Some time ago, I could remember watching the film Heneral Luna which had a scene which some historians debate on. Some argue whether or not Heneral Tomas Mascardo left his post to court a woman both he and Heneral Antonio Luna fought for or did he do it to attend a fiesta in Arayat. Nothing is wrong with attending a feast per se. However, Mascardo should've attended to his post in Guagua instead of attending the fiesta in Arayat. The result behind withdrawing his forces wasn't good. Luna had every right to get mad at Mascardo's neglect. This would be a good illustration of how poor priorities may explain why you're in a pickle. In this case, I want to write this post about how one's poor priorities may explain why you're in a bad financial situation.
Watching that rather irritating scene from Heneral Luna reminds me of a lot of poor priorities. I think about how I got into a quarrel with people who are either relatives or schoolmates over poor priorities. Mascardo himself withdrew from the battle when he was needed. Such people today tend to withdraw from important stuff when they're needed. I could remember such people from my college days to the present. I could start evaluating common irritating ways people have poor priorities that lead to their financial woes:
- It's very typical for people to skip school when there's a town fiesta or family reunion. It gets me irritated how someone could demand his own children to ask for an excusable absent because it's a family affair. Schools have already made it inexcusable to attend a family party while it's excusable if someone is terminally ill or just recently died. Attending the birthday of a terminally ill relative is one thing. Attending the wedding of a friend or relative is another. Failure to do an important task because of a family event may mean re-enrolling in that certain subject and delaying graduation. Other poor people are eager to finish school so they can get a good job. Poor people who treat it like it's just a game will just be stuck in their predicament or end up like spoiled children of rich people who become poor.
- One of the AXA videos that I get watching at Metrobank Downtown is how many Filipinos have no life insurance or any insurance. It would be amazing how insurance is viewed as "useless" because it's "expensive". However, such people are wasting money that they could've invested in insurance in gambling where the risks outweigh the returns. Insurance companies invest in stocks that are manageable risk--that's why I tend to suggest getting a finance manager even if one has a basic hang in stock brokerage.
- Payday comes and things can be irritating to watch with how people treat the money they receive. I noticed how many people around me tend to prioritize giving blowouts on paydays than to deal with the needs. People living from paycheck to paycheck should think about paying their bills first instead of giving blowouts. Bills like rentals and utilities are more important than having a blowout. Yet, people tend to think payday is blowout day rather than thinking of how to save the money. Nothing wrong with a blowout. However, it's very wrong to have a blowout when you've got so much bills to pay. This may also explain why the Christmas season is so hectic and why people end up waiting for their bonuses and 13th month pay before they go Christmas shopping. Even worse, Christmas shopping happens in Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve is further burdened by another loan.
- The holiday seasons can be another. I guess Odette hitting the Visayas and Mindanao near Christmas should be a very painful lesson about priorities. Right now, some people (including myself) are repairing their homes and businesses. I kept thinking about how the holiday seasons tend to be celebrated rather lavishly. Some people who don't have much money even dare to celebrate lavishly while others with more money do. Now, if they wasted their money, they will probably have very little to no money to buy supplies to repair their houses. Having contingency savings is absolutely necessary especially if one's in business.
The idiocies I have mentioned would soon result in a lot of financial woes. I would like to give some examples of how debt upon debt is piled by poor priorities:
- Overstaying in school will create bad work habits in the future. I'm not saying academic success translates into future success in life. Some people get too drunk in past successes they fail to keep the values that allowed their academic success. A good example is how the late John Gokongwei was a valedictorian and kept the values that made him the valedictorian. Some people who did badly early on learn from their mistakes later in life. Some people, however, did badly early on and never learned from their mistakes. That's why it's one thing to do poorly in high school. It's another thing to waste opportunities for improvement in college. If one took more than the maximum amount of years to get a bachelor's degree--talk about the financial pains!
- In gambling, there's so much more guarantee you will lose than you will win. It's very different from the stock market where risks are managed. Companies engage in stocks in order to finance their operations. Companies gain money when people buy their stocks or a fraction of the corporation. These losses pile up and the winners are going to ask for the money from the losers. This is why gambling debts pile up. Gamblers get gambling debts and foolishly borrow money from loan sharks to pay that debt. They paid the gambling debt but how are they going to pay for the debt from the loan shark? The most "practical solution" (and I'm being sarcastic) is to borrow some more until one gets into a real financial dead end.
- Prioritizing blowouts during paydays is really absurd. Sure, it's not bad per se but if it's a whole bunch of friends and you pay for all of it? Now, that's just absurd in contrast if people decided to (1) agree to share equally, and (2) avoid an expensive place. It would be like going to Jollibee vs. going to a fancy restaurant. If one wastes all the money in blowout every month--a lot of stuff like rent and bills may get unpaid. The lessor will have every right to kick that person out. The utility service provider will have every right to disconnect the service. It's because how can they keep providing the service if they don't have the money to maintain it?
- The holidays can be a typical scenario. No money for Christmas? Get a loan even if it's from a loan shark. No money for New Year? Get a loan even if it's from a loan shark. December is indeed a very disaster-prone season (and Odette hit during December) which is why I don't like the Christmas and New Year seasons. The year-end to the year-beginning is spelled by even more debt after debt after debt due to mismanagement. May I mention how drunkenness and firecracker injuries may have killed more people in December than a storm during December ever will?
Such attitudes would also explain why they're so easily absorbed by either Get Rich Quick schemes, orchestrate one, or even join socialist or communist groups. It's typical that they even look for someone to blame even if the rich person they blame is a good person. For them, they still feel that people owe them a living when it's they who owe the productive population a living. The only people who should be on welfare are those who are getting too weak or too old to work. Then again, some old people are still pretty useful by offering life advice and teaching young people to build foundations. Meanwhile, some grow old and useless because of poor priorities.
It would be a good time to ask such people, "Do you ever wonder why your financial situation never improves?"
References
"5 Reasons Why Pinoys Overspend" by Faith Dayrit
"Charles Ponzi"
"How To Spot Get Rich Quick Schemes"
"In Ponzi We Trust" by Mary Darby (December 1998)
"Never Stop Learning: How Mr. John Stays Ahead of the Curve, Even at 92."