I'm Sorry to say this but Personal Finance is HARD!
I know I regularly talk about how easy it is to do a bunch of things like save, invest, pay off debt, etc. But the honest truth is, it is HARD!
It is hard to choose to save when your friends are going out every week.
It is hard to choose to pay off your debt when you could go on a trip with your friends.
It is hard to choose to invest when your could just buy that new iPhone every year.
It is hard to choose to forgo buying a new clothes every season to match with the fashion trends.
It is hard to choose to work a side hustle after working your full time gig
It is hard to choose to study for an exam for a better job when you could just watch Netflix or YouTube.
It is hard to choose to sacrifice your free time in order to build a business that could but probably will not amount to much
It is hard to always have to say no to friends and loved-ones because you are in no position to celebrate them in their special way
It is hard to decide to downgrade your life so you can afford your life
It is hard not to sell out of all your investments, when the market is crashing and everything seems to be coming to an end
It is hard to choose to buy a house in an undesirable looking area because you have a goal in mind that others just do not understand.
Personal Finance is HARD!
Making the regular decisions to do things differently from the norm is HARD! Depending on the friends and family you have, it can be very isolating.
Which lead to one of my money rules:
Money is SIMPLE but HARD!
There is a tendency in our culture to downplay the difficulty of achieving a goal. I do it all the time.
Person 1: Bro how'd you get so fit.
Me: Oh I don't really do much. I just workout regularly.
Like what?!
No. It takes effort to get and stay in shape. You don't mistakenly become healthy. You make active decisions to take the steps to get healthy. But rather than speak to that, I tend to just give these overly humble answers. Why?
Part of the problem is the things we do seem natural and normal to us after years of practice. (This is why asking experts how they achieve certain things is sometimes a waste. They, themselves, don't know and can't fully explain it.) So we downplay how we reached our achievements and this is probably the worst thing for others trying to follow in our footsteps.
When we set things up to be easy when they are difficult. We set people up for disappointment. We create a delusional world where things magically work without us having to do much. This leads to people giving up when they don't see the results they expected. Or when things become difficult and hard to accomplish.
It is important that we give people an idea of what you had to do so they understand the road you traveled. This way they can make an active decision if it's the same road they want to travel as well. I'm not saying to scare people but be honest with them about what you faced. It is likely they never face the same problems. But at the very least if they do, they can at least be prepared for it ahead of time.
Remember the best time to buy a fire extinguisher is before your house is on fire.
Generosity>greed
New Life Slogan: Have Fun but don't Eff it up
God bless
✌🏾