"Broke" Is A Mindset

What’s Your Definition of Being Broke?

I used to think broke was a number, something you could measure by checking your wallet or refreshing your bank app. If the balance was low, I was broke. If money was coming in, I wasn’t. It was that simple for me. But the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized that being broke isn’t just a money problem; it’s a mindset problem, one that can follow you even when the numbers finally look good.

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There was a season when I had money coming in,nothing crazy though, but enough to breathe. Yet every month, I felt that same knot in my stomach that I used to feel when I had almost nothing. I was spending to prove a point I didn’t need to prove, started getting nice shirt here, little treats because “I deserve it.” I was operating like someone who believed money was a trophy to display, not a tool to multiply. Guess how that ended? Right back at zero. Different income, same habits, same results.

That’s when it hit me, broke can be both a condition and a cycle. The condition is external factors which are low funds, overdue bills, nothing to fall back on. The cycle is internal factors like habits and beliefs that keep pulling you back to the same place, even after a payday, a bonus, or a blessing. Give a person with a broke mindset a trillion dollars and they’ll build a staircase to the same basement, give a person with a builder’s mindset ten dollars and they’ll find a way to turn it into a seed and grow a forest.

From experience I've seen that a broke mindset is loud, It wants to be seen, spends to feel important for a moment, even if that moment costs the future. A broke mind hides from numbers,it never has budgets, no plan, just vibes, thinks in short bursts, they'd always say “I worked hard; and so I deserve this now.” It treats every new income like fresh air for old fires. A broke mind is always on survival mode mixed with showmanship and it’s exhausting.

A builder’s mindset is quiet, It plays the long game, believes money should have a job, starting from every naira, every dollar is assigned a purpose before it even arrives. It isn’t embarrassed by small beginnings or conservative choices, willing to always say “not now” without feeling poor. This mind understands that wealth is not the same as spending power, and prosperity is not the same as public approval. A builder is comfortable being underestimated because the scoreboard they’re watching isn’t Instagram,it’s the progress they're making.

Still yet let me be honest mindset alone won’t pay rent, if you genuinely don’t have enough to eat or care for your family, that pressure is real and heavy. But mindset decides what happens after the small door opens after you land that side gig, after you get a raise, after you sell the first batch, after someone finally says yes! to your work. Do you multiply or perform?

I once noted the things that kept me in a broke loop. It wasn’t dramatic,they were just simple, familiar leaks like Buying to impress people who weren’t even paying attention, Avoiding the discomfort of a budget because it felt restrictive, Calling everything urgent and borrowing from the future to fund the present, Saying yes to every request because “I don’t want to seem stingy,” then resenting the consequences, Treating my skills like favors, not assets.
Pointing all this out gave me a better approach to solving yhe problem "Broke"

I also noted the quiet habits that helped me breathe,i started with a basic budget I could actually stick to, nothing fancy, just clear.A small emergency fund which was messy at first, but thank God it's growing, making sure i assigned work to my money; a percentage to save, a percentage to invest, a percentage to give, building marketable micro skills and charging properly for them,choosing timeless over trendy both in clothes, in gadgets, in decisions.

You know the wild part? The numbers didn’t change first. I did. And because I changed, the numbers started behaving differently. Money began to feel less like a secret I could never master and more like a language I could learn. I still make a few financial mistakes but I don’t feel trapped by them anymore. The cycle broke when I stopped believing the lie that I had to look rich on the way to becoming stable although looking and behaving rich shouldn't be ignored either.

So what does being broke mean to me now?It’s not just about a low balance, It’s living without a plan, being allergic to patience, letting today’s applause rob tomorrow’s gain, It’s treating money like a mood rather than a mission, It’s believing that wealth is something that happens to you, not something you grow one disciplined choice at a time.

And what does being rich mean? It’s not the car, not the house, not even the zeroes,those are all outcomes. Rich, to me, is control, i mean control over time, choices, and direction. It’s the freedom to say no without fear, to give without going broke, to rest without checking your phone every five minutes. It’s quiet confidence built on habits that no one claps for but at the end compounded.

If you’re in a tight spot right now, this isn’t blame. It’s an invitation to start small, start quiet, start now. Track your money for one month, cut one leak, build one stream, learn one skill deeper. Say one honest “no.” Put one percent aside and protect it. Repeat. The math will catch up to the mindset.

Riches and poverty may begin as a mindset, but they don’t have to end there. A broke mind will burn a fortune; a builder’s mind will plant a forest.

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