Bonds vs Boys vs Benzes: Is your influencer a BBB+ rated or junk bond? | by Valentine Tenge | Jul, 2023

Bonds

How does your favorite influencer make money?

Besides, legally certified and accredited financial advisors, only a handful of social media influencers give a traceable breakdown of their finances or financial plans. Everyone loves to ‘catch flights’ as they call it, but how about an informative, evidential breakdown to your followers on how you afford and plan for your splurges?

How long did your influencer save for it? Was it in a plain vanilla savings account (a digital version of your grandmother’s mattress savings) or a slightly armored version- a money market fund?

How does this expense stack up against their overall income (cost/income ratio)? Did they, God forbid, take out a loan to finance the luxury purchase/trip? Or did they spend their entire paycheck from the latest furniture sale partnership?

Financial information is a private matter, but I guess this shouldn’t be a problem for people who have no qualms about showing their bedroom setup to the rest of the world.

Boys

Who do you follow and what influence do they have on you?

The answer here could be simple. Unfollow. But the social media game is like whack-a-mole. Whatever content I avoid may pop up as ‘People/pages I may know’. Worse still, influencing here goes beyond digital socials. Influencers are humans which means close friends or family, creating or consuming content. Unfollowing all the non-essential ‘influencers’ on my social media timelines is of no use if I can still pick up the same tendencies from friends or family.

Benzes

Are you buying what you need and most importantly what you can ‘afford’?

I’m a big fan of positive thinking and manifesting ‘abundance’. But have you heard of ‘rose-gold colored thinking’? It’s a positivity overload where we deplete our current resources and overshoot our optimism, on the assumption that ‘money will always be there.’

While I’m fully cognizant of how informative these sales can be, few stop to consider their financial position at the time. Newest sale at ‘Furniture Solace’ and ‘Car Bazaar’. Trust me, everyone loves a fine German automotive splurge, with all the first-class trimmings of Deutschland. It’s a nice show-off for the socials that communicates your preference for the finer things in life and a social statement on your net worth. But did you know that ‘having the best things in life is not a substitute for having the best life’?- Oprah Winfrey.

I’d be wasting my time explaining why an expensive car is the worst investment when they’re myriads of research on this. Once you walk away from your dealer with the latest matte black BMW series, it loses 20% of its value. Yes, you’d only get 80% of your money back if you changed your mind 5mins post-purchase. Worse still, if you can make a large unexpected purchase like a car or house without at least 6 months or a year of planning and saving (and a 20% down payment), wait for it. You missed the announcement during assembly. Can’t be me?Huh?

Social media is sadly, a hamster wheel of endless spending and unnecessary posts to upgrade your current lifestyle. It’s no surprise that most Finance courses dedicate a large chunk to ‘Behavioral Finance’. But our wrong university courses can’t match a sea of followers and verified blue badges, huh?