Pera-Normal Sightings Are Rooted on Financial Mismanagement
Today is Friday the 13th and I felt like writing this post. Also, Halloween is just around the corner. I found this from the Simple Sum website. The word pera-normal is a portmaneau of the word "pera" (money) and paranormal. There's always this savings jar is always empty or the bank fund is running out of money. It's because impulse buying seems to be the norm in the Philippines. The Philippines tend ot follow the US a lot. I even heard Filipinos tend to follow bad American spending habits too. A lot of Americans today are overspenders. The basic rule is to charge to your credit card what you can't afford. Instead, a lot of Americans are doing the reverse.
Whether we want to admit it or not, it's very tempting to overspend especially on payday or profit-sharing day. The money received hardly lasts on the hands of an extravagant person. Shouldn't it be a rule that if you live paycheck to paycheck not to splurge the paycheck? It's already payday. Instead of discussing about stuff like, "How can I pay for this and that?" The first thing that comes into the mind of people is the payday blowout (read here). It might be something like instead of buying groceries, paying bills (and there are many times, past due), and the like, they would put the non-essentials first. Aside from the payday blowout, there are people who would try to get the latest branded stuff (such as the latest iPhone), gambling (which is a very common problem), go to an expensive restaurant, or go on a trip (such as attending a barrio fiesta) without checking out the more important things first. Then they discover that after their happy times--they couldn't pay their bills. For some business associates, they end up screwing it over during profit sharing day.
It can be possible to have higher income without building wealth (read here). I remember some people are aiming for abroad. There are desires of students to want greener pastures abroad (read here). Back in high school, I wanted take Information Technology, never mind that mathematics wasn't my specialty, to go abroad. Some people were wanting to take nursing to, again, go abroad. Some people become OFWs not only because the Philippines lack job opportunities but to also get higher income opportunity. We end up having OFWs and sad to say, many OFW families end up remaining poor. Some people get higher salaries (ex. like from call centers) but end up mismanaging the money the moment they get it. It doesn't matter if one has a high salary if one mismanages the salary. It doesn't matter if one's business has good income if the income is mismanaged.
It can also be rooted on one mentality that I hate. It's the Visayan saying that says "Kung pait, butangi lang ug asukar." In English, it means "If it's bitter, just add sugar." That kind of mentality would just keep people poor (read here). The mismanagement can stem from the desire just to have a constant flow of sweet and ignore the bitter. If one must think about it, the real principle is that first the bitter before the sweet (read here). Sometimes, you need to take some bitter medicine in order to get well. Sometimes, parents need to discipline their children even if it hurts them more than it it will hurt the latter. You need to eat vegetbales no matter how bitter they may taste than to indulge in a high sugar diet. That mentality would only make things more bitter in the long run. A high sugar diet can lead to dangerous stuff like obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, tooth loss, and many other consequences of doing so.
It may also be when people become too helpful for their own good (read here). Nothing is wrong with donating to charity or helping others. However, being too helpful either to stroke one's ego or out of toxic relationships (read here) can drain money. It's one thing to offer help but another thing to recklessly help. Just imagine missing necessary payments like loans because one has been helping people at the cost of their own finances. If one runs out of money then how can one continue helping others? There's a big difference between charity and mendicancy. It's like how there's a difference between conditional cash transfer programs (such a 4Ps) and a destructive obsession with handouts (read here).
Even worse, some people even refuse to take responsibility for their finances. It's like people who have no priority over money blame the rich why they're poor (read here). It's like saying that it's the fault of richer ASEAN neighboring countries why the Philippines is poor (read here). How can anybody expect to improve their financial standing if they have the mentality that goes like, "My parents don't care even if it takes me 20 years to get my degree."? Universities only allow one year extension to finish the course. If I owned my own university, I would never allow people to overstay because that will compromise the quality of education that I provide. If they can't value time and money (and it's often a combination of habitual tardiness, procrastination, and overspending) then how can they expect to survive those pera-normal sightings?
