Natural reasons for being economical with money

There are natural reasons why most of us Filipinos have a secured mindset when an idea of money comes to us in a form of an opportunity. Even if it comes from a financial agent or from any professional, we have these common reasons to defend our stand for being economical with money.

Fear. May it be from our own lesson or from other people’s experience of scam, we have this natural fear of losing our money. We are afraid to lose the fruit of our labor. Money is the most sensitive thing next to our reproductive system. We keep the money in our own for security until it is ready for losing. We never thought that we are no longer secured by inflation the moment we spend it even for reasonable purposes. We spend because we want to survive but the question is how long are we going to survive if we only know one purpose- spending?

Comfortable with daily living. Because of fear, we have this tendency of rejecting the idea of money already. Before it becomes an opportunity, we automatically close our chance to trust. Out of respect we, listen to an idea but deep inside we’ve made a conclusion that wherever this conversation goes, we’ll decline whatever proposal or offer made. We do reject because most of the time we are contented and comfortable with what we have, which is good. But are we still that comfortable when we grow old and slowly lose our capability to work? Are we really contented or just lying about our laziness and mediocrity?

Reasonable priorities. It’s not only about being contented and comfortable with our financial situation but we have reasons too. We got bills to pay and we have a lot of priorities to attend to. Therefore, things are enough for us and we don't want to add more hustle. But how long is enough for us? Is certain enough or maybe enough?

Don’t want to be rich: Yes, money could also not be a big factor. Becoming rich is like a fantasy movie, good to say but impossible to see. We are wired to live a poor life because that’s how we believe our blood marks us. The only thing possible for us to get rich is to marry a foreign guy, a rich woman, or to win a lotto game. We don’t want to be rich but how come in silence, we wish and pray to become one. Are we just pretending that we don’t like it or too humble to declare our dream because it sounds being ambitious?

Ignorance.  From fear, doubt, and rejection, we become negative most of the time because that’s our only defense to avoid failure. We are afraid to fail, but how come we fear something that we don’t clearly know yet. Are we truly afraid or have no idea about the thing we called money. The funny thing is we refuse to learn and we lie that we don’t have a single hour to learn about money. But we got the entire day just browsing social media or gossiping about someone else’s style.

We are just afraid of risk. We keep on saying that we are risk-takers but we only take action once we see the crystal clear. We keep on saying that experience is the best teacher but we got a lot of excuses to run away from new experiences to learn. We keep on saying that we trust God but we still want to be in full control of many things. The movie, Frozen, reminds us, “Let it go.”

Edmer John Caballes

Cebu City