In my first article on money moves, I talked of being diligent since money stewardship needs diligence a lot. Today I would give you the second money move that is working for me a lot better and has helped out most of my clients since I started having these same conversations with them a year ago. The second move is to decide to deal with debt. Just to be clear for my Christian brethren, God’s word does not say that debt is a sin, the bible however cautions us to be careful with debt, it doesn’t command us to avoid debt. Use debt as a last resort, if you have to, get in and out as fast as you can. Money has a way of robbing you of your life and debt is the tool used. Proverbs 22:7, the holy scripture says “the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender”. This explains why we can’t talk ill of the Chinese in our own country, why we still negotiate our way out of a situation where a Chinese businessman administers corporal punishment to his employees for being late, why we open our skies to a country with the second wave of COVID but close it to neighbors whom we know can still get in through our porous borders! Its modern-day slavery.

Dealing with debt means you are freeing yourselves from bondage. Debt makes one hold back, it’s that stubborn bee that keeps following you everywhere. There is no easy way out of debt. I am losing friends because of their ability to pay back. I have had countless conversations with people who feel stuck in debt, I am personally going through the same path so I totally understand when someone decides to ignore debts, though it keeps knocking every time you receive an income just to make you feel guilty enough not to enjoy spending the little you have. I get a chance to talk to people who tell me they are motivated to get out of debt but looking at their budget, there is no extra money to payout, so we sync up over a cup of coffee and together we study their income and expenses. The devil is in the details, on expenses, there are a number of impulse purchases that were made, these were “wants” and not “needs”. We then reach the conclusion that they have to eat out less, snack less and before they know it, they feel the hefty debt burden gone. Food budget cuts however cannot help you free yourselves financially, my biggest options are Housing, Transportation and Income.

Housing; in my first article I talked of building your own space, this could take time and would need extra finances right! But have you thought of moving to a smaller space, you live in a 30K apartment yet in the same neighborhood there is a 25K apartment, probably what it lacks is WIFI which your mobile provider can provide. You might live off the idea of not being able to stream movies, but three days after its premiere, you can get the same movie at 50 bob in any movie shop in your neighborhood. Also, think of moving back home if necessary, your cottage sees you in December yet the apartment is 30 minutes away, imagine the savings!  What if finding a roommate helps? that’s like half the bill. Behave like Nigerians in Nairobi (if you know what I mean), I know that there is the pressure of dealing with roommates, sharing amenities, deciding who cooks and who washes the dishes, etc. but as a life coach, I assure you singles, roommates make you better. The good thing about dealing with roommates, it makes you a better spouse one day, coz marriage is primarily a roommate situation, a lot of chores and making sure that everybody is living together just fine. Trust me, its worthy!

Transportation, Cars. Oh my God, we all need to be seen driving auto motives, the society judges us if we sell the asset to offset a loan, a car to me demands more than an average employee, it never an asset. I know little about a car since I know little but the little knowledge I gathered is that manufacturers always make other cars too, not just SUVs, Subaru’s. You will just be fine in Porte or Passo if all you need was to move, downgrade your transportation needs, you will be surprised the extra fuel money is able to clear debts with less stress.

Income is not an expense but could be a problem you might want to consider when making debt payment decisions. A lot of times we think we have an expense problem, but sometimes all I see when trying to help out is that the expense’s check out okay, no room for substitution. This means you need to think of your extra time differently, how is your weekend for instance planned out, could you work out more to boost your income maybe? You use uber all week, why don’t you drive for uber over the weekend, for instance, add more to your income. I get to the capital city and try out uber at 5:30 am, Manguliech, is the driver who accepts my request, he drives to work every morning, but use this opportunity to get cash by dropping off people traveling on the same route. After work, he works for Uber from five before getting home for the 9 pm news, to him, he makes enough money to pay off his rent every month from Uber. Try these moves and let me know how it goes. I am still thinking of what I can do with my weekends. Watch out money move 3 will blow your mind…

© JMS 2020