Going broke? Nah

sʜᴀʀᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴜs ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴏɪɴᴛ ᴀᴛ ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ʏᴏᴜ sᴀɪᴅ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜʀsᴇʟғ, "ɪ'ʟʟ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ʙᴇ ʙʀᴏᴋᴇ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ ɪɴ ᴍʏ ʟɪғᴇ, "

We’ve all had moments in our lives where certain things hit us and spur us to do better. I have had many of these moments in my life, worthy of note is an incident that occurred in my second year in college.

I will share a little story about my life before I dive right into answering the question.

I grew up in a not-so-wealthy family, but we were above average, and we were comfortable, I’m not part of the people that say they were born in the streets or gutters please I was born in an hospital. Being above average meant everything was in place for you, there was money enough to get by and still enough to spill over to cater for other things, we were privileged to enjoy some luxuries of life, and thanks to my aunt and uncle who also contributed to making sure we got exposed at a very young age.

Things went south when my dad got retired from his job. The government delayed paying his pension and every other money that came with the retirement package, I don’t know how things started getting bad bit by bit and before we knew it my dad started running into debt so when the delayed retirement package came in, it was used to settle most of these debts.
We moved from 100 to square one ASAP.

When all of these were happening, I was about to enter college so I didn’t feel it too much until I got to my second year in college, things became worse as the day went by, I’d call my father to send money for my allowance, and books and he would keep saying “my daughter next week, next week”. My father stopped picking up my calls and sometimes he turned off his phone so I couldn't reach him and ask for the money he was supposed to send because there was nothing he could do instantly; he would try to run around whilst going all MIA on me.

Funny, how my mates were lying to their parents about the increase in school fees, doubling every amount we were asked to pay in school and I was there looking for ways to reduce the money so my dad doesn’t panic or have a heart attack, I was able to foot some of my bills due to the little money I had in my savings but it still wasn’t enough.

So, this particular incident happened around the time when I had exhausted my savings. I was unable to buy a particular textbook and the lecturer told us categorically that the textbook was going to be used as our continuous assessment test and he was going to attach a higher mark to the continuous assessment test, so not buying it meant failing his course. I called and called my dad to send me the money but he kept on postponing and the book was expensive, my aunt who was my second option was also not financially buoyant at that time.

I took a leap of faith one day to beg the lecturer to reconsider but he didn’t budge instead he insulted me asking me where my parents were and how can the man I called my boyfriend not foot my bills, this man kept spewing rubbish and I kept taking all of them in, it was not what he said but how he said it and in the presence of the people he said it.

Mr. Sam was not kidding as he scored me zero and everyone else who couldn’t buy his book. I went home that day and Mr. Sam’s words kept on shooting multiple arrows at my heart, my heart was aching so bad, the humiliation, the pains, and the zero made it super worse, I went home, I cried, and forced myself to sleep. The next day I made a promise to myself and God that I was never gonna go broke, I can’t be broke to a point that my account would be squeaky clean, poverty was no man’s friend and I understood it that day.
The results came out and I had a D which was my first and last D and I was pained.

I didn’t just make the promise of not going broke and sat down to wait for any fairy godmother to use her wand to change my status, I knew I had to be my own fairy godmother, waving the wand to whatever I wanted in life and getting them if not instantly but eventually.
I thought of ways to make money and buying and selling wasn’t even an option as I suck at it then and even now.
I got my first side hustle courtesy of a lecturer that recommended me to tutor two kids who were to sit for a certain exam, at first, I thought it was just a minor job until I discovered my employer was a wealthy man and he did pay huge sums of money to tutor his nieces and that was where my breakthrough started.

The money I got from this side hustle was spent wisely as I was able to cater to some of my needs and invested some in a business, yes that was my first investment, and like that, I continued.

Ever since I started making money on my own, whenever I start to lazy around, I immediately remind myself that while I am lazing around my mates were cashing out, and where the instant energy to work harder comes from is baffling.

I have learned to appreciate myself every now and then. Whenever I buy something big or do something big like paying my rent or something that cost me, I try as much as possible to keep the receipt, these receipts are a constant reminder that I am a winner and I am not allowed to beg or borrow money from people to offset these bills and God has been faithful as things have been going smoothly for me.

Going broke again? Nah

_{All images are mine except otherwise stated.}

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XOXO