Nathaniel Oluwatobi David

If you are from a poor family, don’t play the same game as those who come from average or rich homes. They can afford to make mistakes and fail severally because they have people to fall back on. You cannot afford that luxury because, in many ways, you are alone in this world. Utterly alone. And nobody is coming to save you. You are, in fact, closer to ending up poorer than you grew up than you are to building wealth if you are not careful enough. Firstly, you have to tell yourself the truth, and tell it often. Don’t wallow in delusion or pretend the disparities between your reality and that of rich folks do not exist. You are never going to marry a billionaire. It is not a curse; it is the truth. It is only in movies that the elite marry into poor families. In reality, it is almost nonexistent. The rich marry for different reasons, and maintaining the family’s social class is very important to them. Do your research. Nine out of every ten wealthy marriages are between people from wealthy families. You are more likely to end up with a partner at your financial level, slightly above you, or even below you. If you want to marry a rich partner, there is a level of financial work you need to put in to get yourself into spaces where you can actually meet such people. Why am I saying this? This reality is a wake-up call for you to aggressively lock in and push yourself out of the poor class, into the middle class, and gradually into the rich class as time goes by. You have a few years after university to grind relentlessly towards the middle class and, eventually, the rich class. Otherwise, you risk becoming a statistic. One of those people who tried but have absolutely nothing to show for it. No evidence. You are poor. You know it. Tell yourself that truth often as a reality check. Say NO to people without feeling the need to explain yourself. More importantly, manage your black tax. You are poor, so you think you can save everyone around you. Every month, you spend all your earnings on family and friends because you feel like you owe it to them. Then you wake up one morning, ten years after working your ass off, and realise that you still cannot afford a car, have no successful business, and have no house in sight. Meanwhile, the people you spent all those years making sure were okay never made sure you were okay. The thing is, you keep telling yourself that if you don’t provide for everyone around you, they won’t survive. News flash: If you continue like that, you’ll d!e early from stress, depression and overthinking. And guess what? They’ll be fine without you. And this is where I get to tell you that there is a certain level of selfishness needed to move from the poor class to the middle class, at least. You cannot keep sacrificing your future to make everyone else comfortable. Nobody is coming to save you, especially when you are poor.