Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing

What’s your earliest memory of money?

When I was eight, I was involved with my mum’s soft drink business. I was always in the shop with a salesgirl, so I knew how the business worked. It was also my first significant introduction to money — I learned how to count money and balance the books.

I liked the control handling money gave me, so it wasn’t a surprise that I started exploring ways to make money for myself, too. 

Do you remember the first thing you did for money?

In JSS one, I mended shoes for my classmates. I was a very curious kid, and every time a shoemaker mended my shoes, I paid attention to how they did it. One day, I went to the market, bought the needle and thread and started practising on my own. That was it. 

I charged my classmates ₦50 for every shoe I worked on, and it happened until I got bored after a few months. This was 2006.

Fascinating 

The next thing that caught my attention was computers and the internet. When I was 14 years old and was in SS two. My mum gave me a phone that had internet access. Somehow, I stumbled on how to build basic websites with HTML and XML. I’d pay people to build a demo website, study the code and try to implement it myself. 

There wasn’t a plan to make money from this at the time, but I knew it could be a source of income later. 

It appears you started thinking about money early

My parents drove that awareness. For example, my dad’s parents didn’t leave anything for him, and he had to find his way as a mechanical engineer. My mum’s father was better off, but she didn’t bring any of his wealth into our home. She was raised as a Muslim, and when she decided to marry my Christian dad, she had to forfeit almost everything and start over. 

It’s probably why my mum made sure that I was involved in her business for as long as I could. 

By the time I finished secondary school in 2012, my mum’s business had grown into a food canteen. I was awaiting admission, so I managed the business. I wasn’t being paid, but I could take money out of the business if I needed anything. On the side, I was also learning how to build websites. 

The good thing about this was that, when I got into the university in 2013, I knew how businesses worked, and I also had some tech skills. I leveraged this to make some money for myself in my first year. 

Tell me about this

I studied my university community and found out that there were lots of Christian fellowships that needed bulk SMS services. I got to work and built a bulk SMS website and put the word out. I was buying an SMS unit for 90 kobo and selling it for ₦1.50. From this, I was making an average of ₦3k/week.

I wasn’t even doing this full-time — I had a weekly allowance of ₦5k, even though I went home every weekend. Selling SMS was just a side hustle, so it was easy to leave it altogether when it got frustrating.

What happened?

The service provider I bought the unit from increased the unit price from ₦0.90k to ₦1.20. It made sense to raise my prices, but I didn’t think my customers would appreciate it. Ultimately, I decided to end the business. It was the end of my first year and school was closing for the session anyway. 

What happened after?

My immediate elder sister was studying for her Master’s Degree at a university in the southwest, and I spent the session break with her. While I was with her, she randomly asked me if I was interested in learning about photography. When I told her I was, she took me to a photography studio at her uni and paid the owner ₦10k to teach me the basics. 

I hardly learned anything about photography the whole time I was there.

Haha. Why not?

The guy who owned the studio was busy, and the boys who worked for him weren’t the best teachers. Luckily, the studio also had a cyber cafe, and my computer skills were useful there, so I paid more attention to that part of the business. I was helping people do stuff there and making some small changes — about ₦1k – ₦2k/day. I thought that was a fair trade-off since I always had money in my wallet. 

Fair enough 

After about three months, I returned to school for the new session. My allowance was now ₦10k/week, and I didn’t do anything else for money during the year. I just focused on school and website development. 

But my interest in photography was growing, and I was looking for opportunities to learn. This came when I was in 2015 when I was 300 level. 

How?

I found a guy — a studio and wedding photographer — on Instagram and liked his work. He worked in the town, so I approached him and offered to work for him for free. That’s how I started interning with him. 

Man, he used me, but I learned everything I know about photography during the year I worked for him. 

Were you being paid, though?

₦1k transport stipend every time I went out to work for him. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t even at the job, I didn’t get paid beyond that. I was pretty much paid in “experience”.

Haha. We’ve all been there

After working with him for a year, I had enough confidence in my skills to start looking for my gigs, so I left him. But we were still in contact and occasionally worked together. Now he was paying me between ₦5k-10k every time I worked with him. 

The first job I got for myself was to shoot a wedding. I was paid ₦3k. 

Sir?

Haha. I rented the camera I used from a classmate, and I gave him ₦1500. So really, I got ₦1500 from the job.  

Subsequently, I got jobs that paid me between ₦5k and ₦10k. But the downside was that I didn’t have my camera, and I’d usually part with half of my earnings to rent a camera. I didn’t mind this very much because I still had my allowance. That said, I started thinking about getting my camera. It was the only sustainable way. 

I agree. What was the plan?

The camera I wanted cost $2k, and a dollar was trading for ₦300 at the time.

You needed to raise ₦600k

Yes. I turned to my family for help. My mum gave me ₦300k and two of my siblings gave me ₦100k. Luckily, I got a big wedding gig that paid me ₦200k, and my profit from the whole thing was about ₦150k. I had the money I needed.

I paid for the camera in July 2018 and got it in August. 

Here’s where it got interesting. 

I’m listening 

I grew up in a state in the north-central. It so happens that the governor of my state in 2018 used to be our neighbour. His wife — the first lady — was my Sunday School teacher at one point. On a whim, I contacted her on Facebook and offered to photograph her. Two weeks later, she replied with a number to call. I called the number and her P. A invited me to the governor’s office.

Coincidentally, the first lady and her photographer had just stopped working together, so the role was open. The first time we worked together, we went out for an event. I didn’t get paid for that event, but she promised to call me back.

Did she?

She did. That’s how I became her photographer. 

Sweet

At first, our arrangement wasn’t concrete. We’d go to an event, and she’d pay me ₦20k to use for transportation. After working for three months, she asked me to come on full-time and name a number I wanted to earn every month. 

I told her to pay me whatever she wanted. 

Why do I feel like you fumbled a bag there?

I probably did. Chances are that she’d have paid me whatever I asked for, but I didn’t have a framework for how much my services were worth. Anyway, she put me on ₦50k/month.

Oof 

I also wasn’t on the state payroll, so she paid me from her pocket

This was also a campaign period — the 2019 general elections were close — so I was going to work every day. That said, I was making an extra ₦5k – ₦10k every day. We could be at an event and one politician would dash everyone who worked the event money. In a month, I was making about ₦300k. But ₦50k, which was my salary, was the only lump sum payment. Essentially, I was spending the money as I got it, such that at the end of the month, I didn’t have up to ₦100k in my account. 

Rough. How did you navigate this?

I figured I wasn’t very accountable with money because I was still living with my parents. When the governor won his second term bid, and it was confirmed that I’d be working with the first lady for another four years, I started making plans to get my apartment. 

In 2020, I moved into my place; rent was ₦200k.

The next step was figuring out a savings plan. I devised a rule to save half of what I made every month. 

So ₦25k?

My salary was ₦50k, but I typically made more than that every month. Most of the extra money came from planning and producing photo books for the governor’s office. I was making one of these once every two months, which brought in an additional ₦200k – ₦300k.

Ah, I see

In 2020, I had about ₦2m in savings. I thought it was best to put it in something and let the money compound. But I went the wrong route. 

What happened?

Forex trading and crypto. I was trading via a proxy, and I lost all my capital and profit in a few months. This was about ₦3m.

But I wasn’t going out without a fight — I got in contact with another trader and convinced him to let me copy his trades. I started the account with $500 and grew it to $2k in six months. After that, I dumped my position and took the money out. It wasn’t what I lost, but it was something. I used the money to buy my first car, which cost ₦1.2m.

But you had to rebuild your savings, didn’t you?

I did. By the end of 2021, I had rebuilt my savings to ₦1.5m. Then I was in an accident and crashed my car. This happened in November 2021.

Ah. I’m sorry, man

It’s all right. But I didn’t work for five months after that. And I wasn’t paid either. That’s when I knew I couldn’t depend on a single source of income. 

Where did you go from there?

I thought of a business idea and asked a guy to build a mobile app for me. When he charged me ₦800k for it, I had the biggest “But I should be able to do this myself” moment. That’s how I returned to learning programming languages. While recovering from my accident, I started learning Javascript, then React and CSS. I already knew about web design, so the existing knowledge fastened the learning curve. 

Was the plan to make money from it this time?

Not at the time. In April 2022, I returned to work at the governor’s office. I’m not sure why, but I finally got an official appointment and was put on the government’s payroll. My salary level was grade level 13, and I was paid ₦120k/month. Then I’d make an extra ₦200k/month from photo books and other extra tasks. 

But I understood that I had less than a year left at the job since their tenure was about to end again, so I focused on learning about these programming languages as much as I could. 

My last salary was in May when the governor and his wife got out of office. I’ve been on my own since. 

Tell me you’ve started making money from software development 

Of course. I’ve returned to it full-time. I feel like I’ve been out of the photography game for a bit, so it’s probably time to focus on tech — it’s my first love anyway. I worked on one or two projects last year and made ₦500k. 

After my job at the government office ended in May, I moved to Abuja. At the moment, I work as a freelance frontend developer and make between ₦200k – ₦300k/month. 

Do you know where this goes?

My expenses are very low.

Monthly contribution — ₦70k

Feeding — ₦40k

Data — ₦15k

I have two separate monthly contributions — ₦50k and ₦20k. Every month, someone in the group takes all the money. There are 11 other people in the group I pay ₦50k every month, and it was my turn to pack the money last month. So I got a bulk amount of ₦600k. Everything is going into a project I’m working on. 

Do you want to talk about it?

My long-term plan now is to build tech businesses. At the moment, I’m working on a home service application. It won’t make me any money now, but I figured I might start building now. This is my focus for the next few years. 

I have other ideas I’m working on, but those are still in early development. 

In the next five years, I’m hoping to have developed these into companies valued at $1m. It seems like a lofty goal now, but I have the conviction. So I’m putting everything I have into it. 

How much do you think you should be making now?

With everything I know about documentary photography, I should be making $2k/month. With software development, I think I’m at the stage where I should get a role that’ll pay me $40k/year. But everything comes in its own time. I’m more focused on building now. 

Rooting for you. Do you have any savings or investments?

I have about ₦1m saved from my last job with the government, which is also my emergency fund. It would have been more, but I spent a lot of money recovering from my accident. Also, I have an investment in real estate — my sister convinced me to buy a piece of land in 2021. This cost me ₦1.2m.

What do you want right now but can’t afford?

A car, maybe. I sold my last car after my accident in 2021. It’d have cost me more to fix it. But this is a want — I’ve just moved to a new city and am navigating life there. This will have to wait. 

