Growing up as a child, at a time when my country’s currency still had so much value, I held the belief that one million naira was all I needed to be financially free. As I grew, the bar grew higher, and 10 million naira seemed like so much money to me. But with how fast the economy is rising today, having a 100 million naira to your name, doesn’t mean you’ll be financially free. Only exception being that you invest the money into something that gets you returns.
When I came across the prompt, I remembered this saying that lives rent free in my head - ‘problems adapt to situations’. I don’t remember who authored it, or where I read it, but it’s stuck with me ever since. Let me explain it practically. Now, take for instance, someone who was earning 200thousand naira monthly, in the previous year. His salary has been upgraded to 800 thousand naira this year. He would of course begin to make decisions to upgrade his lifestyle - Move to a bigger house, save to buy a car, get a generator and so on. You’d see that his problem would no longer be the price of 1 pint of rice (about 3kg) in the market, but the price of a bag.
With the rising rate of the economy, when he adapts to his new lifestyle, you’d see that that money which is way above his former income bracket, no longer foots all his bills. His problems have been upgraded to higher ones - electricity bills have become higher, thanks to the new appliances/gadgets, security fees have increased, probably due to the quality of his environment and whatever, The cost of feeding has increased, thanks to the quality of the food he now eats and the price of food in the market. The same income that once seemed like a breakthrough, now begins to seem less.
You have this certain amount of money at the time, it works for you and all of a sudden, you’re needing more. Why? That’s because your problems are beginning to fit into your income bracket. They are adapting to your financial status and no matter how much I think of it, there’s no particular amount I can clearly state that would have me stop worrying about finances. Having twenty thousand dollars, which is equivalent to thirty million naira, in my possession right now, might seem like a breakthrough at the moment but how about in the next two years? Would it be enough to still live comfortably? No. Its value would have depreciated.
So, just like one million seemed so huge an amount when I was younger, and now, it isn’t even enough to buy a car, that might be how naira continues to depreciate in the future. There isn’t a definite amount that would have me unbothered about finances at the moment because even if I get an insane amount right now, and invest as I want to, I would still continue to make moves to ensure my financial freedom in the future is secured.
How much How much money do you actually need to stop worrying about finances and live freely?
I just shared my thoughts on this prompts. Feel free to share yours.
Thanks for reading.
Image was generated using Gemini.