I’m not one to take loans. As a matter of fact, I try my best to avoid it because if there is something that terrifies me the most, it is taking someone else’s money and being unable to pay it back. Be they individuals or companies, I’ve seen the lengths people have gone to just to take their money back, I’ve also seen the embarrassment and disrespect people have been forced to endure simply because they’re debtors. So, I try my best just to stay out of it.
For this reason, I make sure that I don’t spend above my means. I don’t even buy things on credit because I know that until I pay it off, my mind won’t rest. When a man needs money, he can be the humblest person and he can promise heaven and earth to whoever has the ability to provide it. However, once he gets the money and is now in a position to pay it back, it’s always hard for them. People will always find it hard to pay back what they owe even though it may be an amount that they can easily afford.
Someone might be balling in clubs, spending millions of naira every night, however, he would just refuse to give back the N10k that he owes his neighbor who helped him out when things were tight. This might seem silly, but believe me, it’s a very factual event and it happens more often than you would think.
So, does this mean that I’ve never taken a loan before? Not really, I also have my own experience with loans. Although, I’ve never taken loans from banks, not even when the loan apps became popular. The ease with which so many people got themselves into debt simply because the loan apps promised them easy money is just astounding. I missed out on that train. The last loan I took was actually a few years back when I bought this laptop I’m currently using to type out this post.
At the time, I was using my previous phone to work. I used it to make posts, I used it for my ghostwriting gigs, I used it for everything and it was frustrating. When I want to write a book, I have to first of all write it down on paper, before typing it word for word. It was also exhausting because thirty minutes in, my neck would be aching severely, my back would also be complaining and before long, I’d find myself yawning from exhaustion. It won’t matter if this is early in the morning.
It was affecting my work a lot and I knew that I desperately needed a laptop. However, I didn’t have enough money to cover it. Not even if I sold off all the tokens and coins I had in my wallet. Also, during that period I also had a job that was just too much for me to attempt on my phone. I needed to write a book of 35k words and there was no way I could do that on my phone, it would be filled with errors. I also didn’t want to borrow a laptop because let’s face it, what’s not yours isn’t yours. I didn’t want to write the work and the owner will decide to travel to Abuja the next day before I can copy it into my phone. So, I just gathered as much money as I could, but I was still short, I needed at least N30k if I was going to be serious about getting the laptop.
So, the loan came from three friends. Two of them gave me N5k each and the last one gave me N20k. They all had deadlines for the money because they also needed the money, and I promised to pay up at that time. During that period, I worked my butt off. I bought the laptop and did what I got it for; I worked! I made posts consistently on Hive, I also worked for clients. By the end of the first two weeks, I paid off the two people who gave me N5k each. Then I used the rest of the month to raise N20k. Paying that off made me broke but it was good because it also meant that I did not owe anyone anymore. I was free.
And since then, the laptop has been serving me faithfully. On this same laptop, I’ve been able to build myself to a certain standard; I’ve been able to put myself through school, put a roof over my head, put food in my belly, and clothes on my back. All on this laptop. And none of that would have been possible if I hadn’t taken that loan. So yeah, in my books, that will be a good loan.
Will I take a loan in the future? Yeah, I’ll do my due diligence first and make sure that it’s something that will bring me lots of benefits. I can take a loan to buy a laptop or a phone because I know that those devices will bring me way more money than the cost of that loan. However, I can’t take a loan to buy clothes or to pay rent, these things will only take from me and give me nothing in return.
So, in the end, I guess it all boils down to what we really want to do with the loan. That will determine if we should really go for it. It’s not that hard when you think about it.