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

5. I don’t look for money to throw it around. I just want enough to keep body and soul together and afford basic stuff. I’m at this point right now. The next thing to do now is to secure my financial future, and I believe I’m on this journey already. I’m throwing myself into the process and enjoying the moments. The money may not be here now, but if I keep to the path, it’ll surely come. I believe that.

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Yes, I want to do a Naira Life

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing

Tell me about your first significant memory of money

When I was 10 years old, my mum came home one evening and called me and my four siblings into her room. Then she started handing us cash, and we got different amounts according to age. When we asked her what it was for, she said it was our allowance. This was a first. 

Until that moment, I didn’t know you could be given money for the sake of it. Previously, I’d only gotten money when I was sent on errands. The ₦50 I got was the first money I could call my own. 

This event was even more striking because of our circumstances. 

What circumstances?

Our financial situation was tough. I don’t remember a time the family was 100% comfortable. There was always a struggle — from food in the house to school fees. We even got new clothes only at Christmas.

And it wasn’t even like my parents weren’t working. My mum was a chef and worked in the kitchens at hotels, and she also sold pastries on the side. My dad was a civil servant. Well, until he lost his job in 2004. 

What happened?

He had an issue in the office and was sacked. Sadly, he was close to retirement and lost all his benefits when this happened. But he wasn’t going to go out without a fight, especially because he believed he was wronged. He thought the judicial system would clear him, so he pursued the case in court with everything he had, which was our limited resources. As I’m talking to you right now, the case is still ongoing. 

Since 2004?

Yes, since 2004. 

Now we were a single-income family, and everything went downhill. I was in JSS 3 in a federal government secondary school, and my mum almost pulled me out. 

Also, we had to move from the staff quarters when my dad lost his job. First, we moved to a BQ the post office owned. Then they chased us out of that one, too. Like that, we moved from the GRA to a rough part of town.

It must have been tough. Did your parents have conversations about money with you?

My mum kept us up to speed. She had a way of making us understand whatever the situation was. In addition, she told us details of her job — where the money came from. We knew when she got a better-paying job or the one time she lost out on a job that’d have been very good for us. 

My mum also involved us in her pastry business. My siblings and I learned very early how to bake. Whenever she wasn’t available, we managed the business. I was in boarding school through secondary school, and I did this whenever I was home for the holidays. 

Was this the first thing you did for money?

In a way, yes. The money I made was for my mum and the family though. I made money for myself for the first time after secondary school in 2009. 

My best friend said I could come to work at her mum’s school. Her mum was also excited to have me because I was very articulate. I was assigned to the Nursery 3 class, and my salary was ₦4500. I was there for eight months and left after I got an admission offer at a university in the southeast.

What happened next?

I was back to having no job and no income. And there was still an unavailability of cash at home. My upkeep was ₦4k. 

Per month?

Haha. No, per semester. At the beginning of each semester, I’d carry as many groceries as I could carry from my mum’s store — she had retired from catering and opened a groceries store — and 10 litres of kerosene to school. Then figure out how to live on ₦4k for three months. 

My final year was a bit better. My oldest sister got a job and started sending me money now and then. It was the first time I could boast of having up to ₦10k at the beginning of the semester.

I felt like a big girl until one day, one of my friends was complaining about being broke. I thought we were in the same struggle until we stopped by the ATM. Ask me how much this babe had in her account.

How much?

₦60k.

“Broke” for me was having ₦500 in my account and praying to god that the ATM would dispense ₦500 notes. Every time this happened, I went home thinking that a miracle had happened. 

One of the reasons I survived university was because I had a lot of privileged friends, and I didn’t always mind when they offered help. For the most part, though, every day was a struggle to get by. But I did it and graduated in 2013.

How did it go after uni?

I moved back home. However, I wasn’t just going back to help with my mum’s business. So I hit the mall in the city looking for jobs, and I found one in a fast-food restaurant. My salary was ₦20k.

Do you remember how it felt the first time you got paid?

The first thing I thought was that I was now earning in one month what I got in four semesters in uni. That said, it didn’t feel particularly satisfying. Although I was broke in uni, I was surrounded by people who had money and knew how to spend it. 

It wasn’t like I didn’t acknowledge that my pay was something. I could now buy a few things for the house and even save, even though there wasn’t a process to it. I just tried to save something every month. This ended when I got sacked after eight months. 

Sorry?

I worked at the cashpoint, the management gave us ₦7k every morning. They called it a “float”, and it was what we used as change. At the end of the business day, you must have ₦7k on top of whatever you sold that day. And the policy was that the allowable excess or shortage shouldn’t be more than ₦25.

On the day I was let go, I was the only cashier on duty and it was rush hour on a public holiday. It got overwhelming, and I started taking orders without punching them into the system. When everything settled, I went back and logged everything I sold. But I forgot a cup of ice cream for ₦400. So I had an excess of ₦400 in my sheet. 

The manager called me in to explain, and I did. I thought that’d be the end of it because I gave so much to that job. I was also their best cashier. Like a joke, he asked me to submit my uniform and badge and leave the premises. 

I was more annoyed than anything else. I missed my convocation for these people, and I was let go because of ₦400 that I didn’t even steal.

Bruh. I’m sorry 

I was embarrassed, and it took me one month before I told my parents that I lost my job. But at least, I saved some money from the job, and it was enough to finish my final clearance in school and go for NYSC.

NYSC was the first time I touched proper money. 

How?

My PPA was the local government council, and working there gave me access to information. The council was NGO’s first stop when they were looking for corps members to sign up for field studies. Because of this, I worked with three NGOs during the year and helped them conduct their studies. I got ₦200k from the first NGO for one month of work. The second and third paid about ₦300k each, and they both lasted for one month. 

Interesting 

This is how payments worked: you got something called per diem every day you were out on the field. The sum accumulates into a lump sum, which you receive at the end of the project. 

So I got about ₦800k from this alone. But it also gave me some experience in the development sector. This got me into the sector eventually.

Oh yeah? Let’s talk about that 

When NYSC finished in 2015, I hoped to get a job in the local government where I served, but it didn’t happen. I returned home, and nothing happened there, too. 

In February 2016, a supervisor I’d worked with sent me a job opening at an NGO, and I applied. He also recommended me to the programme manager. At the end of the process, I was hired as an ad-hoc staff for a data entry role. The pay was ₦23,500. 

I was at the job until March 2017. 

Why did you leave?

The funding ran out. But it wasn’t the end — another position opened up in the organisation funding the project, and I also applied to this. Unfortunately, I missed the interview. Two months later, they miraculously invited me to interview for another role in the north-central. I was in a city in the south-south to interview for a rubbish job I wasn’t sure about.

When I saw the invitation to interview, I hit the road again and spent 12 hours before I got to the city. Thankfully, my oldest sibling — a brother — had gotten married and my sister-in-law was living in the city. I went for the first interview, then three more interviews and a test. I left with a job.

Yayy

I still remember how time froze when I got the call. My salary was ₦150k.

But you had to move to a new city 

I stayed with my sister-in-law for about five months when I moved, and transportation was my major expense. I wasn’t paying rent or buying a lot of food, so I could save some money. My running cost during this time was ₦80k, and I was saving ₦70k/month. That’s how I raised money for rent — I got a self-contained apartment for ₦400k/year and moved there in October 2017.

How was it going at work?

After one year and eight months and a review that increased my salary to ₦250k/month, the project ended. Two months later, I found another job that paid me ₦350k, but the project also closed out after four months. 

Heh. What’s going on?

Jobs in the development sector are subject to funding, and they also have timelines. If the project is renewed, fine. But if it’s not, the project closes and the staff is back in the labour market. 

A lot of networking goes on in the sector, too. That’s how you get really good jobs. For example, my next job wasn’t advertised publicly, and I only knew about it through someone I’d worked with. This job changed a lot for me.

How so?

It paid in pounds. 

Say no more. How much though?

£1k as a project support manager. 

I started the job in July 2019, and the exchange rate was between ₦600 and ₦800 in the one and half years I spent there.

The most important thing the job helped me do was to migrate my savings from Naira to Pounds. I’d change £400 to naira and live on it until it ran out. Also, the naira savings I had before the job became my expense account, giving me little reason to touch my pounds.

When the project closed out and I left the job in April 2021, my naira account was completely obliterated. But my pounds savings were a little significant. 

How much did you have in it?

About £12k.

I stan

I was back on the streets, though. And it took five months before I found a new job. 

How did those five months go?

It was a mix of different emotions. First, I wasn’t bothered. I needed to rest, so I was chilling with my friends who were also affected. The feeling of dread started creeping up in the second month. By the third month, we had found a library we went to every day to apply for jobs. In the fourth month, we were getting a bit desperate and were reaching out to everyone we knew.

I eventually got an offer in August 2021 and resumed the role in September. My starting salary was ₦600k gross and ₦470k net. If I didn’t have a five-month gap in my resume, I’m sure I’d have had the leverage to negotiate more. 

The game is the game

But I’ve gotten two raises in the past two years. Now, my gross salary is ₦800k and the net is ₦700k. My net salary would have been lower, but I’m paying less tax because of the way my salary is structured. It’s been a big game-changer. 

Explain, please

There’s a life insurance policy scheme at my place of work, and what you put into it goes there before tax. So the more money you dedicate to the insurance fund, the less tax that’s deducted from your salary. 

What does this look like in practice?

The last tax I paid before I joined the life policy scheme was ₦105k. At the time, my gross salary was ₦600k. When I got a raise and my gross increased to ₦700k, I started putting ₦300k into the policy every month, and my tax reduced to ₦56k. Now that my gross salary is ₦800k, I put ₦400k into the insurance policy, and I only pay tax on the remaining ₦400k. 

At the moment, I pay ₦57k in tax plus an extra ₦43k in other deductibles and take ₦300k home every month. If I wasn’t putting money into the life insurance scheme, my tax alone would have been ₦120k. 

This is very interesting. But what happens to the money you put in the insurance scheme?

I can liquidate it after three months. But if I don’t touch it for a year, I  get a 4% return on everything I put in. Last year, I did ₦300k/month for a year and got ₦3.6m + ₦144k at the end of the year. 

This is my primary savings account now. And I’m motivated by the fact that it allows me to have a disciplined savings plan outside of my net income. However, there is a caveat. 

I’m listening

The insurance company is only liable to pay my family ₦1m if anything happens to me, no matter how much I have saved in it. 

But you know what? I weighed everything and decided that the pros outweigh the cons. At the end of this year, I’m going to have ₦4.8m in savings.

Also, I’m in a contribution scheme at work with nine other people. Everyone puts in ₦150k/month and someone packs ₦1.5m each month. This is money for my rent, which is now ₦1.2m. The extra goes into my secondary naira savings account. 

Wait, this means you currently live on ₦150k a month?

