WHAT DO I DO? MY FINANCIAL PRUDENCE JUST SUFFERED A SETBACK

Hello,

Wealth preservation and transfer will be the final post on the taking control of your finances as a woman series. I have contacted a lady who is very passionate about wealth preservation and transfer; pray she guests here so there can be an exchange of knowledge.

It is important to state that every post in this series is very important if you are to take control of your finances. Please read all 10 of them if you haven’t done so.

Also, it is important to share these posts with friends and family so they can encourage you in this journey, join you if they will or just be available to discourage you from splurging. 

WHAT DO I DO? MY FINANCIAL PRUDENCE JUST SUFFERED A SETBACK.

If you have been with me on this journey of taking control of your finances, you will agree with me that it has led you to the place of financial prudence. I was glad to receive positive feedback from you especially concerning the ‘practical ways to get out of debt’ and ‘Savingsas a tool in taking control of your finances’. Thank you.

You may have been written out your expenses for the previous month, drawn a budget from there, and examined every item of your expenses and effected the desired changes but one or two months, even ten months down the line, your ‘financial control’ weakens and you splurge in a moment of indiscretion, What do you do after?

Do you?

(A) Fall out of the entire program

(B) Lose faith in yourself

(C) Beat yourself up about it

(D)Justify such expenditure

(E)  Re-plan your budget to fit in the splurge now and in the future

(F)  Call Pearl or Email me

(G)Have a ‘talk’ with yourself (think about what you have done), forgive yourself and plan for it not to happen again

Find the best thing to do after my splurge story.

MY SPLURGE STORY

My phone of almost two years suddenly stopped working and attempts to have it repaired proved impossible as my phones ‘engine’ (I believe they call it motherboard) stopped working. I had to make a swift decision on purchase. I needed something that could pass as a tablet, phone and power bank but as usual it had to be cost effective.

The options before me with the benefit of hindsight were:

(A) Buy a tablet worth around N25,000 and a ‘dumb’ phone of N2,000

(B) Buy a smart phone ranged N20,000 and N30,000 and a power bank worth between N1,000 and N3,000

(C) Listen to the marketers and go with their best offer

I chose to go with option C and ended up with a splurge of three times my ‘reasonable figure’. I beat myself up about it for a while then realized the fruitlessness of doing that. I asked myself why it happened and realized that:

1.     I did not plan for my phone to go bad irreparably and I assumed I could just solve the urgent need that arose without planning for it

2.     I did not budget a ‘do not exceed’ amount before leaving home

3.     The ‘come back later’ rule was not adhered to.

4.     I did not do any online research on phones to be able to identify what I needed or would get.

As a result I have decided to:

Work more to get my splurge back, adhere strictly to the ‘come back later rule’ and ‘do not exceed amount; finally, research and plan even in emergencies warranting an ‘out of budget’ expenditure.

So, to answer the what to do question above, while it is okay to call or email me, the best thing to do is option (G) Have a ‘talk’ with yourself (think about what you have done), forgive yourself and plan for it not to happen again.

PEARL