What lessons can we take from the current water crisis and apply to our own personal financial planning?
Don’t wait for it to happen
Do we wait for a life changing event to find out of if the provisions we have made are enough provision to see us through?
If you do, then you are treating water and money in a very a similar way. Right now both money and water are running out. The water crisis is brought on by the devastating drought we are experiencing through the “El Nino” effect. Then there is a devastating financial drought which most South Africans are experiencing brought about through the global economic crisis which has left many with less money.
Anticipate the future
Well why didn’t we anticipate the need for water into the future and make provisions in advance instead of waiting for the crisis and then reacting. The parallel to this is our lack of saving for the future. We tend to live for now and ignore the fact that someday we will need to rely on our investments to see us through. We react only when there is a crisis instead of planning our needs in advance.
Plan for the “must haves”
Water and money are both “must haves”. You cannot get through life without either and they both are becoming scarce.
Do you have enough set aside for the “must haves”? Money provisions for death, disability and retirement are “must haves” Just as we should be harvesting our water we should be harvesting our money. Both are vital provisions for now and the future.
The short term plan
We now have to cut back on our usage of water to make it last for the future. Similarly we have to cut back on our usage of money to make it last. Our attitude towards water will through necessity have to change, whereby we will learn how to recycle it and use it sparingly. The same applies to our attitude to money. While you can you should look for ways to save it rather than spend it.
The long term plan
There is no way getting out of it. Both water and money are running scarce they both need careful planning to cater for our needs into the future. Just as the future planning of water needs to cater for an ever increasing population we have to carefully plan for our financial future as we are living longer.
It’s about saving for a rainy day, which in the case of water we hope comes quickly.