I mostly live on ₦100k/month — I send ₦50k home to my family. I won’t lie, it takes a lot of discipline to do this, but I’ve built that muscle.

Omo. Let’s break it down, please

Other expenses come every three months — I buy food in bulk and spend ₦100k on that. Also, I take my dog to the vet and spend about ₦25k. Mostly, I just borrow money from my naira savings account to do this and figure out a way to return it later. 

Also, the money I send home monthly is for my parent’s basic upkeep and doesn’t accurately capture what I spend on the home front. I’m the highest earner in the family and as a result, I contribute the most financially. Recently, I paid my parent’s rent, which was ₦192k. I’m mostly responsible for healthcare and other expenses too. I fund these from my savings.

How much money do you have saved up now?

Life insurance policy — ₦2.4m

Pounds savings — £10k

Naira savings — ₦90k

Any extra money that comes in — mostly cash gifts from senior colleagues and friends — goes into my naira savings account.  I’d have had more money there, but I just took ₦1.5m to buy two plots of land.

If you were wondering what I did with the ₦3.6m I took out of the life insurance scheme last year, I also used it to buy plots of land. 

I have an approach to these land investments.

Let’s hear it

I look out for distress sales and buy cheap. It’s my strategy to maximise my capital in these investments. So the landed properties I currently have are valued higher than what I paid for them.

You’ve come a long way. What does financial freedom mean to you?

It means I’m at a place where I’m not an incident away from going back to square one. I acknowledge my growth, but sometimes, I’m like, “Is this enough?” 

As it stands, I don’t have enough safety nets that’ll protect me from whatever life throws at me. It’ll feel like I’m financially free when I build those. 

In the present, what do you want but can’t afford?

Investing in a Caribbean country and getting their passport. I want the options a strong passport gives you. If I manage to do that, I’ll feel like I’ve arrived. 

What’s your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

This time last year, it was a 7. But there is lots of uncertainty in the country now and the prices of everything have gone up. It feels like I’ve been broke all year, and I may have to revise my budget. I hate it. So right now, it’s a 5. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Yes, I want to do a Naira Life

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

What was money like growing up?

It was constant, and I got it with no strings attached. I didn’t understand the concept of working for money because my family had everything covered. 

When I was in primary school, my siblings and I found our allowances on the table every day. My dad used to do this thing where he gave us every denomination. So if your allowance was ₦‎100, he’d give you ₦50, ₦20, ₦10, ₦5 notes and some coins. My allowance when I was in primary five was ₦50, and I got it every morning without fail.

What did your parents do for money?

My mum went from an office job to running her own business. At first, she opened a business centre. Then she opened a small cafeteria, which evolved into a catering business. My dad, on the other hand, was a civil servant. Together, they made enough money to fund the necessities. We ate good food, lived in a decent house and went to quality schools. 

It’s fair to say that I was shielded from the need to make money in my early years. But this started to change when I was about eight or nine years old. 

How?

My earliest memories of this was watching how hard my parents worked. My mum was building her catering business and it was backbreaking work. My dad was also travelling a lot for work. Slowly, I got the sense that all of this was how we got our money. 

The next realisation was finding out that money was a limited resource. Some context: I have two sisters and a brother who are much older than me, and they were in private universities at the same time. My parents had to figure out how to pay for it. Also, two of my sisters had some health challenges, and my parents felt the toll of these financial obligations. 

My mum sold her gold jewellery, which she’d bought as a form of investment, to raise money at some point. She also liquidated some of her investments in the Nigerian stock market.

Watching all of this unfold clicked something in my brain: I didn’t have to worry about money only because I had parents who made sure I was provided for. 

Fair enough. When was the first time you made money?

During the six-month 2013 ASUU strike, I learned how to bake cakes. When school reopened, I started a small baking business. My earliest customers were church folk, family and friends and the random people they referred to me. In a good month, I had up to four orders and made between ₦10k and ₦12k. 

I was 17 years old and in 200 level. 

I imagine you didn’t have to depend on this for survival though

No. I had a weekly allowance of ₦5k. One of my older sisters was already working, and she also sent me ₦5k monthly. Then my other siblings also occasionally sent me some money gifts. This was my life until December 2015 when I left university. The last child tax was really strong. 

Must be nice

Haha. I stopped asking for money after writing my final exams. Between January and April 2016, I was at home, waiting to be mobilised for NYSC and lived on the money I made from baking. But my focus was on how to put my economics degree to use and launch my career during my service year. The way I saw it, I had to serve in Lagos and get a good placement. 

I spoke to my mum, and she did what she had to do to get me posted to Lagos. A family member also helped me get a role as a junior research analyst at a boutique investment bank. 

How much did the role pay?

₦35k. Plus as a serving corps member, I got ₦19800 from the government. Luckily, I got a very soft landing when I moved to Lagos — my eldest sister had been living in the city for a few years, and I moved in with her. My office was also on her route to work, so she dropped me off at work on most mornings. 

How were you moving money out?

I always drew a monthly budget and stuck to it. The thinking was to figure out a plan that ensured that I had enough money to take me through the month. Ultimately, I spent most of my earnings on food, airtime and data, which were my basic expenses. I wasn’t saving though. I didn’t need to. 

Did anything change post-NYSC?

The investment bank retained me and upped my salary to ₦75k. This was in April 2017. 

 However, I spent five more months before I hopped jobs. 

How did this happen?

During my service year, I did this graduate programme with a training academy called Edubridge. It was a six-week course and cost about ₦40k, which my sister paid. Asides from being a training institute, the academy was also a talent pipeline and companies reached out to them to look for entry-level employees.

I was shortlisted for an interview with a new finance company, and I got the job in September 2017. It was a business analyst role, and my salary was ₦100k. Nine months later, I got a raise to ₦120k.

What did this rapid income growth mean for you at the time?

Although my taste and expenses got bigger, I had extra money to save after drawing up my monthly budget. In April 2018, my company piloted a savings product, and I started saving the ₦10k with them.

Fast forward to December 2018, I started thinking about switching jobs again.

Why?

It was a very difficult job, and I worked long hours on weekdays and weekends. But I wasn’t particularly intentional about finding a new job. Not until I helped a friend prepare for a graduate trainee test at a bank and she convinced me to take the test, too. It took some prodding, but I took the test on the deadline day. Interestingly, I passed it and was invited for the first phase of interviews. Then the subsequent phases. In the end, I got a job offer from the bank. 

While thinking about whether to accept or reject the role, my dad passed away. 

Oh, man. I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?

He suffered a stroke in 2016 and never fully recovered until he died. His death triggered a need to start something fresh and since a new job was waiting for me, I decided to go for it. I accepted the role in December 2018 and quit my old job in January 2019. I also took the money I’d been saving with them — about ₦100k — out and gave my mum for my dad’s funeral. She didn’t need it, but I wanted to do something. 

I also had about ₦40k in a money market fund, and I took it out to get me through the first month of the bank’s training school. 

Were you paid while at the training school?

Yes. The bank paid trainees ₦100k/month. After going through the training school, I started getting a proper salary, which was ₦226k. Between May and November, I worked on rotation at different departments within the bank before I was transferred to the communications department. Subsequently, I worked for another six months before I was confirmed as a full-time employee of the bank in May 2020.

Did anything change in your payment structure after confirmation?

Now I was entitled to allowances. However, these were deducted from my main salary, so my pay went from ₦226k to ₦176k. 

Tell me about these allowances

I got two allowances in a business year: housing and education paid in January and June respectively. In 2020, my housing allowance was ₦208k and my education allowance was ₦326k. 

Nothing much happened until 2021 when I got promoted, and my salary jumped to ₦279k. By extension, my allowances also increased. In 2021, I got ₦390k in housing allowance and ₦345k in education allowance.

 How did promotion work at the bank?

There were two performance cycles twice a year. If you got an A in three consecutive appraisals, you were up for promotion, although it didn’t necessarily mean you’d get it. The rest of the process depended on how much the head of your department was willing to fight for you. I was lucky that my department was small, so it was clear how much work I was doing. 

Oh, I missed an important detail. 

I’m listening

In 2019, my former manager at my previous job contacted me. He’d started a small company and needed a freelance business analyst at his new business, so he started outsourcing these jobs to me. Now I was making between ₦30k – ₦50k every once in a while.

The frequency of these projects increased during the 2020 pandemic because I was working from home. Also, he started referring me to other clients, and I had something to do on the side every month. My combined income for most of 2020 was ₦310k.

Sweet

Even though my income had been growing since 2019, I was still living with my sister and wasn’t paying rent. The only thing that had changed was that I was now saving 40% of my monthly income. 

By the end of 2020, I finally had reason to dip heavily into my savings. 

What happened?

My sister was moving out of Lagos. We decided that I’d keep the apartment and continue paying the rent, which was ₦1.2m + ₦120k service charges. She also sold her car to me for ₦800k. A pretty good deal if you ask me. 

Since I was now living alone, my expense profile shot up a bit, but my savings goal was still 40% of my monthly income. While I managed to save up about ₦1.5m in 2021, my biggest realisation was that whatever money I made would never be enough. It didn’t matter how much I earned from my job and other projects, I’d always need to figure out new ways to increase my income. If anything, for the fact that the cost of living kept going up.

It was almost like it was from my mouth to God’s ears because my income significantly increased in 2022. 

Oh yeah? Tell me about this

In March, a friend reached out to me to find out if I was interested in a role at the company where she worked. It was a new professional services company, and they were looking for a Business Growth Manager. She thought I was qualified for the role because I’d worked in the investment and traditional banking and had a bit of business knowledge. With nothing to lose, I threw my hat in the ring. I interviewed with the company and got the job. 

*Drum roll*

My salary was ₦600k when I started the job in May 2022. In the same month, I got a part-time, remote job through my former manager, and this paid ₦150k/month.

Three months into my main job, I got a raise, increasing my salary to ₦635k. That’s not all. 

It’s not?

In August 2022, I got another small job writing content for a website for ₦25k/month. Now I have three constant streams of income, bringing in ₦810k. If I do any extra work in a month, this number goes up to ₦870k – ₦900k.

You were earning between ₦279k – ₦310k up until 2021. What do you think changed in 2022?

The years of work just added up. Interestingly, the two jobs I constantly work on the side came from a single source — my manager from 2018. We had a good working relationship when we worked together full-time, and it continued after I left the business. Most of the one-off side projects I’ve gotten over the years also came from him. Essentially, it’s all come down to having a working relationship with the right person. 

What has this income growth meant for you in this little time?

Two things: higher savings and lifestyle inflation. Now I just try to strike a balance between living my life and being financially responsible. In practice, it means optimising to save 45% of my monthly income. Plus I now look out for investment opportunities I can find. 

