Covid-19 broke human’s ego, it is time you broke yours

What is the greatest threat to our personal finance? Many would say economic recession, high unemployment rate or political instability but I would beg to differ. I believe the greatest threat to personal finance is ‘ego’.

What is the greatest threat to our personal finance? Many would say economic recession, high unemployment rate or political instability but I would beg to differ. I believe the greatest threat to personal finance is ‘ego’.

The concept of ego was first formulated in 1923 by Freud. In simple understanding, ego gets in the way of our happiness and works to build an identity that sets us above everyone else and helps us fit in, so other people will like us, admire us, and accept us. To satisfy our ego, we use money as a tool as it is assumed to be the challenge that soothes our ego. The ego wants things in our life to happen in a certain way while portraying a specific image.

This ego which inf luences our financial commitment is ‘Financial Ego’. We buy bigger homes, continental cars, branded clothes, throw an extravagant wedding and many more worldly indulgences due to financial ego.

But don’t get me wrong, ego has its advantages too and it’s not bad, but its consequences highly depend on how we apply it. Ego and ambition are different; it is okay to have an ego to achieve realistic goals.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic we are facing today has made us realise that we humans are never in control of everything.

When nature decides that it’s enough, we will face the repercussions. With advanced technology and new discoveries in the past decades, we have become proud with the assumption that we can do whatever we want, whenever we want to and that money can solve everything.

However, this global pandemic has pushed us to as far as being confined to our own homes. We have become helpless and in grave fear of the invisible – a virus that we can’t even see. Besides shattering our egos, even the financial ones, this pandemic made us reflect and gave us some financial lessons:

Financial survival

Today’s situation has cost many of us our jobs, pay cuts and thrown in a financial crisis. These might have unexpectedly happened to you and the first thing you need to do is to forgo your ego and engage in income generating activities to recover.

Let me share some real stories here; One of my clients is a business owner with a five-figure income. Due to unforeseen circumstances, he had to shut down his business.

Although he is able to sustain his family’s expenses for the next two years with his emergency fund, he did not remain smug. Instead, he decided to become a Grab driver while thinking of a new business opportunity. I was impressed with his mental capacity to survive without letting his ego overtake his actions.

A friend of mine who is in the finance industry faced a reduction in income during this pandemic. Instead of dwelling on it, she developed an online food catering business.

What she told me struck a chord; it is better to use your skills and be productive rather than let the problem consume you.

I met a real estate agent recently who has been in the industry for just two months. A former tour guide, he knew he would be jobless for at least a year. He knew his strength lies in communicating with people and to put it to good use, he switched to real estate, even though it was different from his previous job.

By being flexible and taking on things that were available, he put his strength to good use and closed four house rental deals in a mere two months.

If any of these people stuck to their ego and refused to try new things which may be out of their norm, they would have missed out on some valuable economic opportunities. Leave that ego and focus on financial survival.

Theory of needs Abraham Maslow, an academician, found that all human beings have five levels of needs to be satisfied. I realised this only during the lockdown.

When our government announced the MCO, I realised the importance of physical survival, safety needs and love. According to Abraham Maslow, food, drink, shelter, clothes, sleep and feeling safe with loved ones are sufficient for humans to survive.

As we are experiencing this pandemic, I certainly appreciate my blessings. If you have secured your physical survival needs, safety needs and love, that is more than enough.

The other needs that you want are mainly to satisfy your ego. The moment you reduce your ego, your needs will also reduce, which leads to less desires and less financial ego. Take this time to identify what actually makes you happy.

True financial success is not the wealth we have, it is also the inner happiness we develop called financial well-being. Focus on your financial well-being rather than only on your financial success.

Managing financial ego Allowing your ego to take over will never bring you financial happiness or the ability to accept your financial mistakes. The first step in managing your financial ego is to be aware of it, especially when you find yourself indulging in irrational purchases and vanity expenses.

Secondly, remind yourself that self- entitlement is not the goal anymore and be authentically you. Lastly, let go the “should” in your life or the financial actions the ego wants and start focusing on the essence of what you want instead. Ego usually causes poor financial decisions and refuses any help. Never be ashamed to receive any help when needed. Manage your ego or it will manage you!

Let’s leverage on the MCO or currently; the Conditional MCO ( CMCO), and take this opportunity to take a step back and re- evaluate our personal finances by addressing available options and eliminating irrational ones.

My article might not change your ego but Covid-19 can!