Here I go again, struggling with a severe money management issue. One mistake takes me down through several more. Already facing the backslashes pretty badly.
Sadly, I got stuck in the loop of living from paycheck to paycheck. With Dhaka's horribly expensive living expenses, it's kinda hard for someone who is new to the job life. Like, the pay is way less than the standard; it's the fortune that we got hired as freshers, haha. The situation is like this. With years of experience, we may land on a decent-paying job, or life gets adjusted.
So, in my case, it's always like, the salary entered the account, I'm on my way to pay back the people from whom I took money when I was empty. Trust me, for the last couple of months, after burning all the savings, I've become like this. I feel ashamed, but still, what to do? I have people dependent on me, so I must. After paying back, I feel so empty that it becomes hard again.
Oh, shit, I started blabbering unnecessary stuff. So, the reason behind starting all this is to find the roots of this problem. One major reason is the lower salary than the expenses. Another is the fault in money management.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Lemme tell you one incident, in a month, even after receiving the salary, I didn't pay the home rent. Broke the amount and spent a little on another expense. Usually, what I used to do, first thing after receiving the salary, I would pay the home rent. And do whatever I want with the rest of the amount. So in that month, when I broke the amount, I started spending from there on and on, thinking I would manage the amount and pay the rent.
It became like the trap of credit cards; I started spending on many unnecessary things that could have been avoided. By the time I realized it was too late, I had spent almost 80% of the needed house rent. So I had to manage that amount somehow, and since that month, I'm on the back foot because each time I get the salary, I need to pay back the managed amounts from the previous month, and at the end, I'm left with inadequate house rent. And the loop continues. So one mistake of mine made me fall into a loop of hurdles, and now struggling hard to find a way out.
Hear me out, if I hadn’t broken that amount, paid the house rent on time, I might have spent less afterwards. Our psychology works differently, right? Like, back then, I had some cash sitting in my pocket, there wasn’t any level, so I kept spending. What if I didn't have that amount of cash? Maybe I would have managed, but for how many? Only for the extremely needed stuff, not on something that could have been easily avoided.
So yeah, this is it, we should never break the healthy cycle, and spend money based on the priority list.
I think the thing is find a side hustle or side gig to augment your income.
This happens a lot and it's nothing to be ashamed of. I own a business and it hasn't been rosy.
In debt to the tune of over $25,000 so most of the profits go into debt servicing.
A second income helps out