How’s that going?

I got into US stocks last year, but the US economy wasn’t doing great, so I took the money out at some point and funnelled it back into my savings. 

My mum started a mushroom business — she had a team that grew the mushrooms, dried and sold them to pharmaceutical companies. I invested ₦450k in it and made ₦150k in profits within three months. The plan was to put everything back in, but the business is currently on hold because of some supply chain problems. I still have the ₦600k with my mum, though. 

Then I have another ₦800k in investment opportunities on an online savings platform that I trust.

What about your savings?

I’ve dipped into that recently to pay my rent and do some body work on my car, and both came to ₦1.5m. At the moment, I have ₦750k in my core savings account and ₦350k in flexible savings — this is what covers my emergency expenses. 

How would you describe your relationship with money now?

I don’t love it. I feel like I’m constantly thinking about money and what needs to be paid for. Sometimes, it feels like I’m living above my means, especially because I don’t have a lot of family responsibilities. But on the other hand, I’m not a wasteful person, so maybe I just need to earn more. 

But do you know where your money goes every month?

I also budget ₦30k for my skincare and ₦25k – ₦30k for requests from family.

Curious. How much do you feel you should be earning now?

An ideal number is ₦1.3m – ₦1.5m. It will eradicate the feeling that I’m living above my means. That said, there’s a lot of upskilling and networking that needs to be done to get here. 

What do you want right now but can’t afford?

A lot, man. LASIK eye surgery and that was about ₦1.2m the last time I checked. Also, I want to travel more and see the world. A nicer house will be nice, too — I currently pay ₦1.2m for a BQ. 

I feel like if I have to plan intensely for something, then I cannot afford it. Everything on this list is not things I can pay for in a heartbeat.

Have you spent money on anything that required proper planning recently though?

In December, my phone got damaged, and it wasn’t cost-effective to repair it. So I had to shell out ₦520k for a new phone, and it took punching some numbers to get it done. But it’s the phone I wanted, and it improved the quality of my life. I’ll take the win. 

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

5.5. I know I can be earning more, and it seems to be the only thing I think about these days. Sometimes, it’s hard to see how far I’ve come in the past few years because of this mindset. I’m looking forward to the point where I think less about money and focus more on experiences. My satisfaction will shoot up when that time comes.

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

When was the first time you knew what money meant?

In 2001, I was a JSS 2 boarding student, and it was two weeks to a new term. Unfortunately, my parents hadn’t raised money for my school fees and other needs like a new uniform and provisions. My mum was overwhelmed and stressed, so I asked her to give me some of the stuff in her shop to hawk and make some money. 

What was in your mum’s shop?

She was a tailor, so she had a small stock of tailoring materials she sold on the side. She didn’t think these would sell very fast, but she had another idea. 

The following day, she took me to one of her friends who sold consumer goods in bulk and convinced her to give me some of her stock. By the end of the day, I had a small set of toothbrushes, toothpaste, cotton wool and cotton buds to sell. For the next two weeks, I was at an interstate car park five days a week. When I finished selling a batch, I’d return to the cost price and profit to the woman and keep the markup I’d set.

What were the numbers like?

It was a fast-moving business. A roll of sachet toothpaste was ₦‎250, and my profit was ₦70/roll. A pack of toothbrushes was ₦200, and I made ₦100 on this. For the cotton wools, I was making about ₦50/pack. My average profit every day was about ₦500 – ₦600.

When I was returning to school, I’d earned enough money to get a new uniform and sandals. An uncle paid my school fees. 

Fascinating. You started making money early 

I had to. My dad was a factory worker with little income. The whole family lived in a tiny boy’s quarter, and everything we owned was lumped in a corner of the room we lived in. At the time, I had three siblings. The birth of my youngest sibling was another significant moment, and it drilled into me that I had no choice but to make money.

I’m listening

During a holiday when I was in SS two, I returned home to meet a baby — my youngest brother. I was like, “Wait, I don’t understand. We’re going through it and you guys are still making kids?” As my mum handed my brother to me, I burst into tears. It was the first time the reality of being the first child hit me. I was thinking, “Man. It’s going to be your job to be responsible for everyone.”

Damn. That’s heavy 

Every time I was home for the holidays, I was always hawking something to make money — from pure water to soft drinks. But when I finished secondary school in 2006 and didn’t get into the university immediately, I decided to try my hands at something else. 

What was that?

Selling recharge cards. My capital was ₦10k, which I got from an uncle and my mum. Luckily, I got a free spot at a car park and bought an umbrella and a chair for ₦3k. The rest went into packs of recharge cards, and I was in business. I was making a profit of ₦40 – ₦60 on a pack of recharge cards, depending on the network. And my profit every day ran into about ₦1k. 

I was at the park from April 2008 to December 2009 when I got into the university. Subsequently, I handed the business to my younger brother. 

How did uni go?

My uni was in the same city we lived in, so I’d help my brother out with the business during weekends and during semester breaks. That’s how I got money to survive.

This was my routine until 2013 when my brother had to go to university in another state, effectively ending the business. The timing was terrible because I had just gotten into my final year.

Luckily, a lecturer paid my school fees. But I still had to figure out how to survive the rest of the year since nothing was coming from home. 

A friend suggested that I could try writing projects for students in my school, and I took it up. Unfortunately, the school went on strike at some point, so that source dried up. Subsequently, I did a bunch of stuff: I worked as a lesson teacher, earning ₦350/day. Then I worked with a horticulturist and got paid ₦1k/day when there was work to do. After that, a relative linked me up with a marketing job that paid me ₦1500/day.  

When the strike got suspended and the school went back into session, I returned to writing projects and did that until I graduated in 2014. I also managed to save about ₦50k, which I used to sort out some basic expenses when I was going for service.

What about NYSC?

I lived on the ₦19800 allowance from the government for the first few months before I got another business idea. There weren’t a lot of people selling men’s shirts, so I thought I could fill that gap. Using my allawee as capital, I travelled to a neighbouring city and bought some shirts. Each one cost ₦900, but I sold them for ₦2k.

You should read this too: The #NairaLife Of A Lawyer Who Is Obsessed With Investment Opportunities

Lit

I had close to about ₦70k saved up when I finished NYSC. But the major highlight was getting a job in the same month after NYSC ended. That was a big deal for me. I moved to Lagos to live with an uncle and start the job. This was in July 2015.

What was the job about?

I was hired as a relationship officer at a stock-broking firm. My job was to sell the company’s product to clients. My salary was ₦66k, but after removing feeding and transportation expenses, I usually had about ₦10k left. That barely covered anything. 

Luckily, a customer service opportunity opened up in my uncle’s place of work in 2016, and I took it. The pay was ₦50k.

Wasn’t that a pay cut?

I took it because of the additional perks. There were bonuses, which brought my monthly income to about ₦80k. Also, there was free transportation for all staff members. It was a better deal than my previous job. I worked there from 2016 to 2018. 

How did you move money during that time?

My core saving was ₦10k/month. But on the side, I was also in a five-people contribution scheme, in which I put ₦20k every month.

Whenever it was my turn to get the money, I’d send everything home — my parents had started building a house, and I wanted to finish the project. Also, my siblings were already in university, so there was always a need for money at home.

What happened after?

In 2017, my cousin introduced me to Twitter. His pitch was that I could make money from the platform if I built my account and became an influencer. So I decided to give it a try. 

For the next few months, I read a ton about building a social following. Then I started tweeting about funny things, and some of them went viral.

Interestingly, my follower count started growing, and little gigs followed. Someone would reach out and ask me to retweet something, and I’d get paid between ₦2k and ₦5k. But those were far an in-between. 

The most interesting thing was that Twitter got me my next job. 

How?

In 2018, I saw a customer service opening at an energy company and decided to apply for it. They got back to me, inviting me to an interview. During the interview, one of the guys on the panel recognised me from Twitter, and I still believe that this played a small part in their decision-making process. I was invited for a few more interviews, and I got the job.

The role was a customer service rep, but I was also working on the social media team. My salary was ₦130k. 

I’ve been at the company since that time.

How has your role evolved over the years?

I spent about two years in customer service and social media before I was transferred to the corporate communications department in 2020. I’ve also gotten a few raises in the past few years.

What else has happened in that time?

My job opened my eyes to how best I can leverage my Twitter following. In the past five years, I’ve also been consulting for brands. As my following grew, so did my charges. It’s pretty much my side hustle now, and I make between ₦300k and ₦500k from my Twitter account every month.

Sweet. Your monthly income is about ₦800k

See, I don’t even like to think about it because it scares me. It’s always like this thing can vanish at any time. It’s also why I don’t keep money in my account anymore.

Wait, you don’t save?

I don’t save money. To be honest, I’m not sure I have up to ₦30k in my account at the moment. It’s almost like a phobia now.

Once I have a lumpsum amount, I immediately invest it in something, usually real estate. 

Why?

We had trouble with accommodation when I was growing up, and nobody deserves to go through that. At some point, we were living inside a compound used for trade fairs and were at the mercy of the government because they could kick us out at any time.

This is why one of my priorities in the past few years was completing my parents’ house, and I did that about two years ago. Now, I’m putting as much as I can into my real estate investments, and I have some properties in two states in the southwest.

Can you tell me more about these investments?

I made my first real estate investment in 2021 — one acre of land somewhere in Ogun state, and it cost about ₦1.6m. I’m currently developing it, and I’ve spent about ₦10m on the project. The property is valued at about ₦20m now, although I have no intention of selling it. 

There’s another acre of land in Oyo state, and I bought it for ₦2m. The last one — also an acre of land — is also in the Oyo state, and it cost me ₦900k.

Interesting. What’s your plan for these investments?

The plan is to develop these into buildings and invest in more properties. The thought of having them calms me in a way money in my account doesn’t. My family has been poor and homeless, but I always figured out how to make some money, as little as it might have been. It was more difficult to hack our living situation, and it sucked for years. I can’t let that happen again.

That’s fair. A segue, what do your monthly running costs look like?

Investments — ₦250k

Internet — ₦20k

Feeding — ₦90k

Parents’ allowance — ₦50k

Siblings’ allowance — ₦50k

Scholarships — ₦50k

Flex money — ₦50k

I have a few cousins and nephews living with me, which is why my feeding budget is that high. Also, I’m sending two kids to school, and I budget ₦50k for their monthly expenses.

How much do you think you should be earning now?

₦1.5m/month seems like a good number at the moment. But if I want to achieve everything I want to do in the next five years, ₦5m/month should be what I should be aiming for. 

Interesting. What would you like to do in the next five years?

