I have always worked for a salary for as long as I can remember. And since my appetite for risk is just barely above average you can understand why I tend to bend toward the structure of a 9-5 job and the “security” of a steady paycheck. However, having worked for a salary for more than 8 years of my life, I've come to realize that it can be a death-trap, or rather a debt-trap if am being more subtle; if one does not put certain measures in place.
The first trap of a salary paid-job is the false sense of security it provides. As a public servant, there's always the temptation of thinking that your job is permanent — that no matter what happens in the economy you'd always have a job. A great misconception as recent evidence would suggest. For instance, the El-Rufia led government in Kaduna State have sacked over 70,000 workers from 2016 till date according to SaharaReporters. There's really no job security anymore.
The second trap of a salary job, especially in the Public Service, is the over reliance on Government gratuity and pension. Most government workers retire after 35 years of service without any feasible investment or a personal pension savings plan (401k). They seem to forget that when ‘shit hits the fan’ in an economy, the first place government looks to dip in their hands is pension fund.
In addition, payment of pension is not paid regularly. Today, only few states in the federation pays pension as at when due. But even if they do pay on time, I think it's just too risky to put all of ones hope on pension money. Yet, that's what most public servants do.
Another trap of a salary paid job is the failure to invest in oneself. Most public servants have not read a book outside of their job schedule for more than six months! They use their job as an excuse for not investing in themselves, and complain that the reason they cannot afford to buy books or enroll for online courses is because the salary is too small. They tend to forget that the greatest investment anyone can make is the investment in oneself
The last but not least trap is the debt trap. Only about 10 percent of civil servants in my State are debt free, and one in every three civil servants are in debt! A horrible cycle I've discovered in just two years of my being in the Service is that most civil servants usually pay-out about 30 - 50 percent of their monthly emoluments as debt. And after settling parts or all of what they owe once salaries are paid, they must have to borrow again to cover for next month’s expenses. And on and on it goes.
There is nothing wrong with having a 9-5 job. Personally, I like the structure that comes with it and the fact that I get to leave the house every morning. But unless we cut-down on our spendings by living far below our means, save for rainy days and diversify our streams of income, we would continue to wallow in poverty because salary alone has never made anyone rich.
Just recently I had an epiphany: I realized that I had been paid more than 1.5 million naira since I started work barely two years ago. However, I can't bring out 10k right now to save my own life! And if I had saved just 10,000 naira each month when I got employed, which is only about 9 percent of my monthly salary, I would have nothing less than #200,000 in savings today!
“In the abundance of water the fool is thirsty — rat race!”.
— Bob Marley
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