Last week we learned how to say “Not yet, this week we open the box - and meet Schrödinger’s Money.
Now we get to that catch-22 - the second brain-hack rewiring trick we have to perform. And that’s something a little bit trickier. I call this the theory of Schrödinger’s money.
Schrödinger imagined a cat in a sealed box - if opened, it dies; if not, it might still die. Until you look, it’s both alive and dead. Your salary works the same way - it both exists and doesn’t until you open your banking app. Just like your salary, which both exists and doesn’t, depending on whether you’ve looked at your bills yet.
Where two realities can exist at the same time. Yes, you just got paid, but you pretend you didn’t.
Before you look at what you have in the bank - you look at everything else that you owe. Scary concept, right?
First a list, without the amounts. The adult things you have to pay. House, car, insurance, food, petrol / transport. No amounts allowed. Not yet. Next to it, you write why that is important.
Then, you make a little * next to all items that are fixed and highly needed - especially in order to keep your household wheels turning.
So, did you put your future jetski there? Right at the top? No. Because that reality does not exist yet and goes to the back of your little planner book. It is a wish, not a want, not a need. The cost of splurging your whole salary on one big-ticket item… ? Consider it. Imagine you went through with it and imagine the consequences.
Did you put your health first? Your sanity and wellbeing? No. No one does. Because that is the last consideration on the list and the one we need most.
So, novel idea… put on the top of your list “My financial wellbeing.” That is the gift that keeps on giving. Does your financial wellbeing depend on you making good and adult choices like paying your rent instead of spinning the Temu wheel and possibly going “oops” later? We are being exploited to turn to gambling like activities for temporary mental relief.
Notice how I said My financial wellbeing - not ours. Even if you have a massive family to look after, no one will look after them if you are gone or cannot continue working. In this way, culture has taught all of us that it is selfish to look after ourselves - but again, we are the gift that keeps giving, and we cannot give anything if we gambled the car away or pawned a cell phone. Yes, these types of decisions that are desperation-driven can, and do, happen.
Personally, I have seen parents give their bond repayments to catch up on school arrears that accumulated because there was a wish being paid for on borrowed money. The wish for the best education - one we all want to give our kids - but like Schrödinger’s money we are playing with, it both exists, and does not.
When you consider your personal financial wellbeing, you are taking into account the hours you will spend going to and from work on the road, the environment you work in, the amount of time you lose in the process of this pursuit. The toll it will take. The emotional fallout and stress and pressure it creates on your mental wellbeing - which is also vital to maintain. For the sake of the family for which you are trying to provide.
When you don’t maintain mental health, you grab for the nearest and quickest fix - a dopamine decision for more debts. Which spirals to more stress, leading to more grabs for anything that feels good in that moment. Or on the flip side, could make you prone to lashing out at your nearest and dearest. Your mental health depends on your financial health. Everything actually does. So for now- look at that list and contemplate the needs you face.
For quality-assured assistance, contact Sandton Debt Counselling - a leading NCR-registered debt review company in South Africa, helping consumers regain control of their finances with dignity and precision.
Read Part one Here
Next Friday: The Five-Week Fix - turning awareness into action.