I am a young man who is not married. I have made some mistakes in how I use money and the resources I obtain. So, I have come to share this problem with everyone in the hope of finding help and changing the way I misuse money. I have a psychological memory from my upbringing that money is earned and should be spent as long as you keep earning. I see money as something that needs to be spent. If I see something I like or desire, I buy it without minding the cost as long as I really like it. Yep. Many years of self-employment with varying monthly income were like a blessing to me since I started designing and building websites. This little money made me a bit proud of myself and where I've come. I made a lot of friends, and whenever they asked me for anything, if I had the money in my possession, I'd disburse it to them. I was happy to receive praise that I was the best friend a person could ever have. I won't forget when I started going to clubs and spending money on luxurious clothes and booking rides from one city to another.
All of a sudden, everything changed. I lost one of my most loyal clients due to a car accident. I started getting fewer job opportunities. My monthly earnings were so low that I could hardly afford anything. All the friends I had left me, with only a few remaining. That's when I realized that I could do better. It's been over five months now, and things are still not completely okay for me. But I want to change and plan for myself.
The main reason I'm sharing this topic is to get your own opinions and advice so that I can do better. I believe it's because of poor financial management that I've fallen to this level. I've been doing things that I now realize were not the right things to do because I don't have any financial stability. Last week, I felt ashamed when people see how frustrated i am because I had bitten off more than I could chew. I'm open to opinions and helpful insights to start again, but this time in a more stable and responsible manner.
You literally bit more than you could chew my friend, by living a lifestyle far more than what you could afford over a long run, because one of the biggest mistake you made was that while planning for the known, you failed to plan for the unknown, and of today you now paying the price of living a lavished lifestyle trying to impress people who never cared about your well being.
So it's good to know that you finally discovered your mistake, and known who your true friends are during this period of hardship (i.e those who never ran away). And as such, I will like to advise that from today henceforth strive to inculcate the habit of savings the little you can afford too each time you earn a little sum of money, as you never can tell what could happen in the next few minutes.