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YOUR SALARY IS A DRUG.

This article came to me in a dream, the hardest part for me was “penning it down” (I in fact typed it on my laptop) as the phrase goes. Its 2am in the morning and I awoke to a dream or somewhat of a nightmare regarding money issues and I felt the urge to write something on this subject of personal finance seeing that its #MoneyMonday. A bit of background on me, I am no self proclaimed financial expert, however I have been fascinated on the topic of finances that I have for the past two years studied the subject religiously, I have been fanatical and became somewhat of a “Stan” on issues relating to money, personal finance, debt ,investments, savings etc I have read and followed the teachings of the greats such as Dr. Boyce Watkins of Juneteenth fame ,Phumelele Ndumo of From debt to Riches fame, Robert Kiyosaki of rich dad poor dad, Warren Buffet and the list goes on.

I’m also a big fan of a show called rands with sense which chronicles the lives of ordinary South Africans in debt and with each episode it’s appalling at how black people in particular tend to make stupid short term financial decisions with lifetime financial repercussions. Watching this show made me realise how financial institutions like African Bank and a majority of the big banks never really loved us and are all self serving, hence educating yourself is very important. In varsity I did not study anything remotely related to finance  so I would most likely say that the subject is self taught, through intense research and reading. Hell, the only reason today I am familiar with genius levels is through a friends facebook post on an article titled “married in community of debt”, and boom I was hooked. I have since read each and every article written on money Mondays. Having read all these articles I came to a realisation that as black people in particular we are a people of pride and are ego centric and this Achilles heel in our financial literacy has become a generational curse which continues to punish us and each time we get this beating we never learn.

Now back to the topic of my article “your salary is a drug”, I mean this phrase in every literal sense intended. Wikipedia defines a drug as “any substance other than food, that when inhaled, injected, smoked, consumed, absorbed via a patch on the skin or dissolved under the tongue causes a physiological change in the body.” Another article describes drugs as “essentially poisons. The amount taken determines the effect.” In my life thus far this drug called salary has taken many forms and has perpetually evolved and the addiction has grew into a life of its own, i.e. the monkey on my back is now a gorilla but I can trace its origin/ inception back to my varsity days. After graduating from varsity, like most young people in South Africa I was faced with the challenge of finding employment and like many young people I hustled hard. I decided instead of sitting at home let me further my studies, so I took up a masters degree for which I was receiving a stipend of R60000 per annum which seemed like a lot of money when this drug was dangled in front of me. It seemed like the “fix” I needed, coming from having R0 in my pockets to R60k.

So like the good first time salary fiend I was, I shot this up my veins and the feeling was so good, better than you know what, lol. It soon (3 months of receiving the stipend) dawned on me how this stipend (drug) was not enough and to my shock I discovered after all expenses it wasn’t satisfying my drug (salary) appetite and giving me the high that I need,(mind you this is coming from a person who had R0 to R60k) after doing some number crunching the portion of this drug that actually came to my pockets was a meagre R2930 per month after all my incurred expenses such as residence fees, dissertation fees, university levies. So this means that of the R60k I was meant to be receiving, 41.4% of it was going to someone else’s pockets. To add salt to the wound, as a black person I was subject to black tax, portion of this money went back home to take care of siblings and other family related expenses before I can take care of my own general living expenses such as food.

The feeling (excitement, high, on top of the world exhilaration) I had on the first three months when I first snorted this drug had soon disappeared for the drug was not enough anymore and like the good fiend that I was I hustled so that I can get an increase in my drug dosage because as the definition says (read up) drugs are essentially poisons and the amount taken determines the effect, so I was determined to increase my dosage. I soon found myself in the employment of the leading organisation in my field on an internship with a triple dosage of the drug I was initially getting and my mind said to me “finally you got the ultimate fix” this is it right here. This is the grandiose and the mother of all fixes. And the thrill and excitement was much too much to bear. Now coming from a varsity student mentality to a corporate person, the shift in dynamics became apparent. A new world began to unfold before me. Certain unsaid standards began to be expected of a corporate person. More on that later.

So the first pay check (drug injection) clocks in and it feels so good. It feels better than that R2930 I was previously subjected to, this, i say to myself, is what cocaine is to marijuana, the ultimate knock out. Weed is good but cocaine is better. So those unsaid standards began to creep in mind you my financial IQ at this point is 0. Suddenly there are places I have to eat at, certain brands I have to endorse (Jordan’s, Gucci, Apple), and as you can imagine my drug became insufficient. Every month was a struggle to keep up with my salary addition, like most fiends I would feel sooooo good on the 25^th of every month and exactly 10 days after that the withdrawal symptoms would kick in (moody, always angry, depressed, and stressed), I would be waiting for the next 25^th fix and the cycle continued. There seemed to be more people in my pockets than there were back when I was in varsity.

Each of these invisible hands were taking a share of my drug (salary) before it reached my veins (pockets), this ranged from the government in the form of tax, to creditors, to landlords, to friends who budgeted on my share of the drug to get their high on, to family members and this is even before I could take care of my own basic needs such as food. I have since been employed permanently by this company and having been lucky enough to want to get rid of my addiction I began to educate myself on this drug. As we all have become aware that not all drugs are bad for you. There are drugs which are meant to enhance your life, to heal you and increase your lifespan. And ever since educating myself on this drug called a salary/money, I have since made it work to heal me instead of destroy my financial health, increase my lifespan so to speak instead of it shortening it.

I recall having a conversation with a friend/colleague where he lamented on how he started off earning a stipend of R2000 to almost more than quadrupling his earnings and says he was better off when he at R2000 than he is now. Most people are probably in this frame of mind as well. I don’t have all the answers on how to rehabilitate yourself on this addiction but the first step to this is in admitting you have a problem, as all rehab steps begin. Salary addiction is more psychological than most people actually think, there’s a lot of emotions at play and as the great Warren Buffet has said, if you can’t control your emotions when it comes to money matters your battle is already lost. Secondly you need to educate yourself. Really teach yourself and practise what you learn. We live in a world of information and there’s good and bad information and the more you know the better you will be at discerning what’s good from what’s bad. So read, read and read some more. Not a day goes by that I don’t read articles on personal finance on a wide range of topics. Thirdly learn from others mistakes but more importantly learn from your own, I know I’ve made huge financial blunders of my own in the past, one which I share most with friends is paying for a bill of R800 for booze at a club on a night out with friends in Florida road Durban, using my credit card and to this day I am paying for it (literally and figuratively). Lastly break yourself away from the bonds of servitude, always anticipating a salary to give you the “fix” you need so you can be back in the same state 10 days later isn’t the answer. Instead you need to use the drug to embetter yourself and those around you. Build wealth not by saving money, although that’s a good start. Build wealth through investment, building businesses.

Do not be job dependant; your years of working should be used in building wealth and protecting this wealth. As a young person all your extra time and energy should be dedicated towards this one thing, building wealth. Every little thing which involves you taking out money from your pockets, you should ask yourself “how is this benefitting the future me”. Teach this to your siblings because as black people we tend to sell the notion of success in a wrong way. The first thing we ask someone who starts working is when are you buying a car, when are you paying for i lobola, why are you wearing Mr Price clothing when you belong to such and such profession, why you driving such a car. Etc. These things are not essentially bad but I feel we prioritise them more than the idea of ownership. We love the illusion of looking successful to others than actually attaining it. Let’s start building and break your mind away from the salary drug.

And oh…hi IamAndreB aka CapitalistNigga and for me to say I am not a genius would be lying to you and to myself. Thanks for reading this article.

Article By Bafana Mtshali

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