Act Your Wage

When I see how some people live their lives I generally come to two conclusions; either they’re balling out too much or I ain’t balling out enough. Perhaps it’s a bit of both to be fair. The arrival of Student Loan was the first time I saw how money talked. Everyone was acting as though they didn’t need to pay that ish back – with interest adjusted for inflation. It’s like it was a rat-race of who could destroy their credit rating the quickest; a race I weren’t trying to be involved in. Living beyond your means is a concept that’ll forever baffle me. The product of growing up broke means you’re still awfully vigilant when you start making money. Back in my retail day, my hourly wage became my artificial exchange rate whenever it came to purchases. “Those trainers are nice but that’s an 8 hour shift right there”.  “I would get a train ticket but I didn’t do that overtime so imma jump the barriers instead”. Probably a cautious mindset but definitely prudent in the long run.

Guys are really going out of their way to act boujee around other guys who gained their riches via fraud lol, make it make sense. Guys are really splashing the cash on girls who have no interest in them lol, louder for the people at the back. Instead of you to be saving your money, you’re doing lifestyle without a care in the world. I knew a guy who spent 200 quid on ‘a bird’ at a place that apparently served ‘the finest assorted meats in London’. He wasn’t a rich guy by any stretch of the imagination. His money was amassed through student loan, negotiated overdraft agreements and frequent prayer requests. Firstly, if you’re referring to a woman as any sort of animal then you need to slap a £25 quota on the whole date, including service charge and up to zones 1 – 3 oyster travel encase she needs to top up. But £200 for assorted meat? The restaurant owner must’ve served up Dark Charizard fresh from his battle against Mewtwo, Ash Ketchum vibes.

Financially nowadays I’m pretty sound however, growing up in humble surroundings meant I don’t take my finances for granted. It makes me laugh when I hear people talk about how broke they are after a long day of spending that Arab money. Relative to London standards, you haven’t seen broke until you start playing The Bailiff Game. Yup that’s right, The Bailiff Game. That’s when bailiff’s come round ready to reallocate your possessions and you and your siblings have to stay real quiet to pretend nobody’s in. At one point I got so good at the game that I started playing on legendary mode. That’s when the bailiff’s look through your letter box and peer through the windows to check for any movement. Not only have you gotta be silent but you’ve got to stay out of eye-line of any potential peeping spots. I swear for like a month I was so scared to even receive parcels in the mail. Open the door for a delivery then clock the bailiff jumping out the hedges trying to gain access.

Anyways… living a life you can’t afford will soon catch up with you. You only need to take a glance at social media to see the dreams that some people are selling. On Instagram you’ll see a bunch of pics of people living lavish lifestyles, but they’ll never upload the pics of them holding their monthly bank statements captioned ‘was it worth it?’. Some people’s overdrafts are in overdraft and that still won’t deter them for a night out. Candidly I wish I was as free-spirited as that but unfortunately – or fortunately – I just have different priorities. I’ve worked way too hard and sacrificed way too many things to not enjoy myself. On the other hand, I’ll be damned if I’m frequently jet-setting and acquiring designer clothes whilst adopting that Greece approach to repaying back my loans.

Joe