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| Translation: Is there anything left in your salary? |
Payday usually happens on the 15th and the end of the month or gets adjusted if the 15th and month-end are weekends. I was thinking about how people tend to think about their paychecks. I'm just reminded of how payday tends to be associated with one thing--blowouts. I remembered writing about how poor priorities create the financial woe trap. This time, I decided to focus on writing the problem of blowout day on payday. It's a common problem that's keeping some Filipinos from improving their lives.
There's nothing wrong with having a blowout. However, it should always be treated as it is--a want. You had your paycheck? That's just the beginning of your income. You will need to start to think about expenses depending on what they are. These are the needs such as groceries, electricity bills, water bills, rental fees, etc. These bills should always come first if one expects to be able to have money to enjoy.
I think it's a problem how people think the revenue is the profit. Revenue is the sales for the day. The net profit is when revenue is deducted from all expenses. In the case of some workers, not everyone will be paying taxes under the TRAIN law. What they need to think about is paycheck should enter into savings. It would be paycheck minus expenses. It would be to see how much money is left after all necessary expenses are paid for. Yet, I observe that such a mentality is almost absent in the Philippines. Then, some of them even start to blame capitalism even if they were paid more than the minimum. Capitalism isn't to blame that they chose to overspend.
What happens next is rather tragic. Ran out of money on payday? Well, the "solution" is to borrow more money to get trapped in more debt. It's hardly a solution to borrow money from illicit sources such as five-six lenders. They get the money and what do they do after they ran out of money for payday blowout? I guess they'd probably be buying cryptocurrency (in hopes of getting rich fast) or even gambling. That's why I even wrote about the irony of turning down investments while having a gambling addiction. I bet some of them may have even pulled out of AXA to play Axie Infinity. The news of Axie Infinity's crash is a lesson yet some people still believe such scams. I think it's because they want to get rich quick instead of getting rich right.
Here's something to think about--so what if one becomes a "killjoy" for not participating in blowout on payday? That person, for all we know, must be raising children and paying fees. Paying of necessary fees is way more important than a blowout on payday. Nothing is wrong with having a blowout. Just make sure that one can afford the restaurant, that bills are paid, and as said, treat it as a want and not as a need.