The "payday-to-payday syndrome," not everyone experiences it but everyone's aware of the problem. It's all about the money. It's like a smoldering rod that you can't hold it in your hand for long. Living from one payday to another. Waking up one day, asking oneself, "where did my money go?" The payday mentality lives you with very narrow breathing space for little surprises or unexpected expenses, worst it lives you with nothing. No back up. It's payday again, everyone rushes to the mall, dine out, shop, splurge, buy the must-haves, pay debts, pig-out,celebrate, drinking session, running to the nearest barstop, always rationalizing that one needs to treat oneself with something pretty or a fancy dinner - a motivatiion as others try to coat it sweelty.
Bottom line is - no savings. Again, living from payday-to-payday. I wouldn't say that I wasn't a victim of this. But as I mature and my responsibilities elevate, I learn to understand money more and gained an enormous knowledge about money matters.
Jerylle and I used to eat extravagantly on paydays. We rode cabs almost all the time. I reasoned that it was just a few peso difference from taking a jeepney, and way more convenient. I took cabs all the time. We started to be more conscious of our expenses. We've modified our behavior towards money. We're working on it. We take jeepneys now, that's a few peso savings. Cut down on fast-food outings.We still have our little celebrations every now and then, we learned to be cheap. We're reducing our expenses. We have budgeted withdrawals. Trying to stick with our allocated expenses. I don't underestimate a few peso savings now, it can amount to a few hundreds in a week and a thousand in a month. I'm looking money at a different angle. I still have to learn to bargain shop though.
I remembered Arneil telling me years ago how he saves his money. He sets aside his savings first and what's left is for his expenses. While most do it the other way around, income minus expenses equals savings. If you're left with nothing after you minus your expenses with your income,then you don't have anything to save, at times incurring debts.
I couldn't understand that logic when Arneil explained it to me before. But I clearly see his point now. I read an article about saving 5% of your income every month, if it's not feasible lower the percentage down. It can be a cost of dinner for two, a movie ticker or few trips to a fast food, that can be your savings.
Don't deprive yourself but don't splurge either. Well, it's payday again. The start of the payday-to-payday syndrome again. Spend wisely.
|
|
|
|
Contributor's Note
Payday Syndrome is an epedimic, it's excessively predominant among us.
|
|
|
|
|
