The common slang among youths is, “I am broke and I need to hustle.” But there are certain factors that are likely to contribute to poverty in your 20s, no matter how much money you have access to.
Having money is one thing, it is another thing to be able to apply wisdom while using it. What are the likely reasons you could remain poor in your 20s?
Factors that can cause poverty in your 20s
1. Lack of self-control
When you cannot control your urges or your cravings for things when money comes into your hands, poverty is at the door.
Sometimes, you are at your most humble state when you don’t have, and in that state, you could make promises to yourself that you would not spend recklessly or squander your money. That phase of your life is always like a moment of truth for you. But what happens when you get to handle money in that state? You lose self-control, and start to satisfy your irrational cravings, including cravings that did not exist before.
2. Impulsive buying
What does impulsive buying mean? According to Laura McMullen, means purchasing something without planning to do so beforehand. You are likely to remain poor in your twenties if you constantly allow yourself to buy things at random without planning at all. This is not in anyway denying that these things happen sometimes, but if it happens that way too often, and has become a habit for you that it’s so hard to take your mind and eyes off random things that you didn’t plan to spend your money on, you are definitely going to aid poverty in your 20s.
3. Feigning an ostentatious lifestyle
When you are living a fake ostentatious lifestyle, it’s hard and would take a height of intentionality to snap out of it. This is another factor that is likely to aid poverty in your 20s. You are trying to join the bandwagon even when you don’t fit into their luxurious lifestyle. What do you do then? You spend too much to keep up with the lifestyle of people who can afford it.
And the easiest way to belong to this class of people is to lie, borrow money and valuables to keep up and repeat the process till you are neck-deep in debt.
If you spend a larger part of your 20s on impressing people, you are likely to aid poverty in that state.
4. You spend against your will
There are people all around you who pressure you into meeting their irrational needs even when it is not comfortable for you. Other times, they resort to cheap blackmail. These people are likely going to aid poverty in your 20s if you keep them close for too long.
5. You do not save or invest.
You spend all that you earn and leave nothing at all for the future. If you consume all the money or valuables that you earn or have access to, that’s a long way that could lead you to poverty in your 20s. Make it a habit to always leave something from your earnings for later use. Investment and savings should be incorporated into your lifestyle in your 20s.
6. You don’t plan your money
You do not plan money when it comes to your hand. When money comes into your hand, the first thing is to apportion it to fit into a plan that you’ve smartly put together. Leave out money for basic needs, spending, investment, saving, and other things that are important to you.
If you don’t plan your money, you will spend recklessly and end up not having your money anymore. This minute, you have money, and the next, it’s all gone.
7. Your background and lifestyle
If you come from a really poor background, you might not know how to manage your money. You might have grown up with the mentality that when you grow up and earn money, you will give yourself the life that you were not privileged to have as a child.
So you start buying things recklessly and you console yourself with the fact that you deserve to be that way because of the background you came from.
8. Lack of education
Some adults are not in any way educated about how to handle money, so they just try to figure things out on their own. The only thing they bank on is luck. And that is an easy way to aid poverty in your 20s.
9. The no-one-knows-tomorrow/ if-I-perish-I-perish mentality
If you have the if-I-perish-I-perish mentality, you would be accustomed to spending all you have in a day and expect things to happen or some sort of miracle to happen to bring money back into your life. If you ride for long on this mentality, you are likely to aid poverty all through your 20s. You’ll then discover in your 30s that you never gathered anything but you destroyed things with this mentality.
Above all, in your twenties, give yourself time to learn how to properly handle your finances. Be wise when it comes to money and handling your earnings or any money you have access to. If you can go to school to learn, why can’t you do the same when it comes to money?