How to Become Smarter in Managing Your Finances

 

 

"The essence of globalization is that man turns into an economic being. This cannot be done except by erasing memory, forgetting history, and erasing identity, because identity means a set of aesthetic and moral values. Memory means awareness of things that happened in the past and could happen in the future, and history means the extension of identity in the past and the possibility of its extension in the future. Globalization cannot accept such a person. It wants a person without memory so that he turns into a consumer being ."

The Egyptian thinker and scientist, Dr. Abdel Wahab El-Messiri

 

The term globalization was first known to the world in the early twentieth century and became commonly used in the nineties to describe the unprecedented revolution in international communication that made communication between people around the world and everywhere easier. Globalization has contributed to the growth and expansion of the role of international trade in our lives to the point that reaching any consumer around the world has become like one big market. In addition to international trade, globalization has facilitated the exchange of ideas, beliefs, and culture and influenced the behavior and lifestyle of people in different countries of the world. Global companies have come to play a role in shaping and directing human behavior and adopting a similar lifestyle, but this has not always been a positive effect

 

Since the most important goal of commercial companies is to achieve financial profits, preserve their interests and maximize their profits even if this is at the expense of the health of consumers and the environment and its components , it was necessary for companies to work on expanding their customer base and reaching the largest number of consumers. The most successful thing that globalization has achieved is spreading the consumer pattern among people in consumption, and turning humans into consumer creatures who consume harmful things before beneficial things, misuse natural resources, harm components of various ecosystems, and thus cause environmental disasters.

 

The other and more dangerous dimension is also clear to us, which is that the colonial powers have become able to control the wealth and natural resources of peoples through multinational corporations , which have become economic powers that greatly influence even the decisions of countries and their relations with each other. We have come to live in a material civilization based on consumption and satisfying the desire for ownership and working to feed it . Producers use all means to ensnare consumers in the traps and snares of consumption, the most prominent of which is advertising, on which companies spend billions of dollars annually . Companies deliberately produce advertising content that includes expressions and suggestions about the whole or joining one community that is described as the best or makes the consumer distinct from others . Here, the herd culture plays its role in making people consume in imitation of others and not out of a need for this or that product. And giving them a false sense of pleasure that is in reality like painkillers that ensure that a person remains in the endless cycle of consumption.

 

This system seeks to keep humans in a cycle of consumers, unable to stop. As a result, humans work very hard and exert great effort in working for these companies, to make small amounts of money, and then spend that money on purchasing the companies’ products, which they believe will bring them pleasure or meet a necessary need. Over time, humans discover that they have become a besieged creature who has no resources or ability to be independent and that they are in constant need to be at the mercy of this system to ensure a safe life.

 

Freedom from blind consumer behavior

In a simple example of how hideous the lie we live in this consumer world is, imagine that in January two people each have a sum of one thousand euros. The first person buys the latest phone on the market with great capabilities and great features. He spends that amount of money he had. Then the second person buys a small phone with reasonable capabilities for one hundred euros and with the remaining sum (nine hundred euros) he buys a small gold bar

Then you meet the same two people a year later. You will find that the first person has a phone that has lost more than seventy percent of its value and is now worth three hundred euros, thus losing seventy percent of his financial wealth. While the second person now has a small phone and a piece of gold that is worth, for example, one thousand eleven hundred euros

Which person would you rather be? Which person do you think has a better life than the other 

 

Getting out of this cycle and this system is not easy, but it is not impossible. Rather, it is a challenge that requires full awareness of the dangers of a lifestyle based on blind consumption, and will and planning so that you can regain your ability to control your life and preserve your financial resources

 

Necessary steps to organize financial resources and plan for a better future

 

The most important principle is to believe that a job is not the final stage and the only goal to ensure survival. It is just a step, and the salary is not only for spending entirely on personal pleasures, but it is a financial income that must be used to improve the standard of living so that you become able to control your life and your future. This is achieved by optimally investing your financial resources through some of the following tips

 

Spending should be directed towards the basics of life, such as food and clothing, and buying products that provide the best value at the lowest price. Do not give in to advertisements and buy products bearing famous expensive names just because it is an imitation of the behaviour of society and spending large amounts of money on products that do not provide any benefit or quality, which can be replaced with other products that are less expensive, even if they are not famous. The biggest example of this is clothing and bags, the cost of production of which is actually not commensurate with their price, which may be fifty times the actual cost. While it is possible to get clothes in wonderful shapes and great quality, but they are made by small factories or individuals working in a small family project.

 

Allocating a mandatory percentage of monthly income of not less than twenty-five percent to savings. Encouraging savings helps a lot in preserving financial resources, which gives the ability to face crises and better control the course of life

 

At the end of the year, when there are sufficient savings, the savings should not be left in the form of stagnant money in the banks, but should be converted into investments. These are multiple fields and are available even to those who do not have extensive experience in the field of investment. Investment is not expected to be only in the field of business. Rather, it is in simpler and easier fields such as

 

 Investing in education and self-development. Learn a new skill, a new language, get a specialized certificate in a specific field. This investment will add personal value that can be transformed into a source of income by opening a new field of work or better job opportunities with a higher income

 

Invest in real estate. Make sure to buy a plot of land, a building or an apartment, even if it is in instalments, as this will encourage you to work on directing your financial resources towards a long-term investment

 

 Preserve the value of your money by buying gold, even small amounts, a few grams can make a difference over a year, for example. Gold preserves the value of your savings and increases their value without any risks

 

The most important skill that people need to learn is the skill of dealing with financial resources. Preserving them and investing them safely. The most important thing that people need in this era is awareness and education about the dangers of the blind consumerist pattern, which leads the world to destruction on a personal level, and on the level of wasting natural resources in a way that accelerates the destruction of the environment around us