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Turning Cash to Thrash 2 – Why Are We So Hostile to Cash?

Posted on | July 11, 2010 | 1 Comment

Normal spending habits of everyday people look pretty abnormal when you look at it from the perspective of wealth accumulation. From the standpoint of the rich, it looks very abnormal for a sane individual to wake up one morning, go to his bank or an ATM machine, withdraw money from his savings and go give it away to a retailer for an item that will not generate any income, but rather become thrash shortly thereafter. It looks bizarre, but to the rest of us, this is absolutely normal behaviour, the reason we are working so hard – to have money to spend. We earn to spend, not to invest.

The wealth ratio is derived from the percentage or fraction of our income that comes back to us (typically within a month or so). A less stringent way to look at is the percentage of our income that gets converted to assets monthly. For most folks, it is plain zero. By the time the dust settles after spending, the whole pay packet is gone without trace. There is no sign that money came into our hands.

It is true that money has wings and likes to fly. It is only when we allow it, which is the typical money reflex. If your money reflex is to spend everything that comes into your hands, and then some more, then your money has the wings of an eagle. If you are cash friendly, have a savings and investment habit, and grow your wealth deliberately, the money that comes to you will have its wings clipped. It will bow to you, and go work for you, setting you in a upward spiral of wealth accumulation en route financial freedom, where you cease from working hard for money, and your money working hard for you. For your money to work hard for you, its wings must be clipped.

Why are we so hostile to the cash that comes into our lives?

Thrash - items once bought with cash


We treat it with disdain, squeeze it and stuff it in our wallets, leave them lying around the house, in drawers, shirt and trouser pockets, in between sofa cushions, some get washed with laundry! We label some of them “change” and leave them behind, we forget to pay in dividend warrants because the amounts were “small”, you name it, we have done it to money. Some get abandoned in sidewalks, left behind in public transport. It almost seems as if we are quarreling with money, and money has become a nuisance we want to get rid of.



We are looking for millions, but ignore the basic fact that ones add up to make up a million (a million is made up of one, followed by many zeros, remove the one and you have nada). If I tell you that if you start with one kobo, and double the amount every day for 30 days only, you will get N10,737,418.24 (almost eleven Million Naira!), I am sure you think I am kidding. Okay, whip out your calculator right now and prove me wrong.

If you had bet money on it, you would have lost. One humble out of use and forsaken kobo, doubled every day for a month makes you a millionaire in naira (we are talking kobo here, not naira – for most of us, five naira is not money). Kobo turns to naira, to tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of naira. It is known as the law of gradual growth. Can you imagine how many millions we have thrown away by despising “small” money? The compound interest is considered the 8th wonder of the modern world. Instead of befriending it, we have turned it into an enemy by spending all we earn (and throwing away the change).

How will money get compounded when we routinely give it away, making sure we are back to ground zero each blessed month (by living from hand to mouth, pay cheque to pay cheque a.k.a eating with ten fingers)?

Murphy’s law of spending states that expenditure always rises up to meet income. Must we prove it to be true?

If we respect our money, our money respects us, stays and grows. If we treat it harshly with disrespect, routinely turning cash to thrash, we will remain perpetually cashless a.k.a broke.

Are you working for cash or thrash?

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One Response to “Turning Cash to Thrash 2 – Why Are We So Hostile to Cash?”

  1. Tweets that mention Turning Cash to Thrash 2 – Why Are We So Hostile to Cash? : Financial Freedom Inspiration Nigeria -- Topsy.com
    July 8th, 2010 @ 11:51 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Christine Brandt and Usiere Uko. Usiere Uko said: Turning Cash to Thrash 2 – Why Are We So Hostile to Cash?: Normal spending habits of everyday people look pretty a… http://bit.ly/9CNSfw [...]

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