Today, a simple purchase of three lollipops for 0.15 dollars each made me reflect on a crucial and very important topic, not only for my personal life, but for all of us, and I hope you see this from a reflective point of life, because this is something real that happened to me today.
It is about (Saving), how a seemingly insignificant expense can accumulate and affect our financial situation in the long run, this is something that left me thinking, and I swear to god I was about to go back to return the three lollipops I had bought, hahahaha, but continue reading I will tell you more.....
Photo by Vova Kras - Edited in Photoshop CC
Table of contents for this article:
♦️ The power of small expenses.
♦️ Saving as a habit.
♦️ If you do this you Will be successful.
The Power of Small Expenses
It's easy to overlook those small daily expenses. A coffee here, a treat there, and before we know it, we've spent more than we imagined. But what happens when we multiply those expenses by 365 days a year? The answer is surprising and alarming at the same time.
I am from Venezuela, a young man of only 22 years old, who lives with his mother and my two brothers being me the oldest of them, our father does not live with us so I can say that a part of the responsibility of the household falls on me, daily expenses are something inevitable, because it is something that everywhere in the world and in every home has to be done, either to acquire food to consume that day, or some medicine or other things for the house or personal.
But sometimes we make unnecessary expenses with the pretext of (I deserve it), I have always seen many people and relatives who every weekend after finishing their work, go out to consume alcoholic beverages or other things, and say: I deserve it, that's why I'm working.
And that's what I did these days, during all this previous week I was very busy, a bit stressed with work and my mind was a bit overwhelmed by so many things, plus I wanted to keep my activity in HIVE and keep up with the top Cryptocurrency news, that led me to be a bit anxious, and as I had money in my hands, I told myself that word they use so much.
I deserve it.....
I admit that they were not so exaggerated expenses, but I have 4 days buying 3 lollipops, each one with a value of 0.15$ which would give a total of 0.45$ daily, which multiplying this by 4 days is 1.8$ spent in less than a week, I know it is a very small amount to be a significant expense, but it was there where I thought that these expenses although small, are cumulative, and adding this in the long term can be surprising.
If we take an estimate of expenses, we can say that, if I continue with these expenses of 3 lollipops every day, for 4 days a week, we can say that I am spending an approximate of 7.2$ per month, and multiplying that by 1 year would be an annual expense of 86.4$ Surprising right?
Maybe for many people in more developed countries or with better economy, they think that it is not a big expense, but here in Venezuela $86 is a significant amount for many, and among those I include myself, and that is where I think of those people who make nonsense expenses, every day and expenses that really do not deserve, how much money are they losing a year?
I have always been a person who thinks about the future, to save a little today so that in the future those savings can be multiplied by more money, to reach my adulthood with a good capital of money saved and be able to make profitable investments that can bear fruit to continue my life as a senior citizen in the comfort of my home without having to worry about the lack of money, that is my goal for the future, and this simple expense of 3 lollipops can change that future if we do not know how to control it.
Saving as a Habit
Saving is not just for high earners or financial experts. It's a habit we can all cultivate. Imagine if, instead of buying those three lollipops every day, I had put that money into a savings account or even cryptocurrencies. Over the course of a year, those pennies would turn into a significant sum.
All this would work somewhat similar to Compound Interest, if on a daily basis you save a small amount that may seem insignificant of only $0.48, every day you will have more and more, knowing what to do with that income, let's take into account some options like the HBD savings system that currently gives us an APR of 20% on the HIVE Blockchain network.
In countries like Venezuela, saving in national currency is not the best option, so I see cryptocurrencies as a great option, as a refuge to invest, save and multiply your money, it is just a matter of knowing what to do with your money and not misspend it in unnecessary things.
If you do this you will be successful.
Taking into account all that I have mentioned above, we can say that we can control these expenses, I am not saying that we should limit ourselves to our tastes or daily needs, but I am saying that you should learn to prioritize your expenses.
♦️ Think about spending only what you need, do not buy things that in the end you will not use or that are not needed in your home, or that you do not need yourself.
♦️ Learn to prioritize the expenses you make, and leave in the background the things that do not deserve much importance, then evaluate that possible expense and think: Do I really need it, and why?
♦️ Think about that, if you stop buying 3 lollipops every day, at the end of the year you will have more than $80 saved that you can allocate to a more important expense.
♦️ The fact that you work and earn your own money, does not give you the freedom to squander that income, because you may have a lot of money today, but you do not know if tomorrow you will have that same amount and what you wasted the day before can help you, love yourself and do not waste that money that you have worked so hard to get.
♦️ And finally and most importantly, be responsible with your savings, do not be weak minded and in the middle of your savings plan spend your money on something insignificant or just to be hasty, unless the expense is something that really deserves it.
I will leave this article until here, I am not a user of telling many personal things, but this that today I share with you here I hope it will help you to reflect a little on things and what you do with those small expenses that in the long run can be catastrophic, thank you all for reaching the end of this article and I hope you have a happy start of the week.
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