Socially Living Above One's Finances
I and some dear friends used to have a friend who traveled oversea in 2012, he was a kid I knew when I was very young. Before he traveled oversea, we had these expectations that he was going to go, come back some years later to take us along. But after about 5 years, we never heard anything, he never returned our texts again and never answered messages again.
I had a cousin too who went oversea to chase greener pastures and the money, one thing I never did was text him and the people who texted him after a few years confessed that he never replied anymore.
One thing I discovered with this pattern is that people who tend to leave the country in search of a better life always feel the need to show that they've made money or become rich over time.
This is always what's expected by folks back at home. It's difficult to explain to people that you never made any money because you couldn't get a job people see overseas as a place flowing with many opportunities and one only needs one big job to become very rich.
It's easy, one dollar equals 700 naira, Nigerian currency.
Back in the days, we had Nigerians who traveled to places like Canada and made top dollars, came back to the country, and bought properties, houses, and business establishments that set them up for life. The success of people who made money overseas back in the days has created an illusion that money was rather easy to make when one leaves the shores of the country.
The Social "Money" Illusion
This trend has continued, we have people on social media who keep creating this illusion that money is easy to be made outside Nigeria, you see them with astonishing pictures of the expensive lives they're living but it'll be difficult to also upload their pictures of when they're at work or the process of making that money.
One of the reasons why I never call any folk I have oversea is because two reasons. The first is that they're always thinking everyone that calls them is trying to beg for money, while their belief is seldom true, it's not always true.
Another thing is, I've come to understand that most of these people create an impression that they're financially buoyant and on the other hand, they also do not want people begging them for money.
This is a financial irony. Normally, we shy away from displaying wealth because we do not want to create public attraction. Sometimes when people understand how much a person is worth, everything changes. However, for some people overseas, it's different.
Updating their social lives online is one way to renew their relevance, spreading the fallacy that it's easy on the other side. Now, I am not saying it's not easy to make money in some really good countries, all I'm saying is, that some people parade themselves as successful business people, meanwhile, they're fraudsters and traffic drugs to make crazy money.
However, people who are legally making money sometimes shut out their family and friends because their presence might become a distraction to their ultimate goal.
Entitlement: A Dead End?
Making money is difficult, and it becomes entitlement when you think people should give you money because you think they're in a better financial position than you.
Lately, I've realized that almost everyone in life is living an aggrandized version of their true finance and this is because we do not like creating the impression that we're broke, even when we are.
Some of the pictures we put online often give a different idea of what our finances truly are, but one of the reasons we do this is because trying to look and stay good is a way to keep up the faith especially when we're struggling in our businesses and jobs. No one truly owes us anything, unless we're indebted to them through sheer responsibility.
Interested in some more of my works?
Keying Into Sophistication & Exposure To Forestall Economic Revolution
Money: The Learning Curve & Translational Process
What Makes A Job Opportunity Lucrative?
Shopping Online & The Illusion Of Buying Cheap Things
The Humanistic Approach Towards Scarcity & Competition
Spending & Accumulating: The Low & High Point Of The Crypto Seasons.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Even a promise is not a debt again o. Anybody wey promise you na prayer point o.
Fake life didn't start today, and it's sad how ingrained it has become.
Living within your means is a key financial discipline
Hahaha, anyone who promises you today, it's Only hope and prayer because the country is messed up. The way inflation is eating deep is something else, it's why I no longer feel entitled, in most situation I just feel hopeful.
Posted using LeoFinance Mobile
Congratulations @josediccus! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 34000 comments.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Mmmmm, you are really right about this , I have a uncle outside the country too,he doesn't respond to us anytime we chat him up, unless he has something important to say or do. When we have this notion that no one owes us anything, we concentrate more on ourself other than someone else's life
These people don't respond because their lives are all about how they'll make money to the core and they consider other things to be discrepancies. All in all, since I lost my mother recently, I've come to learn that no one owes anyone anything and I hope that everyone in life can have this mindset too.
Interesting post, and I beieve you are right. I believe that social media can be very detrimental to peoples morale, because everyone on social media is rich, beautiful hair, perfect body and not wworking hard, just working smart.
I believe many of these people are fraudsters, who portray success which they have not attained. I also believe they depress other people their same age, who have not achieved the fraudulent l;evel of success displayed.
I also dislike the charlatans who say they got rich working smarter not harder to sell their courses and newsletter, when in fact their wealth is false, their courses useless and their true profits are from those courses, which don't help people.
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Lies, fraud, misrepresentation, and those who believe it feel very inadequete or even feel like failures.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I find all these stuffs on Youtube ads. That you can make money very easily from selling courses and one just needs to pay a little amount of money to get trained and able to sell their own courses.
In my mind, I already know this is a lie. And in those videos they make a kind of hype that they became so rich because of what they do. And I believe it is true, they market stuff that is not useful, and pitiful people fall for their scam products.
They end up with no choice than to try the same pattern with others so they can recover whatever they may have lost.
I don't really talk to my friends that go overseas but I do talk to some of my family. However, it's less often and I generally don't bother them much. So I never really had that feeling. Money is tough and it's going to be a problem for most people in the world.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Bro this is very true. I have a very that travelled abroad and she doesn't really reply to messages even mine. And I think she thinks I message her to ask for money which is something I would never do.
Truth is, If I leave the country, I may likely reduce the way people contact me as well because of this same problem. There would be lots of entitlement mentality and if you don't give them what they want, they make end of spreading bad talks.
Yeah, the entitlement mentality is why people go abroad and never pick the calls of their friends and family. But this is absolutely wrong. I know we can be professional billers in Nigeria, but sometimes having these people lock out the people who are close to them is quite saddening, however we're not in their shoes and life can be somehow for them especially financially
Really sad. For me, I do have you and kay that understands most of how things are. Friends like you guys are golden are should always be kept in touch no matter one’s location on earth.
Yeah, sadly some people, when the relationship isn't beneficial for the time being, they just leave. People who build friendship and loyalty only when it's beneficial are losing and can never be depended on. That's why good relationships spans across, time location or money.
Content for today for you. Hahaha
https://twitter.com/shortsegments/status/1554024810706964481
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @shortsegments ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.