MONEY MUSINGS
ESTHER MUKUMBO: Can you budget your way out of poverty?
If your income barely covers your costs, saving becomes that much harder. But even small amounts can make a big difference for future generations
I recently tweeted asking people to “Post your personal finance take that will get you cancelled”. Social media users will know that “cancel culture” is about losing support after doing something socially unacceptable, but I simply wanted to give people the opportunity to tweet controversial personal finance takes that ordinarily they would not share. The tweet got significant engagement and I’d like to focus on a response I got from @Cairo_Mathebula, who tweeted: “Some people are just underpaid and no amount of budgeting [or] saving tips can help them.”
As an advocate for financial freedom, this certainly got me thinking. How can I preach about saving and investing when people have to cope with the high (and rising) cost of living, and are in constant survival mode? Can you save and invest on a budget or is it true that you cannot budget your way out of poverty? ..
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