I may not be your first choice advisor, but I can assure you that this article is perfect advice for decision making. You will learn what ‘Affording’ and ‘Not affording’ means on simple lay may terms that beat the best dictionary in the world. Take me at my word, I mean just that.

 

Even though experience is said to be the best teacher, its truly bad news to learn from it. It’s right that I start by defining what ‘Affording’ and ‘Not afford’ means. I know there could be a few dictionary meanings that have the right words put together, but I will put my own words and define what I know it means. Yes, my advice is not to go even for an offer if you can’t afford it. It doesn’t matter how lucrative the offer may seem. This rule of thumb cuts across all projects, should it be education, business, self employment, jobs, medical schemes, holiday schemes, family planning, falling in love, inventions, selling, buying, giving, registering, etc it doesn’t matter the cause of action required. The list is just endless.

 

Not unless you are a lucky fellow, the following definitions are applicable to all mankind.

Affording

 

To me, this means being able to take the cost, the package and its consequences. You can pick any of the examples I listed in the preceding paragraph, you will realize that each of them is a package that has costs attached and some consequences. If you are comfortable with the three (costs, package and consequences), then you can jump into it.  

 

Not Affording

 

I have come up with the three attributes that define not affording:

 

  1. Costs – It could be in monitory terms or otherwise
  2. Package – You must be able to take the fixed costs of making it work for you. For example, a car is immobile without fuel.
  3. Consequences – The conditions should be conducive for your chosen project to fulfill the objectives. For example, to have your hydro power station working, you must have gallons of running water.

 

Not affording basically means not being able to secure ALL the three attributes. Both in short and long term periods.

 

The Right to your Opinion

 

I know that motivational speakers may not like what I covering in this subject. I know so because I’m one of them. I do motivational talks that make people tickle. They will tell you not to miss your vocation, for which I agree to 100 percent, but I insist that if ‘your timing doesn’t match affording, you wont make it’.

 

At any given time when faced with the task to decide, to consider your affording capability. Unfortunately, this doesn’t have to be on engaging yourself into something only but it could be disengaging as well. Let me make an example, if you want to sell a business, you must evaluate if you can afford to sell it or not. Doing so will help you evaluate your options, such as buyers, relocating and expanding for example. Your best option of course to go for the cheapest.

 

Decision Making Structures

 

Don’t you think that people fail because they overlook tried and tested structures that are used to determine their affording capabilities? I think this is one of the top reasons, if not the top one, for failure in the world today. This is not only true for individuals, but for SMEs, corporate companies and governments as well. I may not be your first choice advisor, but yielding to decision making structures could save you a lot of trouble.

 

Which structures I’m I talking about? I mean those used by banks, agents, lenders, etc. We are often tempted to beat the structures and overlook the potential consequences. Let me make an example, if you want to acquire some furniture from a shop, the shop manager may require that you produce your pay slip or a letter from your employer to confirm your affording capability. The sales person may do the calculations with your and disprove your intensions, yet the tendency is for people to work around the systems.

 

You’ll find people financing their projects on credit cards, while they commit their salary to something else. How? Because a credit card loan does not reflect in the pay slip. So, your employer won’t know if you have other commitments outside what the pay slip shows. It normally proves otherwise, people turn to suffer unanticipated consequences.

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