Ebby Weyime | Actor, Model & Voice Artist

April 25, 2016

7 LESSONS LEARNT IN 2015 #1

by Ebby Weyime / Journal / 1 Comment

First things first. I feel like I need to apologize for not blogging the past few months. My laptop broke… or rather died on me. Was a mission getting a new one. Also, work blah…blah…blah…I hate making excuses, so let me leave this at that.

This post is a few months overdue but it’s something I really wanted to do. 2015 was a great year and with a great year comes great lessons :). I learnt quite a number of them, I’m gonna share them in a mini series of blogs.

MONEY

 

IT’S FLEETING

Back in high school I was very good at Business studies. So much so I got a got an A in my final year. I remember one topic I learnt was about the qualities of money. They were five. One of them was “money is fleeting”. I always got this answer right. Didn’t know what it meant but I sure did memorize it. At some point in 2015 I made so much money I thought to myself “wow! I may never have to work again in my life”. In retrospect, I couldn’t have been further from the truth. I kinda chuckle when I think of how naive I was. Needless to say, a few months later I was down to a few hundred dollars and I kept thinking to myself “how did this happen?”.

I had forgotten one very important quality of money. IT IS FLEETING, so, unless you are making more every single day you are depleting that account. No matter how much you’re making, you  must find a way to make more coz every day you live, you literally are spending money whether you notice it or not. It’s a vicious cycle I tell you. Which brings me to my next point.

COST OF LIVING

Once I was hanging out with my friend, her name is Sibo. I told her I wasn’t gonna leave the house for the next couple of days coz I wanted to not spend anything. She looked at me and said ‘That’s impossible, you will still spend something even if you lock yourself in the house”. Her argument was that even if I’m in the house, I’m still using electricity, water, eating the food in the fridge etc. All these things cost money. You will have to replace the food at some point and you will pay for the water and electricity at the end of the month. Immediately, something awoke in me for the first time. I had never looked at it that way. That’s the literal meaning of “cost of living”. Seriously, every single day you are alive you spend money. Whether directly or indirectly. I guess when they say ‘life is expensive’ it’s not just a saying… life IS expensive.

LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS

I can’t say anything U2 hasn’t already said… “WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE, YOU DON’T NEED IT NOW”

SAVE!!

If there is one thing my mom ALWAYS reminds me of every time we have a conversation is to save my money. My parents once told me if there was any regret they had in life it was the fact that they didn’t start saving early enough. They say they wouldn’t want that to happen to their children. I learnt in 2015 that there is always a small amount you can save. Doesn’t matter how little you make. The trick is to have it somewhere you can’t access or will cost you to access it. Have a few investment plans in place or a savings account. Organize a debit order with your bank so that a certain amount is taken off your account every month and put in another account or investment plan. This way, you are ‘forced’ to save. It’s like receiving your cheque with the tax already taken out. Think about it… You can’t spend money you don’t have in the first place! Start small if you have to. Even if it’s saving $50 a month. Every little bit counts. With time, it will become a habit, you won’t even miss that money coz technically it was never there in the first place. Also, think about it as a long term investment. Money you are gonna spend in the next five years or so. Finally, save toward a particular goal. Say, a holiday, car, house, retirement etc. If you have that in mind then it encourages you to save up.

IT’S NEVER THAT SERIOUS

I have been lucky to interact with people who have A LOT of money. I won’t call them billionaires coz they despise that word. They taught me that money is important but is really not everything. Make the money work for you and not the other way around; and when you finally join the billion dollar club (because you will), stay humble. Don’t let the money get into your head. Be generous with it. Taking a few dollars out to help your family, friend or even a stranger won’t make you poor. Really. It won’t.

Finally, I have made a lot of mistakes in the past regarding money but as long as I learn from them or mistakes made by others, I still think my billionaire dream is only a few years away from reality 🙂

Photo: Mark Wijsman

Disclaimerthis blog is proudly brought to you by the voice(s) in my head. It does not intend to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any personal issues. If symptoms persist, click  here

 

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  1. Jane

    April 25, 2016 Reply

    Nice ..enjoyed reading and relating to the message.

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