I want to go for my MBA and be CIM certified. Also, I’d like to grow a clothing and branding company I started in 2018. I already have the contacts and networks — I just need money to start. Of course, I’d like to buy more properties, too. It’s a lot. Haha.

Recommended: How Could This Tech Bro Afford A Year Break From Work? Equity And Stocks

Back to the present, what do you want right now but can’t afford?

A property in Banana Island. A plot of land there, as far as I know, is about ₦1b. But man, if I have the means to do that, I won’t hesitate for one second. It’s the dream. 

That’s on-brand. What’s the last thing you brought that improved the quality of your life?

My car. I bought it in 2022 for ₦3.8m. Now someone uses my old car for Uber, and this brings in some monthly passive income for me.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

6. I live a very comfortable life, and I’m in a much better place than I was about a decade ago. I won’t trade it for anything. That said, there are still a lot of things I’d like to do but can’t yet.

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

Do you remember your oldest memory of money?

It was in 2006. I asked my mum to buy me a T-shirt, expecting a yes or a no from her. But she asked me what I’d been doing with my daily allowance, which was ₦50 at the time. When I told her that I spent everything, she offered me a deal: she’d take ₦5 from my allowance every day and keep it with her.

After saving up to ₦50, she added the balance and bought the shirt I wanted for me. I was 12 years old at the time, but the lesson stayed with me for many years after that — if you wanted something, you had to save up for it. 

That’s wholesome

For the most part, growing up with my parents was a lesson in putting money to good use. My mum sold pepper and groceries in a market and my dad was a small-time car dealer. So we weren’t rich. But you see my dad? He was very intentional about how he wanted his kids to be raised. 

We lived in a ghetto in Mushin and his primary priority was shielding us from the streets. Because of that, he ensured that we went to private schools. All 11 of us. 

I should mention that my dad married two wives. I have five siblings from his first marriage, and I’m the first of my mum’s four kids. 

Fascinating. What was it like growing up in a polygamous home?

The one thing I still remember is the pressure to compete. It started with how well you did in school compared to how your half-siblings did. We were family, but someone had to be the best. 

I couldn’t escape this because one of my half-brothers was the same age as me. As the years progressed, this competition and the pressure that came with it extended to things like money and finances. 

What do you mean?

In 2012, I got admitted into the polytechnic to study civil engineering, but my half-brother didn’t. He tried the following year, and the same thing happened. In between writing these exams, he started working. Once that happened, he didn’t need money from home anymore.

After writing JAMB for three years without getting into the university, he ditched his plans for school and got a job instead. Like that, he was 100% independent and I wasn’t, even though we were almost the same age. 

But you were in school, weren’t you?

I don’t think my dad thought about it that way. From my second year at the polytechnic, I started hearing things like, “You should be able to do some things by yourself now. Look at your brother.”

Man, the pressure that came with that was something. The best thing to do was to get a job, but there weren’t a lot of opportunities in the town where my school was. I didn’t get my first job until my IT in 2016. 

Tell me more about that

I worked at a construction company in Lagos, and I was an assistant site manager. The pay was ₦20k. However, I spent 80% of my monthly stipend on transportation. I lived on the mainland and the site I worked on was on the island — it took three bus rides to get there.

The money was barely enough, so I had to get some help from home. My dad gave me ₦500 every day to support what I had. I hated that.

Phew

But I loved one thing about IT. Although I was an intern, I had a degree of ownership and my site manager encouraged and trusted me to make critical decisions. Before I returned to school, the site manager left the project and the company put me in charge. We were in the finishing stages, but the confidence boost was everything I needed. 

Energy

It didn’t come with a pay increase, though. But sometimes I’d get some tips from clients or contractors — about ₦2k – ₦5k. 

In 2017, I returned to the polytechnic for my HND. 

And you had to return to collecting an allowance?

Something like that. But my chances of getting money from home even got way slimmer. All I kept hearing was to think about what my brother could do by himself already. 

So whenever I got money from home, I’d save something from it because I wasn’t sure if I’d get anything the next time I asked. Also, I returned to working with the construction company during semester breaks. I wasn’t paid a salary, but I got tips on the sites I worked at.

I graduated from the polytechnic in 2018. 

Where were you, financially?

I barely had anything in savings. I stopped asking my dad for money in my final year because it’d become embarrassing, so I lived on what I had saved up for the whole year. But now that I was out of school, I was determined to set myself up and earn some respect from home.

Did you have a plan?

The only plan was to go all in on construction jobs. I had about two years of construction experience, and I was certain it’d get me something. That said, I knew I couldn’t go back to the construction company I interned at. 

Why not?

I’d worked with them for long enough to know that they’d always lowball me because I used to be an intern there. I couldn’t afford to go back there and earn ₦20k/month. I had a point to prove at home. 

Luckily, one of the engineers I worked with in 2016 had started his own company and brought me in on one of his projects. I got paid based on the volume of work available on the site, but my average income was about ₦50k. There were also the additional tips that came from time to time — ₦2k here, ₦5k there.

Within three months, I managed to save ₦100k. Then I was mobilised to a state in the northwest for NYSC. There was nothing for me there, so I paid ₦30k to redeploy back to Lagos. 

I imagine you continued working with the engineer

I did. His construction site was my PPA. At some point, he left the site for me to manage and my monthly earnings doubled to about ₦100k. The federal government also paid me ₦19800. 

How did the rest of the year go?

The pressure I felt to make money eased a bit. But now, I couldn’t bear the thought of losing this income source without a plan B. I was like, “If this person I’m working for can have a company, maybe I can, too.” So I went ahead and registered a construction company. This was in 2019. 

What happened after?

After I finished NYSC in 2019, I’d saved close to ₦300k from the projects I worked on with my former boss. Nothing major happened for the rest of the year — I was thinking about how to get my clients but nothing came through. Then 2020 came and Covid happened, which slowed things down. But it gave me a bit of time to figure things out. 

I’m curious, how did you hope to get projects?

To be honest, I didn’t think about it too much. But after trying and failing to get jobs for more than three months, I started looking at my contacts. A friend from school came through and offered me an opportunity to partner with him on a hotel construction project he was looking at. We pitched ourselves to the client and got the contract.

Yay

We spent about seven months on the project before the client suspended work — the project was gulping more than his budget. But I made about ₦600k from supervising the project. 

The next thing I did was to buy a car. 

Oh yeah?

I’d been driving my dad’s car, and I didn’t want to wait until he asked me if I ever planned on getting my car. Also, I was pretty sure we got the contract for that project because I pulled up in my dad’s Lexus. So I thought it was a business decision to get a car. My thinking was that it would help me land deals, so I bought a Nigerian-used 1997 Mercedes C200 car. It cost me ₦650k. 

A part of me bought the car because I thought the jobs would keep coming. But a dry spell followed, and I didn’t have any project to work on for three months. 

When did the next project come?

January 2021. This one was a duplex and took seven months to complete. I think I made about ₦1.2m from this one. After completing the project, I moved out of my parent’s house into my apartment. It was the next step for me. The whole thing cost me ₦650k. 

I turned my sights on getting another project, but nothing came for a few months. I had to do a little pivot here. 

What?

I started working as a contractor, maintaining existing structures. My recurring client was a hotelier I knew from my internship. He put me in charge of one of his hotels and my job was to do routine maintenance on the property — from fixing leakages and cracks to supervising renovations. Every time I was called, I made between ₦60k – ₦100k. But it was once every few weeks. That said, it made sure I continued earning some money. 

Was that your only income source during that period?

No. I’d realised that work wasn’t going to be as regular as I’d have liked and my savings wouldn’t help me if they just laid idle in a bank account. So I bought a used keke Napep for ₦400k and gave it to someone to drive. The agreement was that they’d deliver ₦9k to me every week. This came in consistently for about five months before the driver started giving me excuses. When I realised that I couldn’t trust him anymore, I took the Keke back and sold it for ₦350k. 

Wiun

The funny thing about 2021 was that I was mostly broke, but I gathered a bit of respect from home. They thought I had everything together because I had a car and an apartment. But I knew how broke I was. What that meant was that I couldn’t ask for help. 

Between 2021 and now, I’ve worked on two more projects. The first one started in November 2021 and lasted for a year. I was put on a monthly salary of ₦100k, so I made about ₦1.2m. The next one came in January this year, and I’ve only made about ₦200k from that project. I expect to make ₦500k more before the project ends in a few months. 

Fascinating. But what do you do to make money during the off seasons?

Omo. I sold my first car sometime last year for ₦400k and raised ₦500k extra to buy a 2005 Honda Civic. When I didn’t have construction jobs to do, I registered the car on a ride-hailing app and started working for them. I was making about ₦20k/week from this. It was only enough to keep the lights on. 

That’s how I navigate my income now — when I have projects to do, I can expect to make roughly ₦150k – ₦200k/month. But when I don’t and I’m running low on savings, I hit the road and drive for the ride-hailing company. 

Can you tell me what your finances look like at the moment?

I’m not going to lie; I’m down a bit. I have about ₦300k in savings now and I’m hoping I won’t have to dip into it. My financial goal last year was to save enough money to leave the country, but that didn’t happen. I’ll like to try again this year. All it might take is one or two big projects. 

If it’s up to you, how much will you like to make per month?

 I’ve interviewed at construction companies looking for full-time engineers, but their offers weren’t great. The best one I’ve seen so far is ₦140k. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for me.

If I’m going to drop my work for someone else’s, I won’t do it for anything less than ₦200k. And the only reason I’m considering a 9-5 in this industry is that I’ll like to have a constant flow of income. The bills don’t care if I make money in a month or not — they keep coming. 

Speaking of bills, what do your recurring monthly expenses look like?

How have your experiences shaped your perspective about money?

Money will always come and go, and it’s best to see it as the scarce commodity it is. It doesn’t matter if you have a long run when it keeps coming in, there’ll ultimately be a down moment. I’m not sure how to prevent it, but the best thing to do is to position yourself to deal with the down periods and have a plan B. That has worked in my case — When I don’t have projects to work on, I put my car to use. 

Do you still feel the need to get validation from home?

See, I’m tired of the pressure that comes with it. I don’t care anymore. The past two years have shown me that I should care more about what I can do for myself, rather than my family’s expectations of me. So it doesn’t matter if someone in the family is doing better. As long as I keep trying to do better for myself and keep my income sources open, I’ll be fine. I’m working with my own time now and trusting the process now.

Is there anything you spent money on recently that made you happy?

This happened in 2021, but it still makes me happy. The government demolished my mum’s stall in the market. So I rented a shop for her, which cost ₦250k. I loved that I could do that for her.

Love it for you. What do you want now but can’t afford?

