SPENDING LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW IN A WORLD THAT ALWAYS HAS ONE

Allu was 27. Every Friday was “catch cruise” day.

Beer: 4 bottles or more.
Friends: “O boy you try.”
Spray: 5k here, 10k there.
Transport home: 3k.
Monthly: 60,000 gone.
By Sunday he was broke and waiting for salary.

One January morning his uncle, Aku asked him: “Allu, if you keep spending that beer money for 12 months, what will you have in December?”
Allu laughed. “Nothing. Just memories.”

His uncle Aku said: “Try something. Save the beer money. Drink water. Use the same energy to hustle.”

Allu was angry at first. His friends called him “pastor”.
But he opened a separate account. Every month, 60,000 entered it. No touching.

January: 60,000
June: 360,000
December: 720,000

December came. No hangover. No debt.
He went to his village and bought his first plot of land. 650,000.
Receipt in hand, he stood on the bare land and smiled.

His friends were still doing “buchi, ajge, obami and beer”.
Allu was now a landlord.

The following year afterwards, he started building a 3-bedroom flat.
Today, people ask him: “How did you start?”
He answers: “I stopped drinking my future.”

Lesson: The money for waste can become the foundation for wealth.
Wisdom is choosing December you over Friday night you

As a matter of fact we are living in seriously interesting times.
Prices are going up. Jobs are shaking. The future is not promising anyone “soft life” on credit.
Yet walk into the market, scroll Instagram, enter any party — and you’ll see money flying like it grows on trees.

The question is not if people are spending.
The question is Why? And how?

1. HOW DO PEOPLE SPEND CARELESSLY? LET’S ASK HONESTLY

Is it…
By impulse?
That “I just saw it and I liked it” purchase. No plan. No budget. Just vibes.
You get paid Friday, it’s gone by Saturday afternoon.

By compulsive push?
That itch you can’t explain. The moment you feel down, stressed, bored — you shop.
The card comes out before the brain comes in. It’s not about the item. It’s about feeling something.

By ego?
“I cannot let them say I’m broke.”
So you buy the iPhone 16 when your rent isn’t paid.
You upgrade your car when your business is bleeding.
The ego eats, but the pocket suffers.

By show-off?
Birthday flyers. Wedding uniform and committee of friends contributions. Table service.
Not because you can afford it, but because “people are watching.”
We spend to impress people we don’t even like, with money we don’t have.

By trying to belong?
“All my friends are traveling to Dubai.”
“Everyone in my group has a new bag.”
So you stretch, borrow, or use your savings to “belong.”
But belonging that costs your peace is too expensive.

By catching up with the times?
New trend every week. New gadget. New lifestyle.
Social media makes us feel like if we’re not spending, we’re lagging behind.
So we run after trends and leave wisdom behind.

Or is it something else?
Fear? Loneliness? Trying to buy love? Trying to fill a hole that money can’t fill?

2. THE PROBLEM: WE’RE SPENDING LIKE THERE ARE NO RAINY DAYS

But rainy days always come.
Hospital bills. School fees. Job loss. Family emergency. Business dry season.
And on that day, ego cannot pay. Show-off cannot pay. Impulse cannot pay.

What pays is what you saved when the sun was shining.

Proverbs 21:20 states: _The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down._
Wisdom saves. Foolishness gulps.

3. THE ANTIDOTE: SPENDING GUIDED BY WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, AND MORE WISDOM

The times demand it.

1. WISDOM: Ask “Do I need this, or do I just want it right now?”
Wisdom says: Delay gratification today so you don’t beg tomorrow.

2. KNOWLEDGE: Know your numbers.
What is coming in? What is going out? What is a want vs a need?
You cannot manage what you don’t measure. Budget is not bondage. It’s freedom.

3. MORE WISDOM: Know yourself.
What triggers your spending? Boredom? Comparison? Pressure?
If you know the root, you can cut it.
And remember: Your value is not your outfit, your car, or your last vacation.

The Japanese fans after the game didn’t spend to impress. They cleaned.
They were thinking: “Leave this place better.”
That is wisdom. Long-term thinking.

4. A WORD TO US

Someone went from “only WAEC” to PhD.
That didn’t happen by impulse spending. That happened by sacrifice.
They chose books over bags. School fees over show. Future over now.

That is the same energy we need with money.

So I’ll ask you, and I’ll ask myself:
1. The last time I spent money carelessly, what was the real reason? Impulse, ego, or pressure?
2. If there’s a rainy day in the next 3 months, will my current spending habits save me or shame me?
3. What is one spending habit I can kill this month and replace with wisdom?

Money is a tool. Not a master.
Spend with purpose, not with pressure.
Because the goal is not to look rich today and be stranded tomorrow.

