4 ways you can waste your salary and how you can stop it
The man who invented money should be raised from the dead and awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. If not, then he should be awarded one posthumously. Were it not for him, the world of commerce would have been cold, dark, and uninhabitable, devoid of any currency. From the moment we conceptualized that we can exchange a few cowrie shells for whatever we wanted, a much-needed ray of sunshine penetrated an otherwise dank existence that was batter trade.
Since then money, in its numerous forms, has occupied human thought throughout the millennia. It has not only made commerce easier but also ensured that people do whatever they want as they’re compensated. From the time of the industrial revolution, the notion of salary has been the top thought in a working man’s mind. Were it not for money, very few, if any would risk trudging through the waking cycles to go to work on Monday.
As such, careful spending of your hard-earned money should be a priority. But like most humans, advice follows the path of least resistance going from one ear to the other without having any interaction at all with the brain. Careful spending is thrown out of the window as we let wastefulness in, not knowing that we’re reducing the quality of our lives.
Here are some of the ways we waste what we’ve worked hard for, and thankfully, how we can avoid it.
Not negotiating with your employer
This is probably one of the most overlooked methods of wasting your salary. It’s so featureless and colorless, we never see it at all. The goal of wastage, especially money, is to leave you with less of something, thus causing an inadequacy. Not negotiating enough for your salary smacks right into this. Having less salary, and especially having less because you never negotiated for it, can set you back severely. Though this might not be an active method of wastage, it has brought misery and frustration to new employees when they realize that what they earn is barely enough to support them. If you do not wish to work for peanuts, negotiate for your salary to ensure that you are paid your work\’s worth.
Now, I know that work is very scarce nowadays and with the evil twins of post-Covid times, little work and inflation holding the world by the throat, landing a job however unfulfilling, can produce feelings of achievement and exhilaration. However, you shouldn’t forget that you are working for pay. Unless you are in the “find what you love and you’ll never work a day” brigade, chances are that you are working an uninspiring job if only to put food on the table.
Life doesn’t start or end with putting food on the table. You must be compensated for the amount of work you do, and that means that you must negotiate with your employers when it comes to your salary.
Keeping up with the Whoevers\’
This is the sure bet of wasting money and salary. Keeping up with the [insert rich neighbor\’s name], will not only waste your money faster than a sieve can leak but will probably cause you extremely high blood pressure. You have a right to live comfortably. That I agree with, but buying a washing machine because [reuse name here] bought a French-door Samsung refrigerator with Sabbath mode, when your gross untaxed salary is 50,000 blurs the line between madness and stupidity.
You must live within your bounds if you are to plug wastages that needlessly eat into your salary. Boundless comfort is for billionaires, and dollar billionaires for that matter, which I know you ain’t. Stick to your lane and drive your money according to your level of richness. This statement shouldn’t limit your imagination though. If you need more money, or if your comfort levels cannot fit into your salary, you can look for an extra source of income. Borrowing to touch up your image is a no-no. But you are allowed to borrow to start a business to get more money to finally live like your neighbors. Please head over to our website to register and we’ll give you an unsecured loan to make your dreams come true.
Excessive indulgence
There are three types of people in the world. Those who keep meticulous budgets, those who don’t, and those who don’t even know what I’m talking about. But like all things human, this difference is but superficial for there is only one thing that unites them: Entertainment money. This money does crazy things, some are even censored in Hell. Some slot it into their budgets while others spend willy-nilly, not caring where the bill might fall. I’m guessing a large majority are the willy-nellies as Entertainment money has been known to take up as much as 150% of some salaries.
I am a nice guy, and thus not inclined to crimp the roundedness of your mojo, but if you do not want to murder your salary, I’d suggest you limit your portion of Entertainment money. I have a clear understanding that Kenya runs on Alcohol on weekends but too much entertainment, be it liquid or smoked or live or whatever form your entertainment is, is not only bad for your health but is known to cause one of the worst conditions of the 21st century: Poverty.
Emotional Spending
Man is a creature that craves comfort, whether emotional or physical. And if he cannot find it naturally, then he is apt to want to buy it. And for some reason, if he finds he is addicted to it, he\’ll pursue it even with the possibility of destruction. Buying indiscriminately as a means to chase emotional comfort is one way to destroy your hard-earned money. Though it\’s advisable to gift yourself now and then, it’s a pure danger to be dependent on it, as this will make you buy things that you absolutely have no use for. This will make you look and sound not just vain but probably financially illiterate in the end.
Conclusion
Cutting back on spending might be a difficult job, and I hear you. But like all good things, they take time, cost too much in terms of emotional price, and have no business associating with a sane human. If you take time, however, and practice, you will overcome. Work hard and you’ll see the fruits of your labor.