An ex-girlfriend used to tell me “the saving part is easy, I just don't get the investment part.” I told her then that she should continue saving and it will compound until she figures out investing. Be frugal by default and life is easier.

My wife has a spreadsheet where she calculates every single expenditure to the smallest detail. I keep telling her that she can do more to earn “new money” with “spare time” and she keeps telling me that doing what she loves at that time is more rewarding. I agree with her too.

You can't earn more if you aren't in the right state of mind to earn. I used to think long ago that being busy and seeking opportunities everywhere was the trick. I made a lot of money by doing that, I also lost it all. Three times in my life, I’ve gone to zero from the very top.

Why? Because when I was was earning a lot, I was also burning a lot. I would always justify the burn with the fact that I was making money and it was necessary. I have now learned in old age that it wasn't. Earning can slow down or stop abruptly. Burning cannot stop easily.

One very easy way to burn money is paying for staff you don't need. Do you really need that driver? That assistant? That permanent housekeeper? Another way is needless generosity to assuage your ego. That babe will still leave you or you will leave if it is all based on gifts.

Spending can make you feel good, no doubt. New things can make you happy. Spending can also wreck you if there is not more inflow and new things become old things very quickly.

When I discovered how much we were paying as taxes, I decided to spend more of it to live a little.

Why pay so much taxes when you can spend more of it on yourself first and at the same time help the economy? It was sound logic. A $3500 apartment, business class travel. They are all expenses to reduce the tax burden and also make you more functional until they become habits.

They were all justified and I enjoyed it all. I have no regrets. The only thing I regret was not looking for a way to achieve all of that while still growing. A mortgage payment is still an expense as the asset appreciates. Let each project pay for it's expensive travel or don't.

When my uncle moved from being a top bank executive with all the perks to being an entrepreneur, he struggled. I saw it firsthand. I still remember vividly the day we had 1000 Naira left at home in Benin City and used 500 Naira to order food. He wasn't daunted. We bought a bank.

My uncle is the most frugal person I know. I started doing his yearly budgets when I was 19. I know how much he budgeted for everything but what he didn't plan was to lose earnings abruptly while all of his savings were in assets he couldn't break easily. He was still very rich.

He just didn't have cash flow the day we were down to our last 1000 Naira. What saved us that day was that I also saved. I remembered he had sent me money while we were renovating the house in Benin. It was 30,000 Naira and we hadn't touched it as we spent frugally on the house.

That 30,000 became the seed for buying a bank and a telco. He didn't need to sell any house or land. Those assets kept appreciating. I learned a lesson from that but I still went to zero myself three times after. Each time, I was saved by others who saved money. I learned to save

The best thing you can do in uncertain conditions is to SAVE. This is why many took to crypto stablecoins from Africa. It was to hedge against local uncertainty. The key is to remain always functional while saving. Improving functionality doesn't mean breaking the piggy bank.

- Osaretin Victor Asemota (@Asemota)
https://twitter.com/asemota/status/1528667867021180930?s=20&t=6mdFCWB-2hLoySd6lzUzxg