Now let’s just do some elementary arithmetics here so we can have a clearer picture of this matter;

Let’s be blunt about it.
People complain that “there’s no money”, “economy is hard”, “nothing is working”.
But check their spending from January to December. The money is there, only that they are pretending and they don’t pay attention to the fact that it’s just leaking through 5 big holes.

1. THE 5 LEAKS

1. BEER & NIGHTLIFE
Friday: 4 bottles @ 1,500 = 6,000
Weekend hangout + “spray” + transport = 25,000
Monthly average: 50,000 – 120,000
Yearly: 600,000 – 1,440,000
Question: Is it stress relief, belonging, or just “catching cruise”?

2. SMOKE & SUBSTANCES
Cigarettes: 1 pack daily @ 1,000 = 30,000/month
Shisha, codeine, weed: 20,000 – 100,000/month depending on habit
Yearly: 360,000 – 1,560,000
Question: Is it addiction, ego, or “to feel big”?

3. WOMEN/MEN & RELATIONSHIPS
“Soft life” gifts, dates, airtime, data, hair, clothes, hotel, “urgent 2k”
Conservative monthly: 40,000
“Big boy/girl” monthly: 150,000+
Yearly: 480,000 – 1,800,000+
Question: Is it love, lust, rust, dust, show-off, or trying to feel wanted?

4. AUTOMOBILES & PRESSURE
New car you can’t maintain. Tokunbo with loan.
Monthly fuel: 160,000. Maintenance: 40,000. “Car wash and perfume”: 10,000
Upgrades, rims, sound: 500,000 one time
Yearly running cost: 1,420,000 + the car loan
Question: Is it need, or “people must see me”?

5. IMPULSE & COMPARISON SPENDING
New iPhone because “everyone has it”.
Buchi clothes you won’t wear again.
Food delivery daily instead of cooking.
Yearly leak: 300,000 – 800,000

5. IMAGINE IF WE SAVED IT INSTEAD: JANUARY TO DECEMBER

Let’s use a middle-class example. Not the richest, not the poorest.
Waste Category Monthly 12 Months Saved
Beer/Nightlife 60,000 720,000
Smoke/Substances 30,000 360,000
Relationships/Show 50,000 600,000
Car pressure costs 80,000 960,000
Impulse/Comparison 30,000 360,000
TOTAL SAVED IN 1 YEAR 250,000 3,000,000
WHAT 3 MILLION NAIRA IN 12 MONTHS CAN DO:
1. Business: Start a small shop, poultry, or online business. Capital + 6 months running cost.
2. Education: Pay for Masters or PhD fees like someone did. Change your entire future.
3. Land: Down payment for a plot in any state. An asset that appreciates.
4. Emergency Fund: 12 months of rent + hospital bills covered. No more “and also” begging.
5. Investment: Put in treasury bills, mutual funds. Let money work for you.

That’s one year. Do it for 5 years = 15 million.
The difference between “broke every December” and “building wealth” is just discipline, choice and action.

6. THE HARD QUESTIONS

1. Is it impulse? You saw it, you bought it. No plan.
2. Is it compulsive? You feel empty, so you drink, smoke, shop.
3. Is it ego? “I cannot enter keke. I must drive.” Even with no fuel money, then you start disturbing wiser people to give you money for fuel.
4. Is it show-off? Birthday that costs 1 to 2 million to impress people that forgot you in 1 week.
5. Is it to belong? “All my friends are doing it” so you join, even when your pocket is crying.
6. Is it to catch up with the times? New trend, new woman/man, new car, new lifestyle. Wise up meeeen.

The times we live in demand wisdom, knowledge, and more wisdom.
Proverbs 21:20: _The wise store up, but fools gulp theirs down._

7. CLOSING THOUGHT

Beer finishes in the toilet, somebody’s wall or any available open space.
Smoke finishes in the hospital. Once the head finds escape, shaaaaaaa like a fire brigade hose, sometimes, half of the content gets let out before the head sees the light of the moment.
Show-off finishes in shame.
Car loan finishes in stress and shame.

But savings? Savings finishes in freedom, peace and assets to show.
Savings finishes in land, in business, in school fees, in peace.

I did not get to PhD by “catching cruise” every weekend.
I chose books over beer till today and because of that I am now a teacher to countless people. I decided to choose future over na na now.

So ask yourself today:
If I took what I spent on wasteful useless things from January to now and saved it, where would I be in December? If you saved just 5% of your weekly or monthly earnings from 2020 to this 2026, how much would it be?

The money is not the problem.
The choices, discipline and focus are.

The goal is: “How I got here” and “How I will stay here and move to get there.”
Are you a reckless spender?
What is the biggest trap making you spend recklessly right now, ego, comparison, or something else?
Call me and tell me, I swear, I will not report you to your father or even President Tinubu.

I am Dr Frank Peter Ombugadu still on at least 3 People Every Day.