Real wealth, security, and contentment come not from the trinkets we amass but from how we spend the one life we’ve been given. We all have good and bad habits when it comes to money.

In fact, some habits might be making you broke without your knowledge in which the only time you finally notice will be when you are about to pay for a meal you had at a classy restaurant and then the bomb drops on you that you are broke.

So in order to avoid embarrassment, here are some signs that will help you know when you are reaching the stage of being broke.

Living from paycheck to paycheck

If you are spending every dollar/ naira you take home, you have just taken a train to broke land, and you have no savings from your salary. You just realize that every money you earn doesn’t seem to be enough anymore.

This is a sign you have to look out for because the majority of us humans do not see this as a problem because we believe that as long as we have the money to spend daily then there isn’t a problem, whereas this is a big red sign calling your attention.

Spending beyond your Income

We’ve all been here (at least I know I have), you could just be browsing through the internet and then you see something you like, then you begin to place orders knowing fully well that the prices are above your income.

But because you like it you place orders, we then use this word to comfort ourselves by saying we only live once (I do this a lot so I know).

Am not disputing the fact that we only live once, because there are times when you just want to appreciate yourself by spending beyond what you earn, Yea, it is good. But when you start to now live on that fact and base your life on it, am sorry to announce to you that you are on your way to being broke.

You aren’t saving for the future

When you have no extras to save from your income this is a sign you need to look out for. It may not seem like a big deal but my friend it is a lot of deals because you are walking into a future with brokenness.

You need to build an emergency fund for days when emergencies set in and

You ignore your finances

Not paying attention to your finance can land you in a well of brokenness if you are not careful. You need to ensure that your review your finance from time to time, Identify what you are doing wrong and what you are doing right and where and how you need to do better and get better financially,

You need to have proper and updated details of your finances. When you begin to lose track of your finance, you need to sit upright and amend the situation because if the proper measures are not taken you are one step close to being broke.

You don’t know where your money is going

Do you know where every penny of your money goes? Do you have a record of how you spend your money? If you answered “no” then you are one step close to being broke.

You could be wondering how not having a record of how you spend your money make you broke, let me share my reason with you, once you begin to spend without having a budget or a record of your finance, you won’t know when you have spent above the limit you should.

Although you might feel you haven’t gone far with spending when in actual fact you have gone way beyond your limit, so now imagine this happens every day or months.

You don’t have an investment

You are about to be broke, especially in your future, if you don’t take the time to invest. Investing is one way to grow your money and secure your future after retirement.

You will miss out on the compounding gain if you avoid investing. You will also forfeit the opportunity to increase your wealth and expand your money as a consequence. The intended corpus for a certain purpose may, however, fall far short.

Being broke is not the end of the world it is just a time of temporary financial hardships that can be avoided. As long as you put in the necessary measures and recognize these signs, I can assure you that you are on your way to financial freedom.