The Three Financial Cancers: Could You Be A Patient?

The problem with us human beings, especially Africans, is that we have a tendency to visit clinics and hospitals when in pain. It’s not good thing do because the doctor or physician ends up treating one ailment and recommending treatment of several others which don’t get treated until when in pain again. This isn’t common with cancer patients
because the moment one is diagnosed of a certain type of cancer, they do all they can in terms of seeking and heeding treatment to save their situation. Well, the patient may end up saving their lives or eventually passing away, its two way traffic. In finance, individuals or organizations may be financial cancer patients depending on how they manage their finances. 

The first cancer that you should be aware of is ‘impulse spending’.
It’s a renowned fact that 60% of business sales are derived out of impulse customers. Business owners thrive on this consumer weakness. Impulse spending is embedded on an individual’s emotions and is capable of resulting into a financial death. But just how is impulse spending cancerous? Impulsive consumers do not budget for their expenses. Ideally, they spend more than they earn and more often borrow to sustain the high expenses. The result is a cycle of debt and who knows, may be bankruptcy? The solution to impulse spending is to avoid being impulsive. Quite simply, if shopping in a supermarket results to your impulsiveness, then avoid supermarkets! Shop somewhere else and stick to the shopping list.

The second cancer is debt. Ideally, it’s a culmination of the first cancer. Debt from an up close is a factor of an individual’s lifestyle. People who spend highly to sustain a particular public status irrespective of the spending cap put in place by their incomes are bound to be victims. Well, I guess we all have to ‘fit in’ in the society but it’s your choice not to ‘fit in’. To avoid debt is simply a common sense issue. Don’t borrow and if you have to borrow, you better employ that money positively or make it ‘good debt’. Good debt is where you employ the borrowed funds at a return higher than the pay back interest rate.   

   

The third cancer is dangerous, systemic and a lot of people ail from it. It’s a lack of a net worth. If someone came across you today and posed you the question, ‘What’s your net worth?’ Would you have an outright answer for them? If not, consider yourself a financial cancer patient. Well, the only salvation to financial freedom is the acquisition of assets that can generate enough income to enable us sustain our lifestyles without having working at all. Have you acquired these assets or do you have plans to do so? Well, it’s an individual call. Acquisition of assets does not imply your household consumables such as television sets and cutlery. It calls for the acquisition of income generating assets such as businesses, land and real estate as well as passive investments in the stock and money markets.

Ultimately, the key concern is to first of all understand yourself financially. If you happen to suffer from any of three cancers, then it’s time for you to consider a financial treatment. The complexity of the treatment will depend on the nature of your cancer but however, it’s important to stick to medication and ensure that you visit the doctor more often.