A piece of land. I’m tempted to invest my entire savings in one right now, but it won’t get me what I want. I’m looking at buying something in a good location, so I can flip it for a profit in the next 3-4 years. I might need close to a million naira for that. 

Whew. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

It’s a 6.5. I’m not quite where I’d like to be, but I also know that I’ve grown a lot in the past few years. I just need a constant flow of money and higher-paying projects, and I’ll be great. Like, if I have ₦10m in my savings right now, I’ll be the happiest man on earth. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Yes, I want to do a Naira Life

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

Let’s take it back to your first memory of money

I’ve been a hustler for as long as I can remember. But my first significant memory was in 2008 when I was in SS two. I was one of the students in my boarding school who’d “jand” — it was what we called sneaking out of school into the town. I’d return to school with balls of wara and sell them to students in my hostel at double the price. I always sold out in a day and made about ₦1k per trip. 

Mad. Where do you imagine the hustling spirit came from?

I’m not sure, but my parents were hard workers. We didn’t have conversations about money but I could tell that we were comfortable because they put in the work. And that if I wanted to make money, I had to always figure out a way to. This thinking came in handy in university. 

What do you mean?

In 2010, I got into a university in the southwest, and my monthly allowance was ₦25k. I didn’t like the school, so I transferred to a different university to study finance. 

Unfortunately, my dad lost his job around the same time, so things became a bit hard. After paying for my school fees and other basic expenses, he sat me down and pretty much said, “You’re on your own.”

My monthly allowance became inconsistent from that moment, and I knew the hustling had just started. Omo, I hustled.

What did you do?

In my first year, a friend from class introduced me to waiting tables at hotels and parties. The sweet thing was, there were loads of them in the town, so I was never out of a gig and was making ₦4k every weekend. This kept me going until 200 level when I switched to something else. 

Let’s hear it

I started a laundry business in the hostel. My department had a dress code, which meant that I always needed to do my laundry. I decided that I might as well make a business out of it, so I told guys in my hostel that I could wash and iron their clothes for a fee. I don’t remember how much I charged, but I usually made about ₦4k/week on this as well. 

Sounds like a lot of clothes

It probably was, I won’t lie. But I had the time and needed the money. 

₦20k/month was decent, but what moved the needle was the next thing I did. After finishing my second-semester exams in 300 level, I overheard someone talking about how they had just contracted another student to do their final year project analysis and paid them ₦7k for it

I heard the money and decided that I’d learn how to analyse data and make money from it. During the session break, I sat down and learned about research methodologies, SPSS and Eviews. By the start of the next session — my final year — I already had three final year projects to work on and charged each student ₦40k to write the whole thing. 

Interesting 

The sweet spot was in the second semester when the project deadline was close. See, I don’t remember how many people I helped write their project’s chapter four and chapter five, but it was ₦10k per pop. Once I looked at their research objectives and methodology, I knew what to do. On the side, I also reviewed and edited several literature reviews into shape. This was ₦4k-₦5k/review.

Although I fell sick because I was working insane hours and depended on caffeine to function, I made quite a bit of money in three months. At the peak of it, I was making between ₦60k and ₦100k in a week. By the time session ended and I was leaving uni, I’d made about ₦500k from the project gigs. 

I had only about ₦120k in savings, though. As I was making the money, I was also spending lavishly on myself and my guys. But what remained was enough to take me to the north central where I was mobilised for NYSC. Luckily, there was a polytechnic in the town I was posted to.

Why was this important?

I knew I could always make money wherever students were. When I got to the town, I went around the polytechnic campus and estimated that about 4k students studied there. Then I went to their business centre and saw that there were only 2-3 people offering printing services in the school, and they weren’t even doing much. I was sure the place was mine for the taking.  

After I sorted out my PPA — a secondary school — I went to the state capital to buy a printer and a photocopier. It wiped out the rest of my savings, but I didn’t mind. I was in business. This was in January 2016.

How did that go?

On average, I was making ₦5k during the slow days. Photocopies went for ₦10/page and printing was between ₦50 and ₦200/page. And this was when nothing was happening. I made a lot more when it was time for JAMB registrations because of the influx of applicants to the polytechnic. I charged ₦1k for every registration, and I registered between 20 and 30 people in a day. The same thing happened during post-UTME registration.

I made between ₦500k – ₦700k in profit during my service year. I should add that I was still offering final-year project services for students at the university I graduated from, and I made close to a million naira this time.

Wild. But did you leave the town immediately after service?

No. I stayed there for two more years because there was another income opportunity. This time, it was agriculture. I bought bags of maize and soybeans and gave them to the farmers in the town. The deal was to get three bags back during harvest — which was three-four months after the planting season. Now, a bag of these seeds costs ₦10k.

In 2017, I gave the farmers 20 bags of seeds and got 55 bags back. In 2018, I went all in, did 100 bags and got back 200 bags during harvest. But I had to leave the town after that — the Fulani crisis had started and the town wasn’t as safe anymore. Also, I didn’t see a future in what I was doing. The money was decent but the businesses weren’t sustainable.

Fair enough. Did you have a plan?

The plan was to put my degree to use and get into corporate finance. In January 2019, I returned to the southwest, set up another printing shop again to buy myself some time and was making about ₦200k/month. In the middle of the year, I got a job — a corporate development role at a manufacturing company. 

How much?

₦180k. It was a pay cut for me, but it was also an entry-level role. I took the job for two reasons: I needed the finance experience. Also, the company was owned by a private equity company, and I saw a pathway to working my way into the private equity arm of the business. 

Why were you interested in private equity?

I liked that private equity was about the pure finance of investing, and I’d always wanted to know how corporate companies did it. It was generally the best move for me at the time.

About a year later, I got a job as an analyst at the P.E. division of the company. This move brought my salary to ₦290k/month. 

Sweet. How did the move happen though?

My hunger and drive were insane. First, I was very intentional about working closely with the private equity guys at the company and made myself useful to them. Every chance I got, I volunteered to help them with their work. 

Also, I was upskilling like crazy. I took loads of courses on Coursera, and I didn’t even pay for them. Once I saw a course I thought would be useful, I’d audit it and pick what I could learn from it.

Got it. What happened next?

As I was learning on the job, I realised something else: there was a big opportunity for side gigs, so I went for it. Businesses were always looking for someone who could help them do financial projections during fundraising, build a business plan or write a strategy document. One of those things usually popped up at least once a month, and at the end of it, I could make up to ₦400k. 

The good thing was that these side gigs thrived on referrals. If I did a good job for someone, I could expect that they’d bring more gigs my way. Between 2020 and 2021, my combined income was about ₦500k – ₦600k.

I’m curious how you were moving money out.

It takes a certain income threshold to save and ₦500k wasn’t it for me. I always wanted to live my best life, and what I made was only enough to afford the standard of living I wanted. A portion of my income — about ₦100k — went home to my parents. The rest went into feeding, dates, transportation and nightlife expenses. No savings whatsoever but I wasn’t even bothered about it. 

Interesting

I was more concerned about building my skills and earning more. I’d just started my career in finance and was certain the opportunities would come. 

By the first half of 2022, my confidence in my skill levels had grown, and I knew I could quickly get a better-paying job. So I started looking for new opportunities. The first investment company I applied to hired me to lead their team. The pay was ₦800k/month. 

From ₦290k?

My proof of work was enough to land me the role. In addition, my side gig experiences had shown me what was obtainable and I factored that into my negotiation with them. The company gladly agreed to pay me what I asked for. I only spent about six months there though.

Why?

I wasn’t learning anything and wasn’t growing at all. My boss didn’t know so much about what we were doing and was always in my way. When it became too frustrating, I dipped. 

I’d seen a role at another investment company that I thought was a great fit for me on Linkedin. I reached out to the founder and sent my CV, starting the conversation before I left my previous job. A few calls later, I got an offer letter.

₦1.2m/month.

Another solid income growth

I mean, that’s always been the plan. But there’s one more thing — my bonus at the end of the year is 100% of my annual salary. Essentially, I’m getting a lump sum payment at the end of each year.

God when?

I thought it was a fair deal, and I took it. I’ve been there for a few months now. 

What about your side gigs?

I never stopped working on side projects, and I’ve refined my approach to deciding the projects I want to work on. In 2022, I started cutting down on low-value gigs. If I didn’t think the business could make ₦200m/year in revenue, I wouldn’t take the job. That usually meant they couldn’t pay me what I thought was a fair price. 

How much did you think was a fair price?

At least ₦1m. And I was getting about two gigs every three months. Also, I worked part-time with a startup while I was at my previous company, and they were paying me ₦350k/month.

Lit. What could your combined income do for you in 2022?

It got me my car at the end of the year, which cost about ₦7m.

What’s happened between then and now?

Now that I earn ₦1.2m/month, I’ve decided that I won’t take any side project that doesn’t pay me more than my salary. This means that I’m only working for big, corporate companies these days. The scope of my work includes building and creating information memorandums, business plans, strategy documents, forecasts, and investor relations.

I’ve done two big projects this year — one paid ₦5m and the other paid ₦8m. I still do one or two smaller projects that pay about ₦1m every month. 

However, these projects are bigger than the ones I used to do, so I’ve had to outsource some bits of it and paid out ₦3m to the folks that worked on them with me. I don’t mind that. I’m hoping to do about four more projects of this size this year, and I’ll be good.

That said, I’ve been consulting for another startup since February, and my income from that source is ₦500k/month.

Phew So what do your finances look like at the moment?

I’ve not touched my actual salary this year. The moment it comes in, I send it to an investment management app and buy indexes of US companies — the S&P 500s. I live on what I make from the smaller side gigs that come in monthly and consulting money.

How much do you imagine you have in investments now?

$20k. It’s good progress, but it’s barely a safety net. I’m hoping to build it up to $50k by the end of the year. My salary for the next six months is going in there, and there’s also the lump sum payment at the end of the year. Now, if I get about the big side gigs I’m looking for, I may very well go over my projection. 

Now you want to know about my expenses, don’t you?

Haha. I do

At the moment, my monthly expenses are between ₦600k and ₦1m. Last month, I spent ₦1.2m. Let me break it down.

Gifts are typically my highest expenses. I believe that when you have money, you need to take care of your people. For example, two of my guys got married last month, and I had to show up for them. I spent about ₦350k on both weddings. Also, I classify the monthly ₦90k allowance I give my girlfriend under gifts.

I’m curious. Do you think you live within your means?

Absolutely. I make more money than I spend, so I’m good. Do I think I can bring these expenses much lower? Yes. But it’s a work in progress. The important thing is that I have to continue to make as much money as I can. 

Word. Is there anything you want but can’t afford?

