FREEDOM & BONDAGE

My quiet contemplations.

DISCLAIMER: The idea I share in this post might be wrong. It might just be that I’ve not made “enough money,” so it’s the lack that’s speaking. That could be very correct. Bear that in mind. Maybe if I had a billion dollars, none of this would matter.

With that out of the way, let’s get to Business.

Some people are making money and using it to build bigger mousetraps for themselves.

So instead of the money buying them freedom, it’s putting them in a bigger bondage.

How do they do this?

With every $1 they make, they increase their standard of living by almost the same amount.

So while their income is increasing, their living cost are also going up.

At the end of the day, they’re at the same spot.

The best way to escape this rat race is to stop playing the status game.

Just stop trying to impress.

You’ll find out that many of the things you convinced yourself you wanted were born out of a desire to impress the world, and when you do things to impress, you’re not doing it for yourself.

You’re doing it for people who don’t care.

Don’t get trapped.

Don’t be swayed by social media.

There is no need to show that you have made more money.

There’s a baseline standard of living that you should get to, after that, most things are Showmanship.

You’re trying to impress people, and that is a losing game.

You ain’t gonna win!

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

The trap is that once you upgrade your lifestyle, you now have to maintain it.

That’s a new expense added that didn’t exist a while ago.

One way to control this urge is to ask yourself these questions.

1. If I can’t post this on Social media/can’t tell anyone about it, would I still want to own it?

2. Whose idea is it to get this? Social media? Influencer? Advert? Is this really my idea? Is it something I want to get or am I being influenced to get?

3. What if I couldn’t afford this, would I die? How much would not having it affect me?

When you pass your desires through these queries, you’ll quickly realize that the thing you want to spend on isn’t worth it.

You don’t need to live in the most expensive neighborhood to live comfortably.

You don’t need to eat out every single time.

If your excuse is lack of time, then congratulations, you’re still a slave.

Your million-dollar-paying “job” has become a prison for you.

You don’t need to ride the most expensive car to enjoy the best of automobiles, after all, it is the status symbol of being “1 out of 4” to own this rare car they’re selling..

Mehhh.

I mean, who cares?

True Wealth is freedom, and Freedom is the ability to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it.

Freedom is having a house full of food.

Freedom is getting up one morning and deciding to travel to another city for a month, without needing anyone’s permission.

Freedom is saying NO to People and things you don’t like.

Freedom is owning cash and assets, not sports cars and wristwatches.

If you're not careful, the desire to look rich will rob you of the chance to become wealthy.

Sometimes you might feel that pull, that impulse to “show something,” especially as people assume success equals display.

That’s when you remember Chapter 9 of Morgan Housel’s Psychology of Money.

Wealth isn’t the things you see.

Resist the temptation to prove you’re winning, so you can win.

You’re not just building for attention, you’re building for freedom.

True wealth isn’t what people clap for.

It’s what gives you the right to walk away quietly when everyone else is clinging for survival.

Here is what you should do;

• Start tracking what you didn’t buy. That’s your real scoreboard.
  

• Don’t mix visibility with validation. Some of your biggest wins will never trend.
  

• Build in silence. Flex with control. Scale in peace. Let your life be your loudest proof, not your lifestyle.

Morgan Housel in Psychology of Money.

Wealth is in the unseen.

For the most part, I’ve tried so hard not to increase my standard of living even though I can well afford to.

I barely eat out.

I only do so when the circumstances aren’t favorable for cooking, e.g., when I have to meet a deadline, or when I’m in the flow state and don’t want to lose that flow.

I have no entertainment subscriptions.

If it is not a tool for work, I’m not subscribing.

The implication of this is that I don’t have Netflix, Spotify, Showmax, DSTV, Amazon Prime, etc.

I was perfectly fine when I couldn’t afford them, and I’ll be perfectly fine without them now that I can.

I have subscriptions for other stuff that make my work easier, e.g., ChatGPT Plus, Twitter Premium, Capcut Pro, etc.

I also don’t do Ubers unless I’m lost; if I know my way to a place, then I use public transport.

Skin-care-wise, the only upgrade I made was changing my bathing soap from a toilet soap to an actual bathing soap with a nice scent.

My body cream is almost like Vaseline jelly.

It has a nice candy-like scent, and it’s pretty inexpensive.

My perfume has been the same, but I try different scents from time to time.

Not all things have stayed the same, though.

There are two areas that I’ve continued to upgrade as I make more money:

1. Giving: As I make more money, I give more, especially to the things of God. My tithes, offerings, seeds, and support don’t remain the same. Sometimes I give more even before I start to make more. I also give to support people and projects that I believe in, not those I’m cajoled or coerced, or billed to. I don’t respond to Billing!

2. Education: I have continued to raise the bar in how much I spend in seeking knowledge. For each new level, I have to spend more on learning. I never want to wake up one day and find out that the world has left me behind in Knowledge. Books, Courses, Programs, I don’t think twice about spending on these.

I’m never scared of emptying my account for these two.

So while I’m ‘too poor’ to afford a N450/mo Spotify subscription, I’m ‘rich enough’ to afford a $200 Blockchain course.

Priorities, eh?

MY SUBMISSION

Once in a while lavish that money!

Enjoy yourself!

Go to that expensive restaurant.

Fly first class.

Book a jet even.

Tell yourself, “If I perish, I perish”!

After all, one day, you’ll be no more and all that money will become someone else’s to plunder.

Stay Safe Soldier.

‘Dubem

The First Principle god

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Ciao!