When fuel subsidy was removed last year, everything skyrocketed except happiness.
Like many, my first approach to the economic climb in the prices of goods and services was to shrink my expenditure to cut cost. It also cascaded into my house running costs, alcohol consumption and unnecessary subsidies to people. I ran that routine for a month. It felt like everything was missing, although, it was a reasonable reaction to inflation.
Take for instance, my wife watches DSTV more than Netflix which takes most of the family data. Safe for Channels TV, TVC, CNN and Sports Channels, I barely watch other channels in my house. When I return from the day’s hustle, I meet the channel on a default Rok 1 or 2. That is madam’s special Channel (s).
To cut down these costs from DSTV, we bought Go TV, it sold lesser and had a max subscription of 6k then when I had to spend 14k plus extra view for the other rooms to subscribe a service we barely watch 15 days out of the 30 days subscription window. With Go TV, I did the highest subscription, still, it never had Channels TV for Politics Today. They say it was a network glitch which was never resolved. I kept missing the times. Missing my juice. It was my relaxation content. 10PM news too. The picture quality was amateurish. It wasn’t as fantastic as the DSTV which made the living room Television an aesthetic resort.
Then I started thinking.
How long will I keep contrasting and compressing my lifestyle as much as they Economy shrunk. I study plenty data. I dont grumble. I am first an optimist survival in all things. It helps the health anyway.
So if fuel got worse, it meant I’d have to park my car to start trekking or climbing bikes. I drive a V8. The least of my cars were V6, including those for business. I buy cars for utility purposes. So, fuel consumption would impact on my finances, either way.
If food prices got worse, we may now stop eating protein? If water prices got worse, we would now start drinking from borehole? If a member of my family got sick, would we resort to prayer houses instead of a hospital for simple medicine?
I kept thinking. Income didn’t change, hence, I think my initial reaction was driven by fear. The constant need to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. You know this thing about worrying for what is even yet to come.
I started talking to my wife about these things. I decided to do something else.
What?
Change my thinking about money, Economy and govt. I dont spend my time quarreling on Facebook daily and reading gossips. I hack African News and Global News. There’s a silent economic meltdown. Energy and Food costs are currently sitting on the roofs across many countries. In the case of Nigeria, delayed policy installation, massive corruption and lack of future planning is the current reason for our economic hemorrhoid.
It was time to plan. Not planning is also a plan anyway- like grumbling and looking for pity without taking actions.
This is why Japa plans to me is more of traveling to spot economic opportunities for an osmosis importation. I do not think I want a permanent life elsewhere. But I have silently entered into some countries for leisure and research.
What did I do?
I returned my lifestyle. Returned our family expenses to normal. Infact, we doubled more. I am sure my wife was surprised.
What I did was simply to put the pressure on my creativity instead of reality. I wanted to be pushed. I was in a comfort zone, responding to economic data instead of personal goals.
I started looking at options I never looked into before. I started creating more channels for businesses. I didnt beg. I simply diversified creatively. On the existing, I intensified, mopped up all entries for profits which I left fallow in the past. I introduced more products for my businesses because I knew there were bill targets to be paid.
It paid off. I started seeing newer opportunities. I went more into it. All experimental but smart decisions made them profitable.
To be honest, the focus was my FAMILY first, before anything. I am never interested in pleasing anybody anyway.
Some hacks to help you:
- Nigerian business people are greedy without regulation. You could buy one Maggi of N10 yesterday for N30 tomorrow if they heard dollar may increase by two cents tomorrow. It isn’t necessarily about their existing stock, infact, some of them build future houses on your N10 Maggi and solve all their family problems with it. What should you do? Buy in bulk. It may look difficult, but lean to stock for two or three months, it is cheaper and insulates you from daily contraction of the market due to economic forces of demand and supply or simply the incentive of greed.
- Avoid emptying your house before you stock up. Replace items in small quantities so the bulk remains. It reduces tension.
- Spend only 10-20% of your income on flexing. This should include for womanizing and alcohol if your own case in critical. If you’re a woman, spend less on wigs and make-up, except it brings you more money. These are things you can live without.
- Do not SAVE money by starving during inflation. The goal for any reasonable legitimate earner during inflation and economic down turn is to FEED WELL. Your transportation and feeding is essential. You can postpone the goal of building your house to next year. A postponed goal is not the same as an eliminated goal. Focus on what is important. Eat well, forget buying a car or completing a house.
- Drink alone. If you’re to sponsor a group drink or bills, it must and should foster your economic, social or political goal. Unplanned generosity is one of the Mason of economic disasters.
- Reduce your bigger events to what is most important. I married without an elaborate reception that could have left us in debt. I named my child by a targeted invitation. It didn’t make my marriage less or my baby less of a child. Wife is well fed. Baby is well taken care of because the wastages from elaborate and unnecessary events would have deprived me of rest of mind.
- Don’t donate what you don’t have on social media during fund raising just to be liked or accepted or seen as a philanthropist. People who do social media giveaways do them for motives that benefit them on the long run. Does yours benefit you?
- Don’t try to impress women who don’t work. If you have to give, give what you can afford, don’t prioritize making them happy with their expensive taste at the expense of your family.
- Don’t attend every event such as weddings, etc, Asoebi costs are also used by some people to finance their weddings. If it is not convenient, send your token to the couple and celebrate them on cyberspace. Traveling for random folks and paying hotel bills leaks your pockets. You can make sacrifices for your social circle, but it must be important people to your circle.
- Do not spend heavy data sponsoring social media vawulence, reading gossips from anonymous stories, following up subs and spending so much time following trends and debating what cannot change your life by just trying to belong to a bandwagon group on social media. Participate in any skilled or unskilled job that fetches you money. It is a better conversion of your time. Distracting yourself through these things would not fix your real life problems. Begging for data to stay online to follow gossips and also have opinions about people you don’t matter to is a waste of time.
– Promise Emmanuel (Kogi Rebel)