1% of Apple, haha. But if we’re talking about the basic things, I’m good. It’s been a while since I felt like I can’t afford something. Last last, I’ll put some money aside for it. 

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

It’s a solid six. I’d have said it’s a 10, but I don’t want to get complacent. There’s always something else to aspire to. But if I suddenly start earning $20k/month tomorrow, it’s a 10. I won’t even care anymore.  

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Yes, I want to do a Naira Life

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

Let’s start with what money was like growing up

I have faint memories of my parents taking me and my three siblings to fast-food restaurants and amusement parks on Sundays. But my first vivid memory of money was in 2004 when I was nine. I’d just gotten into a boarding secondary school, and my monthly allowance was ₦300/month. This was significant because the family fell into tough times around that time.

Do you know what led to this?

My dad supplied petrol and kerosene until he lost some deals that affected his business. His next move was to relocate to the UK for work. When he left, the family’s money was channelled into settling him down in the UK.  

My mum had a tailoring business, but she didn’t make enough to take care of four kids without support. So we had to make a few lifestyle adjustments. First, we moved out of our mini-flat to live with an uncle, and then we moved into a room in a face-me-face-you house. We were in survival mode. 

I was in the hostel, so the biggest manifestation of our financial situation was that I couldn’t get more than ₦300 as my monthly allowance, especially when the other kids in my school got between ₦800 – ₦1k/month. 

That said, my allowance grew over the years into ₦1k by the time I graduated from secondary school in 2010.

Let me guess, things had improved at home

Yes. Our financial situation got better when my dad settled in the UK, found a steady income and could send money back home.

In 2011, my mum and my youngest brother also moved to the UK to be with my dad, leaving me and my sister to live with an uncle. 

I got into a university in the southwest the following year. 

Did you do anything for money before uni?

I didn’t. My parents feared that I’d be distracted in school if I “tasted” money, so I lived on the ₦5k-₦10k they sent me monthly.

My allowance increased to ₦25k when I got into uni. And no, I didn’t do anything for money in uni either. The first time I thought about making money was in 2017. 

Interesting. How did it happen?

While waiting for NYSC, I had a lot of free time, and I spent it looking up random things online. I stumbled on a Nairaland thread on how to make money online, which led me down a rabbit hole until I found an offer to transcribe an hour of audio for ₦2k. I applied for the gig and got it. 

It took me four hours to transcribe the audio file, and I did everything on my phone because I didn’t have a laptop. The money wasn’t bad to me at that point though. 

Literally earning your daily ₦2k

See, that was it. I was gingered to take it because I feared that my parents would cut me off my allowance once NYSC started in 2018.

Thankfully, the transcription gig kept coming during my service year, and my allowance didn’t stop. I was balling.

Define “balling”

My parents sent me ₦25k/month, and the federal government paid ₦19800. Also, my PPA was a school, and I got paid ₦3k. Lastly, the transcription jobs brought about in ₦15k/month. Everything came to ₦62800.

Baller

I saved up ₦45k two months after I started NYSC and bought a laptop. After getting the laptop, I set my sights on another income source.

What?

Freelance writing. I had some writing experience — I started a football blog in uni, but it didn’t catch on. This time, I was convinced that I could make money from it. 

With my new conviction, I returned to Nairaland to look for writing jobs. Then I wrote some random articles as samples, and I got my first gig to write about VPNs. My writing wasn’t great, but the pay wasn’t either. 

How much?

₦1 per word. But it was better than transcribing — it took me four hours to transcribe an hour of audio while I could write a 1000-word article in two hours. For the rest of my service year, I was averaging ₦30k from writing gigs.

Now your combined income was ₦77800

I wasn’t intentional about saving though. Whatever was left in my account was my monthly savings, and I always ended up dipping into it for random things. Three months before service ended, I eventually started a savings plan with a few friends — the plan was to save ₦30k/month, and I had ₦90k in savings when I finished NYSC. 

Read next: She Had to Beg for Money. She Never Wants to Do That Again

Sweet. What came after?

My parents wanted me to find a full-time job. I, on the other hand, wanted to focus on freelance content writing. 

Why?

I feared a 9-5 would distract me from sticking to a niche and ultimately ditching my low-paying content writing gigs for higher-paying ones. 

But I couldn’t explain this to my parents in a way they understood. 

 I tried to find a job and applied to a few roles, but none of them worked out. I took that as a sign to direct all my attention to freelance writing. 

What did your parents think about this?

They thought I was wasting my time, and we had a series of disagreements. But it helped that they weren’t in Nigeria, so there was only so much they could do. Thankfully, they were still sending me ₦25k every month. 

Back to your gigs, what niche did you want to focus on?

Crypto. During my service year in 2018, I got a steady job writing crypto news for a website every day. I didn’t know anything about crypto, but I was interested in it for two reasons: crypto was a new technology, and it was about making money.

But save for the crypto website I wrote for, I didn’t find any other crypto gig. I was still averaging ₦30k/month, but the bulk of the money came from other niches. It took me two years before I found another crypto job. 

What happened in those two years?

Family support is so underrated. The ₦25k/month from my parents gave me time to figure things out. We fought all the time because of my “unemployment”, but it didn’t stop the money from coming in. I guess I continued to pursue making money from writing and crypto because disobeying my parents didn’t have any financial consequences.

Must be nice

Also, since I couldn’t get the crypto big break I was looking for, I focused on the niches I could get. I always had two-three gigs I was working on at every point. Between 2018 and 2020, I was making ₦50k – ₦80k from these gigs.

I finally found a path to working in crypto in 2020.

I’m listening

I randomly found out that my neighbour at the time was part of the Nigerian crypto community and was about to start a crypto media company. He convinced me to join his team and create content for his website. The only thing was that he wasn’t going to pay me.

Why not?

The company wasn’t making money yet. But he promised me stock options. I took the offer because I was making money elsewhere. Nine months into the job, I realised it wouldn’t work out. The stock options thing was a joke — I didn’t see any paperwork the whole time I worked there. 

I took it as a red flag and left. The good thing about the job was that I learned more about crypto during my time there. In January 2021, I finally got the crypto gig I’d been looking for. 

How did it happen?

Twitter. The process wasn’t elaborate — I just searched for “crypto writer needed”. I applied to as many as I could until one worked out — it was a PR company, and the job was to write press releases for their clients’ crypto projects.

2021 was the height of the last bull run, so there was a lot of activity in the crypto space. They offered to pay $50 for every 500-word press release I wrote. 

I was commissioned to write 30 press releases in my first month and made $1500. I also made my first million in Naira. 

How did this sudden jump in income feel?

It was the first time it hit me that I could be a millionaire, and I still can’t explain the relief I felt. For the first time since I left university, I knew that I made the right decision to pursue a freelance career in the crypto industry.

Fast forward to June 2021, I got another $300/month gig with a crypto news website. The press release gig also brought in between $1200 and $1500/month. My average income in naira was ₦1.2m. 

How were you moving money during this time?

From June 2021 to December 2021, I was living on ₦200k and saving ₦1m/month. I also divided the ₦1m into two halves and left ₦500k in naira savings and another ₦500k in crypto investment. 

To minimise my risk, I split my crypto investment into a 60:40 ratio. The 60% went into USDT — a stablecoin and 40% of my crypto investment was in volatile currencies like Bitcoin. 

In December 2021, I dipped into my savings and made two big purchases — I bought a car, which cost ₦3.7m. I also moved into a new apartment, and the rent is ₦650k/year. At the end of the year, I was left with ₦500k in my savings. 

But I came into 2022 with renewed ginger to do more work in the crypto space. 

So how did 2022 go?

I started the year with a new job — a part-time role in the media department of a crypto company, and my salary was $700/month. At the same time, the income from the freelance gigs from both the PR company and the news website was $1200. 

With this steady cash flow, I thought it might be wise to diversify my investments and have an option to fall back on if I lost any of my jobs.

What did you decide on?

I set up a photography and video production studio. But I had no idea how much it was going to cost. Between January and June 2022, I spent $10k on audio and video equipment. I just woke up one morning and realised that I had no savings. Everything I could have saved was tied up in the studio. 

Were you making money from it, though?

Nope. It suddenly hit me that I should have taken a savings-first approach. A phone call with my mum reinforced this belief, and we made a plan to retrace my steps and build my savings back up. We decided on a target of $10k by December 2022.

Did you hit the target?

No, but I was close. By the end of the year, I had saved up $8k.

How? Please break it down

I was now working full-time at the media company, and my salary was $1k. My freelance gigs brought in an extra $2500 from three different sources: two PR companies and a news website. So I optimised for saving at least $1k/month for the rest of 2022. 

Thank God I had that conversation with my mum and built a savings chest. I lost my job in November. Then one of the PR companies I worked for also ended the contract in December. These were consequences of the crypto bear market that started last year.

Omo. What’s 2023 looking like?

I currently work with a PR company and a crypto news website, and I make $1200 – $1500 from both sources. My studio has also started making some money — about ₦200k/month — but it goes into keeping the lights on and the operations going. 

Has anything changed in the way you manage money?

More than ever, I take a savings-first approach now. I still have the $8k from last year. But I also started a new savings plan two months ago. Now, I’m saving $500/month. It’s a non-negotiable. 

What about investments?

I have about $1500 in crypto projects. My strategy is to look for projects with good use cases and strong communities. These days, I also lean towards VC-backed projects. My thinking is that those are usually in for the long haul. 

That said, I’m not the biggest fan of crypto’s speculative aspect. I feel the best way to make money in crypto is to get a job in crypto. So while I hold some coins and try my best to avoid trading, I watch out for job opportunities in the crypto market. It’s the perfect blend of stability and risk.

Love it. What do your monthly expenses currently look like?

My gift budget is high because everyone thinks I have money, and it’s sometimes hard to say no. I know I can live without the money. Also, the debt is a bank loan I took last year. I had some emergency purchases I needed to make for my house and didn’t want to take out of my savings. So I took a loan of ₦275k from the bank. 

How much do you think you should be making now?

With my trajectory last year, I thought I’d be making at least $5k/month this year. But the hard-hitting jobs have been harder to find because of the bear market. I’m in this for the long haul though. 

Now, I’m looking for another job in a crypto company — maybe a marketing officer role — plus one or two freelance writing gigs. These should get me to $5k/month. 

Is there anything you want but can’t afford?

Real estate investment. I’ve wanted to own a block of flats, but I don’t have enough liquid cash to pursue that. It’s a means to unlock a new stream of income. Sadly, I can’t afford it yet. 

How has your experience shaped your perspective on money?

I think it’s easier to make money when you have the processes and structure. People say it’s easier to make money after you hit your first million, and I think they might be right. Before I made my first million, I didn’t know how to do it. But when I hacked it, I only had to replicate the process that worked and improved it.  

