BE MOTIVATED BY THE FEAR OF BEING AVERAGE

"The rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the average keep paying debts" Robert Kiyosaki, in his book titled "Rich dad poor dad"  one of the first motivational books I ever read and it spurred something within me that hasn't left me the same ever since . Many of us are quite familiar with the first part of this quotation, but
it's the second part that we seek to analyze today. I'd like to use the analogy of a pot on a gas burner, with the burner producing fire trying to heat up the pot, the fire represents bills and responsibilities the pot is you, the water being poured in, is the income and last but not least the extent to which the pot is hot determines how the various bills and responsibilities are felt by the individual , now for the poor man, the water entering the pot is little or non existent hence the body of the pot is literary on fire, while on the hand for the rich, the water being poured in, is so much and it's coming non stop so that despite the heat level of the fire being the same in all the different categories, the body of this particular pot is still relatively room temperature, then last but not least the the final scenario in our illustration is the average, now  the pot in this particular scenario is not on fire but neither is there enough water being added to make it room temperature cool, such is the life of the middle class, there's usually not enough coming in to offset the bill without them feeling the heat of these bills and responsibilities.          Today I've chosen to focus on the middle class/average because unlike the other two who are either running on a deficit or a surplus the average tends to give off an illusion of wealth and a state of comfort especially from a third party viewing it from the outside, because more often than not these illustrated pots are covered, so unless you come closer and feel it, you can't tell the temperature difference and so  also it is in a real world scenarios.
        The major problem with many families especially in Nigeria is that they don't even realize that they're in this dreaded category except for the father of course whose salary has been used up, 6 months ahead probably because of the car loan or that older child who is in a private school. Bottom line is, present income isn't settling current expenditures hence income must be drawn from the future and there are always banks who are more than willing to give you loan, because your indebtedness to them is an asset on their balance sheet which essentially means you'll yield profit by way of interest accrued on that taken loan and by the time the loan is paid up, responsibilities come around again then another loan is taken or the said father decides to take from the office cooperative, in the case where the earlier loan hasn't been paid up and with this the vicious circle continues. One would often wonder why would someone put himself in such a predicament well the answer is simple "keeping up with the Joneses" you see people are usually more concerned about who people think they're, than who they actually are. Sounds confusing, let me elaborate; a young Banker driving the latest vehicle, leaving in a nice apartment is seen as a big boy but little do we know that his take home salary monthly maybe thirty thousand after deducting all the deductibles due to his interesting lifestyle or that student that starches his cloth wears brogues and goes clubbing popping most of his monthly allowance in one night just to show his friends he's up to par the point is actually proven but is it worth the cost . This is not to say that this is how the middle class behave but it's the mentality that most of them adopt and most people don't realize that they're being drawn into this vicious circle of indebtedness until they're soaked neck deep within it .         
       As always there's no use highlighting a problem without also bringing out adequate steps to solve it, now the first step to getting out of this "Average"  situation, is this, be true to yourself or in other words "be real with yourself" that is, knowing where you financially, stand when you do that one can adequately, without bias, strategize and know the next step.           Secondly, don't strive to be "okay" or in local terms "I wan just dey alright" there's no such a thing either you're fighting off depreciation or you're striving for appreciation and in most cases people with the "Okay"  attitude find themselves in the former as our Lord said in the Holy Bible if you're neither hot or cold I'll spit you out of my mouth.            Last but not least turn down the heat, coming back to our analogy of the pot on the burner, with all the heat levels being equal the man who's pot is overflowing with water might decide to increase his burner level up to the point where the heat isn't felt much, you not being able to see what's inside or feel the temperature of the pot in question decide to increase yours as well. Reduce your expenses to the basic and most absolutely necessary, mind you I'm not one to advocate for austerity so if you must splurge on yourself which is necessary once in a while it should be done from the excess account and not at the expense of what's important.            In conclusion I want to bring to our minds one salient and most important point, if you're rocking designer gear and driving a camry and when it's the end of the month you start having headaches and your next door neighbor in his simple shirt and trousers who uses the public bus pays his bills with enough left over to save, my dear friend your next door neighbor is actually wealthier or richer than you, just so you know. So as you go through school and enter into the wider world we should try to stay motivated by the fear of being average, accumulating assets instead of liabilities.
   

                                                  EJALE VI