It is another Friday.
There is a lot going on in the country and more than half of those things should not be happening at all. Blackouts are still haunting us and getting worse by the hour as promised by the power supplier a couple of months ago. The leader of the nation is nowhere to be seen and at some point not even his Minister of Information had sufficient information about his whereabouts and when he is coming home. People are leaving such crucial information about a public officer to our imagination and blaming us when we paint him with diagnoses and worse. Anyway. Such is life, I guess.
The other big thing going on is the Mother’s Day Holiday. So much talk around the day and there are a lot of things people plan to do for their mothers. With my account being in the red zone, I can only stand and watch my sisters bring some goodies for my mum while I wonder whether to leave home (to relieve her of my presence for the big day because I am a bit of trouble) or to stay home and bore her with my long stories (complaints about being unemployed, mostly) because she deserves more of my time. I guess I have some hours to figure that out, but to those who have means, let us surprise our mothers (where mother includes but is not limited to biological mother) on their day.
This whole Mother’s Day holiday has reminded me of the messages that circulate in the social media in similar seasons; about how other people spend so much on MG2 when their parents hardly have anything to it. The messages always have this funny ending citing the punishment that it reserved for those; some lightning strike or something. It is something that is circulated for fun but from it all of us have how and what we spend on to learn. Reflecting along the same lines got me thinking about spending and handling money in general.
Money is one of the most discussed subjects across the globe and the most interesting thing is that whenever we are talking money, most times we tend to be discussing things to do with how to make it. I mean, the whole cash gate and IFMIS thing; that probably took some meetings in some nicely air conditioned room by the beach in Mangochi or Salima, right? Just thinking. The point is that money drives a lot in this world and being a Malawian you have at least two problems that somebody is cashing out on. Fact.
While the making of money is a widely discussed issue, little attention is paid to the handling of money. I was once ambushed with a difficult question by one speaker in a church meeting. He asked us as to what we would do if we were to find all the material resources and money we ever dreamt of in our possession in an instant. The answers that we had were not that convincing as most of us had a more self centered attitude towards money and all we wanted was to have billions in dollars without a clear idea of what we wanted to do with them. While this might have changed for me and and most people who have had the time to think about this crucial topic, not everyone thinks about this and that has cost a lot of people some opportunities to do something positive or make a difference in their own or other people's lives.
If you take a look at cash gate convicts, you will hear that some were caught with millions in cash in the trunks of their cars. They had enough to use at home and elsewhere but that money just had to stay there, to be taken out a million at a time whenever they had figured something to do with it out.
The other batch of people? Young graduates of course. These are the people who find some jobs with an actual salary after toiling with school. They are in the late 20's or early 30's and they have no dependents whatsoever. A 32' screen is already at home with DSTV subscribed. Fridge is full (if at all anthu mukumaikabe zinthu mu fridge) and everything is well with a six figure sum in the account to spare. What do they do? Drink themselves to death, of course. While I personally do not condemn drinking, I think there are good and tolerable levels to it and people just shoot through the roof with this thanks to excess money. And then there is this thing of renting a house in a small township just for sexual endeavors. Zikuchitika ndithu and while it is not everyone doing that, there are people doing that. And I am not only talking about the young graduates.
The two examples cited above just show how sometimes money can change people and it is worthwhile to note that not everyone has gone that trail. There are a lot people who haven't lost their heads despite having fat wallets and accounts. That in itself begs the question as to what leads to some of these things people do because of money.
A lot of abuse of money comes iin due to the fact that some of the money people get is not earned. No hard work whatsoever and then someone has millions all of the sudden. Ndalama yatsoka or ya minyama, some have called it and interestingly enough it happens because the handlers in question didn't have a clue of what was coming their way and thus did not prepare for it. We all have done that, at some point. This is a thing others have called getting rich without going through the process of getting rich.
The other reason is some mere lack of planning. That needs no explaining. If you do not see beyond 10 years from now saving and investing seriously do not resonate at the same wavelength with your thought processes.
You might have your own reasons and theories on the reasons that read to the same phenomena of mishandling money, but I think on the most part it is because most of us have never reflected on the question I was asked; on what we would do if we had all we dreamt of. The solution to that is of course simple and you can start reflecting on it now. The interesting thing is that the thought of such things brings in some discipline and positivity in one's spending habits. Try it.
If you are the sort of person who believes in the significance of discipline with spending, you should also pay attention to the way you make money. Generally people who get money through dubious means end up blowing it on "nothings" (apart from the few who have built mansions in Lilongwe). People who have earned their money on the other hand, are more prudent with the fruit of their sweat and exercise discipline with the way they spend. Again, there are some exceptions to this and they have to be acknowledged.
Take home message?
There are some rules of money that people have written and sold books about. While you might not have time to read all of their writings, it is important to understand that there has to be a bit of discipline exercised in the earning and spending of money; and that the two are linked.
During my orientation week at the College of Medicine, one Dr Cornelius Huwa (Hi, Coach) who was talking to us about financial management told us that the reason most of us do not progress financially is that we spend most of our time learning trades that help us to make money, while we have no knowledge of how to manage it. Probably high time everyone invested in the knowledge of financial management.
Management is wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and potential mothers on the Richie Online readers list.
That's a good one.
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