Living Beyond Your Means.

Written By Sivuyile Tshalana.

In this day and time certain people are mostly in competition about how they live their lives on a daily basis. Many people follow ridiculous trends on social media whereby certain people claim to have it all in life and they brag about their expensive lifestyles on social media. Celebrities and media as a whole influence many people into believing that if you are living a normal life then you are not great or you do not belong in the world they live in.

It is human nature to be attracted to what you see but thereafter it is the decision you take after you have seen everything with your eyes. Many people do not live for themselves, they just want to impress others, forgetting how that is going to impact their lives going forward. As soon as some people start working, even if it is just a part time job, they start chasing a lot of things that would not get them anywhere but deeply in debt continuously. Some people then forget the main reasons for getting an occupation which then affects their mentality towards money and how it should be used. Many people live beyond their means in terms of lifestyle as a whole. Certain people as soon as they get a job, they start opening numerous and unnecessary accounts, take huge loans from the banks or loan sharks, buy ridiculously expensive accessories, clothes, gadgets and cars. Then their expenses become more than their salaries which means they are in debts, while others become blacklisted because of poor payments made towards their debts. They buy all these things to show off to others on social media, and even their friends and to get appraisal from everyone around them. When people live beyond their means they automatically become mindless spenders, meaning every time they see money they think about shopping nor spending and nothing else. Even their families hardly benefit from people who live beyond their means, as most of them are selfish. They only want things that will belong to them and cannot really buy for their family members. These kind of people hardly save money, since they do not get to see their whole salaries in full because of the numbers of deductions by creditors that need their money. Living beyond your means is very dangerous, because it means you do not own what enters your bank and this does not only affect you but everyone else around you.

A lot of people need to stop living beyond their means, because it leads to unhappiness as you drown in debt and your life will be changed and you will feel drained for a long time. People need to stop impressing others and start focusing on their lives in terms of growth and investing in certain things that will take them forward in life. Investing in things like education which will be something that a person will cheer for life about and it can never be taken away from them. It is time to think wisely about our financial statuses. Your family cannot suffer, because of your irrational decisions you choose to make in life.