Your Money Or Your Life?

                

This is a popular saying whenever we encounter hoodlums who want to make out with our belongings, they point their weapons at you and then the phrase comes out YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE, most times people quickly give them what they want so that they can live, and the truth is that you probably made the right choice by obeying them. But is that phrase really correct. Your money or your life. Your money in literally term is your life, by giving it away you give out your life. Pause a bit and think with me

Let’s say you want to buy the new Samsung note 4 which is sold around 110,000 Naira, the real number cost of that phone is not 110,000, the real cost is how many days you will work to get that money, therefore the real cost is not in cash but in days therefore in hours or minutes or seconds if you decide to break it down further, then you see yourself reasoning like this;



How Much Is my Hour Worth

If you are like every normal employee you work 9 to 5 everyday, this would amount to 198 hours a month, and you are paid 50,000 (that is the perceived average income in Nigeria for graduates) this implies that you are paid 253 Naira per hour, every month.

                                  

The Shift

Once you've nailed down the rough value of each working hour, you can begin shifting away from thinking Naira to thinking life. You do this by calculating the life cost of all those things you wish you could buy.so back to our Samsung Note 4 which is worth 110,000 naira, if each hour you work is 253 naira then that phone will cost you 439 Hours, which is roughly 10 weeks of your life and this is assuming the phone is the only thing you spend money on for the next 10 weeks.



Consider trading things for life.

Once you've calculated these actual life costs, think seriously about the trade-off between things and life. We always say we want to live life but on a second thought we are not living we are spending our life on things that most times does not matter. Will you consume the greater part of your life on things that matter so little? But if you decide that certain things are worth the life sacrifice, then please go ahead and spend your life on them. This does not make you a bad person though, it just means that you have made a reflective choice to sacrifice a portion of your days and hours for the things you own. You've made a conscious choice. The real danger arises when we lose consciousness of this choice, when we buy without ever considering the amount of life exchanged for our latest purchase.
                        
Truth is that time is one commodity God gave us at creation, the other is talent. Throughout your stay on earth you will always trade your time for things, for moments etc, just don’t lose sight of that when next you pull out your wallet, because you are not just spending your money you are spending your life.