Raise your hand if you think adulting is challenging!
When it comes to adulting, the first word that comes to my mind is taxes, law, regulation and bills. Most people probably just winging it and not overthinking about those words that came to my mind. I don’t think most people would care about law and regulations. Heck, even 90% of the people in my circle don’t even pay their taxes. Since I am a human with a lot of contradictions, despite my beliefs, I still pay taxes. It’s funny but if that means I could unlock a few privileges as a good tax payer citizen, why not? I talked about this before so I am skipping over it.
Welcome to my brain dump, it’s morning and when I am able to sit down, sipping a cup of coffee while contemplating about life and emptying it out a little.
To me, adulting is challenging when you have to deal with different forms of taxes by yourself, understanding how regulation and law works, and also paying bills. One thing that I recently discovered is something called “premature” adulting. It’s just a term I made up after thinking about how my young cousin despite his financial situation is now responsible for a human being.
My cousin is only 20 but he’s already a father to a baby girl. While he has a job and is doing fairly well, I can’t fathom that at that age, he has to pay bills not only for himself but also the baby. When I was his age, I was drinking somewhere and didn’t care a thing about having a family. And now, my cousin at that age, suddenly has to be responsible to pay rent and all of his little family necessities. I don’t know but in this economy, that seems to be tough. But I guess, he was the type who matured a little early compared to me or his older brother.
I mean, I still struggle paying my own bills and the thought of adding kids into the picture is almost impossible. However, we have a saying over where I am from that having kids will motivate you to do anything. Well, just like doing some type of crime is in the picture too (I watched way too much criminal case news). I hope he won't do that haha.
When adulting, the #1 priority is basically tracking expenses. I think that this life skill has to be taught at school but unfortunately, nobody ever tells us about this. Some of us might learn it the hard way, some of us might learn it in some type of education or from online resources. I had to learn mine a long time ago from books and stuff. As much as I tried keeping mine on track, I never had the system/template that sticks with me until I was using this. I found this template over excel and have been using it. It looks pretty sleek and simple to my brain. Unfortunately, there were bits I didn’t like and I had to customize it to my liking.
As I grow older, I also start caring more about law and regulations. I mean, while in the past I did care, these days I care even more about it because you never know in any case you’re encountering a kevin/karen in your life who attempts to trip you over. Shit happens so learning about how law works is definitely a big help.
Another part of adulting that I find challenging is kissing people’s ass to network. I mean, figuratively. Having a wide array of connections is helpful. Especially living in a third world tier country where “who you know” matters, it helps. I was quite apathetic about it but when I knew the power of knowing somebody could help us out of trouble, I started making a little effort to keep in touch with people/family I know.
I am pretty low maintenance as a friend, at least that’s what my friend told me. I don’t mind if they don’t text me for days and when they decide to hang out again, I’d be down. Besides, I have some type of aversion to prolonged human exposure.
Don’t get me wrong, I like people and I like being out there.
It’s just I have a super limited battery dealing with people and their small talks. It bores the hell out of me when the conversation is going to be repeated all over again. I guess it’s why I tend to bring some type of intriguing topic into the conversation, naturally I steer it to the point where we all question our existence or sometimes odd things in our life, like mysticism or spiritual stuff. Or I ask a good question that allows my friend to share their knowledge and experience. I love listening to stories and fascinating parts of their life rather than the boring part of it.
Now, let’s talk a bit about coffee...
The other day I got this coffee from a cafe that I frequent. They even gave me a membership card and remembered my name. I love this place because I go there almost everyday. Unfortunately, since I didn’t want to go outside for a little while, I decided to get their ground beans. I chose this cosmos thingy. I’ve been eyeing it for a while now and it actually tastes pretty good. If you think coffee is bitter, brewing it with v60 would change the way you see/describe coffee taste. There are other flavors with just one descriptor “bitter”. Okay so after getting this bean and promised myself not to go outside, my friend suddenly asked if I wanted to do WFC and I obliged haha.
Since my dad also needs his medication and supplies stocked, I made sure to also go out for the coffee. Otherwise, it’d be a waste to just go out and only visit the drugstore. After the drugstore, I went to get my caffeine with a friend of mine. I told him how tired I was seeing humans and I was talking it out loud haha. But I made sure to get the message across to my friend that I don’t want to be bothered for at least a few weeks and wanted to be inside the house as long as I could. Also, no more WFC.
It was the same when my mom asked me to see my niece. I said no and usually I would yield but because I need to conserve my energy, I firmly said no. I felt a lot better about it because after all, my patience is pretty low and some people who are close to me already mentioned I look and behave like I am extremely irritable. So, that’s all.
I am also easing my way into checking hive again after a bit of hiatus and sparsely checking this space out. I don’t know what’s new or the trends but I love reading comedic bits from blanchy like this one. It keeps me on the loop about what’s going on in a funnier way.
I guess that’s all. See you around and next morning!
 | 𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰. |
Having a child definitely makes one do anything I have seen many of my friends change after their first child. And the change has always been for the better.
In fact, couple years ago an elder co worker, while reasoning together said that most females don't get "much common sense" until after their first child or after reaching 30yo. I had to shake my head in agreement of his profound musing.
With that said i guess you are one of the few. Lol
Anyway adulting is hard. In Jamaica only self-employed and business owners are required to file and pay taxes personally. Employees get their taxes paid on their behalf by their employer.
The high bills and rising cost of transport and food are the worries of most jamaican working adults. Including myself.
Yes! that's probably why having a child can be a gateway to a character development. With female, it can be the same way too, parenthood definitely has such a profound effect on someone's life.
That's actually nice because over here, even if you work for business, you still have to report for personal taxes and personal income gain. It sucks haha but it is what it is. I think price hikes are happening everywhere and it's starting to get to us with wages aren't increasing at all. Honestly, the best business to get into has always been something that has to do with basic needs :D, that's something to think about but maybe later.
Anyway, thanks for checking this out!
I really love your morning musings and reading it silently especially if it the title hooked me.
Adulting is hard!!! Good thing is I don't have to think about taxes right now, I am the same age of your cousin and would say that I don't have to deal with the same as him. Anyway, despite not paying taxes (at my age) it is really interesting to learn how it works.
Thank you! and thank you for commenting too because I know,it takes energy to do so :D. I think a lot throughout the day and sometimes for things that shouldn't be inside my brain.So, instead of having them bottled up, why not share it to the world? I don't know what's the worse case but so far, I've learned a lot and heard other experiences which is a good thing.
I think when you're still in early 20, it's best to learn about how taxation works. It might come handy down the line. I didn't think through about it before and now I have to re-learn everything from 0. While a lot of people might be compelled not to pay their taxes, see if there's benefit that you'll have as a tax payer in your area/country. If there are benefits to it, why not?
My cousin is quite an odd case haha but I am sure many are like him too where they become parents a little too early. It's almost like the story I've watched over k-drama haha
I think you treat Hive as your online diary and that helps a lot. Instead of overthinking, why not share it and earn from it? Haha.
Yep! Taxation is an interesting topic, or maybe I am the only one who's interested about it.
It is a fact that life changes a lot after marriage, especially when children are born, there is hardly any time to talk to old friends.
There's that case too!
It’s a difficult time overall for sure and it’s getting harder. We know that some things get easier because of technology but we also have to keep up with the latest things particularly for work so it’s a whirlwind for sure. Adding having kids on top of that, it’s tricky! I enjoy it for sure though and wouldn’t have it any other way. We deal with these things to make improvements in our childrens lives, so that’s how I can get the drive to manage it!