If Your Lifestyle Matches or Exceeds Your Income, You've Accidentally Become a Slave
Ditch the slave life like this.
Modern-day slavery exists.
When you get yourself into a position where the income coming in only covers your expenses, or worse, doesn’t cover expenses, you’ve accidentally become a slave.
Money runs your life. I’ve been there.
What it feels like to have money control you
You wake up. The first thing on your mind is how to earn a living. There doesn’t feel like there is enough time in the day to do everything. You are forced to count the minutes. Losing time is losing even more money.
When things get tough it requires you to ask friends and family for handouts. You use sympathy to get people to buy into the sob story. Having people feel sorry for you becomes survival. This sympathy play means you’re not responsible for your life.
Some other puppetmaster can always pull the strings or cut you off. Everybody needs some level of certainty. A lack of money produces daily uncertainty. It’s manageable for a little while. But eventually it eats away at your soul. Money starts to become your goal in life. Your happiness is tied to money.
“If only I had more money," you tell yourself.
When bills need to be paid you’re forced to make excuses. When you go to a cafe for coffee with a friend you have to hope they will pay for you. Even though you made them pay the last three times you do it again. Hopefully it doesn’t upset them. If it does upset them, you’ll stop. Just a little longer.
Unexpected wins become your driving motivation. Maybe it’s the lottery. Maybe it’s a death in the family with a nice little inheritance. Maybe it’s finding a $100 bill in the street. Maybe it’s the cashier accidentally scanning the wrong barcode and saving you $10. Sometimes you go too far.
When the barcode is wrong and you’re asked where you got the item from or what the price is, you tell a small lie. You get a small win but you feel terrible because dishonesty is not something grandma would be proud of looking down on you from heaven.
All this thinking about money is exhausting. All this chasing money is a brain drain. Eventually, money burns you out. Except the doctor can’t diagnose your problem. You go to the doctor and they give you pills or ask about your sleep.
There is nothing on the doc’s menu about burnout related to money stress. You know the reason but you can’t tell the doc that. It’s embarrassing. How are you going to pay for the doctor's appointment anyway? Suddenly, more stress.
The worst is when a small problem occurs—an unexpected cost. The body corporate looking after your apartment needs money to fix the roof. It’s going to cost $2000. You don’t have it. You never have that much excess money left over.
You lash out in a meeting with the other residents. “I can’t afford this.” Then you start getting really angry. You drop swear words. Even in non-financial situations like driving, you’re angry. Someone cuts you off and there is anger. Life is full of rage when money is forced to be your main focus.
I lived like this for years. Many of these examples are from my own life.
This is what happens when you’ve finally had enough
The day arrives. You decide to stop living like a slave and master money.
It starts with the inputs. What books are you reading? Can you go to the library and borrow a few? What are you listening to when doing the dishes or catching public transport or driving? These situations are called “no extra time.” You can replace time you spend doing everyday things with learning. Learning opens your mind to new ideas. There isn’t one way to make money that will fix all of your problems overnight.
Mastering money and becoming financially free is a process. The day you decide to start that process is when everything changes. Even though it won’t get better straight away, you’ll feel better. Why? Because you’re doing something about the problem and taking tiny steps. Progress feels incredible even if you haven’t achieved the goal yet.
Another part of the process is auditing who you spend time with. If you have a bunch of “life isn’t fair” folks in your inner circle it’s hard to escape the slave life. As soon as you take action the people who are also trapped by money will get angry. Why? You’re talking about getting out of it. They’re stuck in it. They haven’t decided. They haven’t used courage to escape like you have. So, they want to drag you down so they can feel better. Critics of your decisions are annoyed because they refuse to be responsible.
As hard as it is you have to get around new people. New people equals new possibilities. These people are within your reach. They hide out on Twitter, in Facebook/WhatsApp Groups and at local meetups in your area. Once you decide it becomes a task to actively find people who are moving away from binging on money and debt, and towards people who understand money and wish to use it for good.
The point is to open your mind once you decide enough is enough.
Ditch the slave life like this
Get a proper financial education and understand the nuances of money. The cost of your lifestyle takes away all your money when your financial education lacks. Personal finance education teaches you to pay yourself first. Put money away for a rainy day before you spend any of it.
Look at debt like a lunatic. Pay off debt. Repayments on debt require you to keep the main income source going. This means you can’t afford a gap in income or to lose your job. So, you’re trapped. The less debt you have the more options you have at your disposal. You can take time off from earning money to rest or figure out what’s next. If you get a new boss and they suck then you can quietly quit and wait on the sidelines for the next opportunity.
Fall in love with Youtube. People often tell me they don’t know how to change their financial situation. Youtube is full of answers and it’s free. You don’t need to spend a dollar to learn about money.
Search out real online courses. I recently did a bunch of courses focused on mastering Twitter. Most of them cost peanuts and a few of them were free. (I even have a whole library of free courses you can do that will help you get past this slave stage of life.)
Dare to entertain the naughty phrase “side hustle.” In other words, make money online. Start producing content. Freelance for a well-known marketplace using your 9-5 skills. Send sales emails on LinkedIn to businesses that need your services. Master one social media app and then charge time-poor people to look after their accounts. A side hustle is simply a second source of income. Make your first $20 from one place other than your job and it will completely shift your perspective.
The slave life is letting money determine what you can and can’t do. There is another way. It starts with finally having enough. Then, open-mindedness will lead you to opportunities.
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