How To Use Money from Streams of Income

Greetings!!! Welcome back to my media space. We continue with our discussion on perspectives on wealth creation. I hope you are still enjoying every bit of it. Make sure to leave your response or a question by writing a comment or email me.

INTRODUCTION

Last time we discussed identifying streams of income. I hope it worked for you. You were able to choose on one or many to concentrate your energies on. Now that you’ve one or multiple streams of income, you need to take a step further and know how to deal with what is in the pipeline. My assumption is you own both the pipeline and the content flowing in it or you either own the pipeline or the content. Both are important and when you own any or both, the end is what you do with them. Let me explain a bit, when you own the pipeline and the content, you own the whole stream of your income say a telecom company and you develop solutions for your clients. You could also be employed to work in that company in that case you have own the content inform of your service you are hired to do. Otherwise you could be an owner of the telecom company but other people use it to showcase their innovations in which case they pay you as the owner of the pipeline.

BASIC RULES

The point is you are earning. There is a regular, sufficient, convenient and genuine income flowing into your bank account. How then do you identify appropriate projects and items to spend it one? As a basic rule a fifth of this income must always be reserved for future use. This is in lay terms savings. A further tenth must be reserved for charity giving and donations to the religious group you are affiliated to. With those deductions, it’s time to spend the rest.

CONSUMPTION FOR VALUE

To spend our money, you must begin from a perspective of wanting to gain maximum value for it. And so for the sake of this discussion, our assumption is that you will only spend your money only on objects that have value and nothing less. Sometimes we may not for real know for sure what we need to spend the three fifth parts of our income but we know what we don’t need to spend it on. From this starting point, we move from the unknown to the known.

Philosopher Baudrillard explains Consumption in the age of consumerism this way, “Consumption is a system of meaning. We assign value to ourselves and others based on the goods we purchase and how useful they are to us. One’s identity is now constructed by the clothes they wear, the vehicle they drive and music on their iPod. In short what you consume.”

CONSUMERISM AND IT'S DANGERS 

In consumerism spirit, the answer to why we live is to consume and the answer to how do we find happiness is to “acquire things”. Todays’ markets are full of products that lead people to be slaves of possessions and create restlessness inherent to consumerism that creates a perpetual need of new products.

Consumerism is the worst cause that came to deny people value for their money. The greedy merchants tangle the greedy consumers to believing that the more they increase quantities they buy for commodities, the more they gain economic benefits. This is far from the truth! More consumption does not necessarily lead to more satisfaction. Consumption does not always lead to happiness. If consumption of one more unit does not add more value, we should stop at the last number of units.

Empirical evidence show that consumerist attitudes are associated with consumer wellbeing: lower satisfaction with their life, a greater tendency to compulsive spending, higher incidences of depression and lower ethical standards. 

SUPERFICIAL GRATIFICATIONS

We must not be caught up in the pursuit of false or superficial gratifications at the expense of experiencing our personhood in an authentic way using our hard earned wealth. In this age we must no squander our wealth in the dignity of “biting what our mouths” cannot take. Advertisements in the market must not have us chasing anything and everything we don’t need. We must acquire because we need. Take this example, if I need one pair of shoe, why should I buy two. If in my house one set of TV is all we need for entertainment, why should I go ahead to acquire a home theater? If in my Office we will be wasting resources by hiring two secretaries when we need one.

We are not inferior if we fail to consume due quantity and quality. We must consume excellently for goods for our personal enjoyment. We must not be accustomed for minor luxuries available in the shops. The customer, we are made to believe is the king, and as a result the brands of merchandise that are displayed for us and for our experience in consumption share in our value system and identity.

PRODUCTION OR CONSUMPTION?

I want to sum by suggesting to you, not to be carried away by brands and experiences in music, books, t-shirts, conferences, jewelry or cookies. We must live out the values and ethics of spending with prudence. Don’t just use your income from your streams of expenses that aren’t justifiable. No luxuries, no entertainment. Use your money on production instead of for consumption. Grow your own food if you can, raise your own meat in your own livestock, build your own house if you can, clean your own house instead of hiring guys to do it, skip an intoxication party for the sake of staying with our own family sake, repair a broken tap, mend a torn trouser and invest in your talent or education. Remember what you manage you will give an account of.

In the next part in perspectives in wealth creation, we take one more step and take on golden reasons why we should become wealthy.

Have a reflective life. Make and grow wealthy. Would love to hear from you. drop a comment as a suggestion, question or complement. Remember to stay in touch with me at jeremiahwakamu@gmail.com or on Facebook Jeremiaho Wakamu to keep this discussion going. And again referrals though you social media network/connection and word of mouth is the best you can do for this blog.