I heard the most intriguing story this weekend that made me question the impact social media has on our finances.
Sade: I need a favor. Please can I borrow N200, 000? I’ll pay you back with interest in 2 months.
Tolu: What do you need the money for?
Sade: Remember the Celine bag (N484, 000) I bought in February? I borrowed some of the money from Ngozi. Now she’s hounding me everyday. I need the money to pay her back.
Tolu: Why did you buy the bag if you can’t afford it?
Sade: Abeg don’t insult me o! Who told you I can’t afford it? I saw Lara’s blue one on Instagram in December. We are the same age, we are both working. So what makes you think she can afford it and I can’t?
Tolu: Look at you! Be following Lara! Don’t you know she’s an ‘Aristo’ girl.
Something is wrong with this picture, no?
I am a self-confessed Instagram addict! It gets me through many boring activities, but unfortunately, it has become the source of emotional and financial distress for a lot of people.
Instagram is only a collection of snap shots that make up a small part of people’s lives. So don’t let someone’s Instagram reel confuse your financial reality; create your own financial lane and stay there. There’s no shame in living on your own terms and saying, I can’t afford this right now. Instead of speculating on how other people are making their money, focus on building your own assets to the point that you can sustainably afford the things you want.
Here are 3 tips to help you get started.
Treat Your Life Like It’s a Balance Sheet

Sade and Tolu monthly salary: N300,000 p/m each
BALANCE SHEET Sade Tolu
ASSETS
Land/property 0 5,000,000
Stock portfolio 0 2,000,000
Cash in bank 200,000 500,000
TOTAL ASSETS 200,000 7,500,000
LIABILITIES
Rent 1,000,000
Payment plan for electronics 50,000 300,000
School fees 300,000
Loans 400,000 400,000
TOTAL LIABILITIES 450,000 2,000,000
NET WORTH -250,000 5,500,000
For example Tolu and Sade earn the same monthly salary but Tolu has clearly made better financial decisions over the years. It is obvious that she has invested and saved towards growing her assets, which means that even though she has 4x Sade’s liabilities, her net worth is over 2x Sade’s.A common mistake many people make is to measure their financial success based on their salary instead of their net worth, which gives them a false sense of financial security.
It is important to clarify that although liabilities and expenses are both costs they are slightly different. Liabilities are obligations you have already committed to and MUST pay while expenses are a choice. i.e. Tolu has to pay her rent while Sade chose to borrow to buy a Celine bag. Note, that not all debt is bad debt. If she were incurring debt that is proportionate to her income to buy an asset that provides a passive income that would demonstrate some financial intelligence.


Unfortunately, like Sade many people with decent incomes end up with equally large expenses that do not allow them to save and grow their assets.
Establish your net worth and determine what needs to be done to increase its value: Define and set a goal to increase it by i.e 15% p.a.
Build Multiple Streams of Income

Increase your assets by finding creative ways to augment your income, find a ‘side hustle’. This could be anything from becoming a House of Tara representative, selling Forever Living products or investing 15% of your income in building an investment portfolio of stocks and fixed income products that will give a good return as well appreciate in value over time.
We are always looking for quick fixes, everybody wants to hit the big time but very few people want to work for it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to ‘blow’, but while you are waiting find avenues to create sustainable and consistent passive income, no matter how small because over time it makes a difference. In the words of Lil Wayne, ‘ slow money is better than no money’.
So while you are speculating on how many Aristos Ngozi had met..........

Source:https://graygist.com/2019/11/24/why-you-must-ignore-some-facebook-and-instagram-photos-a-true-life-story/

Social media depression.

Comparing your everyday life with the highlights of other people's lives, which has been cropped, photoshopped to death and filtered to eternity.

Live your life. Don't let social media ruin it for you. Do you, always.

This reminds me of my cousin who always post 'sharp' pics online with flashy cars.


Hehehe

dude don't even have a car.

On a serious note,i still wonder why people are intimidated by other people's pics.

Ok

I can never be intimidated by social media fake, low life personalities

When you set others as the standard, you have to live up to that standard. Teach yourself to be your own standard, be better than you were last year, improve yourself, weed out the 'baggage friends and family', unfollow some people, childhood friends or besties are not compulsory to live a fulfilled life. Do better, expect better, live better.