Have you been to a restaurant and found out that the burgers are crazily expensive? Could we afford an expensive burger? Perhaps the next question would be how expensive is expensive. Which brings us to the viral news about a man who ate a burger and had to pay RM460 for it?
Three sources here. This is from says.com Next one? This is by vulcanpost.com . Third one? This is from hype.my . Basic idea is a simple one. When something is viral, quickly write an article about it to get as much traffic as possible. I mean all websites do that. So, I think I will only post this article on Saturday, after the viral freshness is gone but not yet forgotten.
Anyway, the purpose of the article is not to give you even more explanations about the incident. It has been covered by many different media. All are good writers who could write very fast. The purpose of this article is to ask these 5 questions with regards to a RM460 burger. Answer very honestly and then start doing something about it or we could also accept things as they are as well… Our choice to make.
#1 – Could we afford a RM460 burger if we somehow landed into such a situation and has to pay for it on the spot? – Be grateful if you answer Yes because it meant that we either have so much cash in our wallet or the bank trust us enough to give us a credit card and we have NOT maxed out the credit card. Either way, gives us some confidence since RM460 is not considered an emergency for us. For many people, RM50 may be what he has left for the next 10 days before salary day. Yeah, that was me once upon a time in 1998…
#2 – If we could pay for the RM460 burger via a credit card or cash, would it mean that the next 2 weeks, the lunch will consist of bread with margarine and kaya instead of typical RM10-15 for a lunch with drinks at the nearby restaurant? – If we answered Yes, this tells us that we are a disciplined person. It was unforeseen circumstances which forced us to pay RM460 (by the way it could have been two new tyres, does not need to be for a burger) and because RM460 has been paid, we told ourself NOT to overspend and to balance back the spending by reducing it for the next 14 days. Good job!
#3 – If we could afford to pay for the RM460, could we continue our usual spending until the next salary day? WOW, this is a good news. You have arrived at a level where RM460 could have been that extra savings every month. Thus, losing or spending an extra RM460 does not change your lifestyle at all because that’s extra money. Of course, it should just be unforeseen circumstances. If this happens every month, something is wrong yeah…
#4 – If we could not afford to pay whether by cash or credit card, what does that tell us? Okay, we need to sit down and understand what is happening. If we are currently working, why is our earning so low. If we know the reason, could we do something about it? Or we just let it be… If it is because that’s the only job we could do because of certain limitations, then what is stopping us to find a second job to increase that potential income? Something to ponder and act upon.
#5 – If we could NOT afford, then could we avoid such situations? This is the difference between buying within our means or simply signing up for ever more instalments. Truth is, many of us are already aware that we earn RM3,000 and thus it’s impossible that we could afford a RM4,000 smartphone. Yet, we bought it because instalment is just RM350 per month… Then, we saw another item we wanted… and then…. Understand our own financial standing and make a strong stand not to simply spend.
The question is not this, “Could we afford an expensive burger?.” This RM460 burger could teach us a lot about our current financial standing. It gives us guidance on how we should spend our money if we realised we overspent. It reminds us that it’s really possible to earn more income. It warns us that many times, if we simply spend money, we would soon be in a debt-trap which is hard to get out from. May be best to avoid them right from the beginning. Happy reading more of the RM460 burger news but if you ask me, buying a burger special from the road site stall may give you more enjoyment and less financial worry.
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