk slug-slow) learning from the past’s wounds, I still have not gotten a good enough hang of budgeting.
Yeah, I try my best to pay my bills; I’ve started repaying my debts, but there are still days when I fail and I need to double time to recover.
Today is one such season that has me finding myself in the same old, similar pit. The only thing different is that I work for a personal finance blogger, one of the best in the industry. It’s pretty ironic, if you think about it; but I think it’s more of divine providence that God put me there: to learn and immerse in literature on how to budget, manage my money and eventually, to overcome my spendthrift ways. From just soaking in all these stories, facts and tips on how to be frugal, to save, to invest, and ultimately how to manage money well, it seems like God is in the business of making me walk the talk.
As the Bible says, whatever you give attention to, God will add to it. According to some self-improvement gurus, whatever you behold, you become. And as I behold all these articles on financial wellness, I would hope that after a few months of these, I’d be financially amazing!
I’m grateful. I’m glad. I’m taking my VERY SMALL baby steps. I’m taking it day by day. I’m going to hit 6 months with job soon, and I’m happy I’ve come so far. It’s enough to push me near the rim of the ditch I found myself in (the ditch of the bad spending habits), though not enough to boost me out of it yet.
I’m not in a huge hurry; I’d rather have indelible lessons.
So my lesson for this week is: As soon as I get my salary, I have to resist the urge to go out and splurge. I have to settle down in a place where I don’t need to buy anything, isn’t public, and could afford me some privacy to partition my money.
- I have to separate my tithe and give it ASAP.
- I have to separate my bills.
- Then I have to secure my allowance or else I’m gonna be ornery.
- I have to stash a small amount of money into a separate account for emergencies. (Why do I keep procrastinating on this?)
- Then, I have to partition my allowance day by day.
Then when I’ve apportioned my money as such, I have to act on it as soon as possible. Give my tithe. Keep the emergency money away from my reach. Then make sure I keep my allowance in separate compartments so I can’t spend all of my money in just one day.
Then I can skip off to get a good meal, but living within the allowance for the day.
The last part is the hardest. When I get my salary, I wanna par-tay! But control the self, I must.
And so, I wonder if I’m going to pass this next season in my financial life? I would hope so! Because this is the season that would propel me out of this ditch.
So help me God.
