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Morris Mpala, MoB Capital Ltd
I HAVE noticed black gangster rappers or pseudo Zimbabwe rappers bragging about  ‘being broke is childish’.

They brag about having enough money to go round.

They claim they ‘make it rain’ but us ordinary hoi polloi do get broke once in a while and it’s kind of natural as finding ourselves wanting is second nature.

These business and entrepreneurship concepts are new to some of us thus we still struggle to grasp it to aid our financial freedom and we find ourselves broke here and there.

But what keeps us broke so much that we cannot be considered financially free at whatever angle we look at?

Peer pressure
We want to live that life that our peers live.

We want to be them when we are not.

We want to keep up appearances at our own expense to the detriment of our financial well being.

They drive, we want to drive.

They send their children to expensive schools; we want to do the same.

When they do holidays we follow suit but do we really know what they do for a living?

Do we really know how many incomes they have let alone how they generate it.

We love to live a celebrity life when we do not have the means.

We have that knack to be keeping up appearances which is a heavy financial burden and never sustainable.

We live the life of “faking it, until you make it” but if we fail to make it then it will have made us destitute.

Ego as big as Mount Kilimanjaro
We believe we cannot downsize because of yester year status.

At times we are too generous for the sake of our ego to our detriment.

We never accept reality and still live in the same financial fantasy land as it was then when our fortunes have now gone southwards.

Misfortune
If you had had a misfortune in life you will understand and on this one, I am talking from experience.

It’s just at times it does not rain but it pours, and that will leave you without means of survival despite you doing very well.

An unfortunate circumstance just dogs a person such that despite their incomes they will still remain broke for some time.

This at times you cannot help it, but pray for a breakthrough because when things are not happening there is not much you can do as it is normally beyond you.

Normally, a good socio-economic support system helps.

Pride
We shun that which can give us income because we believe some things are beneath us.

I cannot be seen doing that.

That is not me at all.

That would not do.

But who are you besides a broke person and where is that nerve coming from or is it the spirit of wanting you to remain broke doing the talking?

Definitely, if you do not dump your pride, you will remain the famous church mouse.

Spend, Spend, Spend
It goes without saying if we spend like money grows on trees then there will be gnashing of teeth in the future that you can bet.

Financial ignorance is blissful.

There is a difference between not doing moronic spending and being a miser.

These are two mutually exclusive events and must not be confused.

Know something about money and its uses.

Budgeting
When we get cash, we just get excited and become like a fat kid in a candy shop.

We just buy, ignoring the budget list oblivious of the financial implications of impulse buying.

We never stick to our budget lines even when the financial resources are scarce and we know the implications.

Financial Planning
Failure to plan means financial ruin.

Do we know anything about risk planning, insurance, funeral covers and medical insurance?

Do we plan for these situations that could leave us worse off  if it does occur?

We need to anticipate scenarios so that we are not found wanting when disaster strikes.

Do we save at all for a rainy day just in case?

We just live for today as if we are misguided teenagers with a warped sense of tomorrow will never come; you only live once thus we live for the moment kind of thing.

Where we take risks it is not even calculated.

We want a lot
We just want everything.

The spirit of glutton and greed and wanting that which we do not need is cancerous to society .

Earning less
As long as you do not earn much even if you do not spend much, you will always be found financially wanting all the time.

Buying things we don’t need
How many times have we bought very expensive, yet we do not even need these things at all.

That is dead money (ignore the capital part) as we cannot even use those things to generate any income at all.

Let me expound vanity for a change.

Mother’s shoes are a young fortune of dead capital.

Daddy’s toys in the garage and cupboards are worth more than gold but useless in generating any income.

Children’s excessive unnecessary indulgences are a perennial sink that bleed resources.

Buying things that we know can be bought somewhere else cheaper is economic suicide.

Pure stupidity
The lack of knowledge of what we are doing just leaves us financially crippled.

Economics is never inborn, you have to master the art of handling money otherwise you will weep due to costly manoeuvres.

Mostly moronic and unscholarly economic tendencies have prevented us from attaining sustained financial freedom.

When we make it, we have yes man entourages that have no wise counsel and cannot reprimand some of our wayward financial ways.

We cannot afford to stay broke as doing so is a recipe for long- term financial agony.

At the same time we cannot just wish not to be broke.

We ought to work hard to prevent being broke.

The upside to being broke is you tend to know who your true friends are without a shadow of a doubt.

This I can personally testify.

When times are hard, friends are few and too many fake ones when you have financially arrived.

IF YOU LIVE IN BULAWAYO PLEASE CONSERVE WATER
IF YOU LIVE IN ZIMBABWE PLEASE USE ELECTRICITY SPARINGLY SWITCH OFF SWITCHES (SOS)
IF YOU LIVE ON PLANET EARTH PLEASE PRESERVE THE ENVIRONMENT

Morris Mpala is the managing director of MoB Capital Limited, a micro-finance institution with footprint across the country.