Where would you put your financial happiness on a scale of 0 – 10?

4. The number should be higher, but I’m not near where I believe I can be. I think three tools lead you to financial independence: savings, real estate investments and stocks. At the moment, I only have some savings, and I worry about this all the time. 

That’s very interesting 

I’m trying to build my savings — my primary safety net — to at least $30k as soon as possible. That amount in Nigeria gives you options, and I’d like to know what it feels like to have multiple options. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Yes, I want to do a Naira Life

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

What’s the first thing you did for money?

When I was eight years old, my mum brought home some pages of Minnie Mouse stickers from a trip she’d gone on. I went to school with some of these stickers, and my classmates liked them. I’m not sure where it came from, but I told them they could have a sticker for ₦20. Surprisingly, they agreed and kept coming back for more. I sold all five pages of stickers in two weeks.

But I had to hide the money because I couldn’t let my mum see it.

Why not?

My parents didn’t think kids should keep any money. My mum didn’t even like strangers giving us money gifts if she wasn’t present. I don’t know why they felt this way, and I’ve never asked. 

I suspect I took the chance to sell the stickers because I wanted to know what it felt like to have my own money. I stashed everything I made — I don’t remember how much — inside a flower vase in my parent’s room, and that’s how I got caught. 

My mum treated me like I’d committed a crime, and I was heavily reprimanded. Because of that, I didn’t think about money again until I was in university. 

When was uni?

2013. I got into the law programme at a private university in the southwest. During my first year, I lived on my monthly allowance of ₦10k. When I was in my second year, however, I took an opportunity to make extra money.

My school had a work and study programme, and I applied to work at the Horticulture and Gardening department and got in. For ₦15k/month, I was now a gardener, which wasn’t bad for a 17-year-old second-year student. But I quit the job the next school year. 

Haha. Why?

My work started at 5:30 a.m. I didn’t mind the early hours until I watched an episode of Criminal Minds and got paranoid about working alone so early. In my mind, I was putting myself at risk of being murdered. Thinking about it now, it was such a silly and irrational fear. 

Omo. That’s not morbid at all

Haha. I moved on to the next thing I found. My mum’s day job was in a bank, and she also had a clothing business on the side. I offered to work in her shop for ₦10k/month, and she agreed to it. But she paid me the bulk amount of ₦30k when I was returning to school. This was the point I started thinking about saving money, but there was a little problem.

What?

My mum opened an account for me in the bank she worked. Because of this, she had access to how money was moving in and out of my account. If I had enough money in my account at the end of the month, she’d just tell me to use it as my allowance for the next month. If the money in my account wasn’t up to ₦10k, she’d send me the difference. 

Fascinating. Do you know why she did this?

The only explanation I got was, “But you have money in your account na.” 

I needed to figure out how to work around that, so the moment I turned 18 in 2015, I opened another bank account. Subsequently, I started moving small sums of money into the new account — ₦2k here and there. By my fourth year in university, I had about ₦40k saved up. But I spent everything in one night on Black Friday deals.

This was pretty much how I managed money until I graduated from uni; I’d save for a bit, then splurge on something — usually fashion and makeup products — in one go. 

When did you leave uni?

2018. By the way, I fell out of love with getting a law degree in my second year and made peace with the fact that I wouldn’t practice. When I told my parents, we agreed that I’d get my degree first, then travel abroad for school for what I was now interested in — Human Resources. 

So tell me why I got the degree and my parents insisted that I had to go to law school and do NYSC first before we could revisit the conversation. With no other options, I begrudgingly went to law school. The whole year was a blur because I didn’t want to be there. The only thing I remember was that I was on a ₦10k weekly allowance, but I didn’t care about saving anything. I left law school flat-out broke in 2019.

NYSC?

By the time I went for my NYSC in 2019, I’d gotten over the disappointment of not leaving the country, so I was a bit more present. The federal government allowance was ₦33k, and I also worked in an insurance company that paid me ₦18k/month. I was saving at least ₦5k/month and had ₦55k in my savings when I finished NYSC in 2020.

Luckily, I didn’t have to look for another job for long. Two months after NYSC, I got an internship at a merchant bank. 

How did this happen?

One of my mum’s networks reached out to me when the bank was hiring. I sent my CV, wrote the exam and did the interview. Within two months, they came back to me with an offer. This was January 2021.

How much?

The actual salary was ₦70k, but there was an extra ₦30k stipend for lunch. I started the job in February.

Lit. What did this mean for you?

It meant I could save ₦70k/month and live on ₦30k. My average spend every day was less than ₦1k, thanks to my privilege. My dad drove me to work daily and an ex drove me back home. Sometimes, I even packed lunch for work. 

Since I was consistently saving, I thought it was time to save up and leave my parent’s house. The cheapest option I found was a 200k/year self-contained apartment. So I decided to double the amount before I made any move. 

I hit my savings target of ₦400k in August 2021, but I had a falling out with my boss in the same month — he yelled at me over something that wasn’t my fault — I decided to leave the place.

Oof

Everyone thought I was mad because I didn’t have a job lined up. But I’d thought it out and figured that the worst-case scenario was ditching my plans to get my own place. I went ahead and sent in my resignation. My boss offered to add ₦30k to my salary, but I rejected the raise. I was done.

Fortunately, I ran into a bit of luck during my notice period. 

At a party, I saw an acquaintance who worked in the customer service department of an American B2B software company, and we talked for a bit. Naturally, our conversations touched on our jobs and I told them I’d just quit mine. It turned out that their company was hiring for a media analyst position, and they encouraged me to apply and told me how I could get in. 

How?

Like most remote roles, the key was to optimise my Linkedin profile. In addition, I was advised to study the GMAT because it shared many similarities with the company’s assessment tests. 

I applied for the role, and I was invited to take a test. Two more tests followed before I got an interview. In November 2021, I got an offer letter and the pay was $20k/year.

That’s a huge jump from ₦100k. But what was your role exactly?

I know right! I was analysing media information for the industries and companies the business served and wrote reports based on my findings. 

A lot happened after I took the job. 

I’m listening

The first thing was lifestyle inflation. One minute, I was living conveniently on ₦30k/month, then I started earning more and the number rose to ₦200k – ₦250k/month. 

Hold up. Break it down, please

The thing is, my parents heard how much I was making and decided that I’d be paying for the house’s internet, power and diesel. Internet was ₦20k/month and power unit was an average of ₦50k/month. Also, we used ₦25k worth of diesel every five days, so that was about ₦100k/month. To be honest, I was happy to do this. Besides, I needed these things for work. 

At some point, though, I sat down and figured that I might be spending less money if I got my own apartment. In March 2022, I paid ₦1.1m for a one-bedroom apartment and moved in.

What happened after?

I was laid off from my job in October. 

Whoa. That came out of nowhere 

That’s exactly how I felt. I’d just returned from a one-month trip to Rwanda that cost me $1500 when I got the email. The company was shutting down my unit, and that was it. Thankfully, I had $4300 in my savings, so I knew I’d be good for three months while I figured out my next step. 

On a whim, I decided that it was time to return to school, and I applied to a school in Canada. The application cost C$250.

While this was going on, I was also looking for other analyst roles, but none of them was remote. I didn’t find any lead until January 2023 when an analyst role opened in another unit in the company that laid me off. I applied with bated breaths, and I was hired again. However, the salary this time was $15k/year. 

How did you feel about the pay cut?

A win is a win. Also, my savings were down to $2500 and my rent was almost due. Between January and March, I saved up $1400 and got my savings up to $3900.B ut I suddenly had a decision to make. 

What do you mean?

Two days before I planned to renew my rent, the Canadian university I applied to offered me a spot in their Graduate Certificate Degree in Human Resources program. The first step was to pay the C$5k acceptance fee, which was about $3700.

I ran back to my parents, and they agreed to pay the tuition if I sorted out my acceptance fee, so I closed my eyes and paid it. Now, I had $200 to my name, which meant I couldn’t make rent. I took the only option I had — I moved back in with my parents in March. All my energy since that time had been going into how to leave for school later this year.

How much do you imagine it will cost?

It’s a 2-year programme and tuition is about C$14k – C$24k, depending on how many credits I take. My parents are paying for that and will also pay for my flight — I don’t know how much that will be yet. 

I’m paying for my accommodation, and I need C$2k for my first and last month’s rent. Then there’s my visa application fee, the visa itself, medicals and background check. The $1200 I have in my savings is going to all of this.

But I’m glad that I decided to go back to school.

Why?

I got laid off from my job again this month. It was also the same script: they shut down the unit I was working in and let everyone go. As it stands, I’ve lost two jobs in less than a year and neither one was because I was bad at my job. I’m not going to lie, it sucks a little. 

Man, sorry

Well, thank God for my emergency plans – my parents.

Tell me, what’s your current mindset about money?

First, I understand that money is fickle. But I also think that I have an unhealthy relationship with money. I could have done more and saved a lot more than I did. I’ve moved on fairly quickly from the layoffs and planning my next steps, and I have my privilege to thank for that. If I didn’t have my parents, this wouldn’t have been possible. If I start making decent money again, the first thing I’m taking is a financial management course. 

Do you know how much you’ll like to make in your next role?

I’m hoping for nothing less than $120k/year. Last year, I was interviewing with a company for a research role and they would have paid me $60k/year if it’d worked out. I’m using this experience as my reference now. If I can make $60k/year in Nigeria, there’s a chance to make at least double that outside. I’m counting on that. 

On a scale of 1-10, where would you place your financial happiness?

2. I like to think about money in the context of what I can do with it, and I can’t do much conveniently right now. I’m thinking about how to pay for my visa and sort out my accommodation and the other expenses that’d come up when I travel for school. I know I have my parents, but I’d like to carry the financial weight as much as possible by myself. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Yes, I want to do a Naira Life

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

What was money like growing up?

Money wasn’t an issue for the first seven years of my life. I was a big spender for my age. My primary school allowance was between ₦‎1 and ₦‎10 daily. The kuli-kuli and sweets I liked cost 50 kobo or ₦‎1, and I always bought more than I needed and gave the excess to my brother’s friends.

What did your parents do for money?

They both worked in the civil service. My mum, the bigger earner, was an accountant, while my dad was an environmental health officer. My mum paid my school fees, the rent for our three-bedroom apartment in Benin and most of the expenses that went into raising nine children.

Nine children?

My dad married two wives — my mum had five children, and my stepmum had four. For some reason, my stepmum’s bride price was returned and she left my dad. My mum took care of all of us from that point. 

This changed in 1993 when we lost her. I was seven years old. 

I’m sorry 

My dad struggled without her. He worked in a different local government at the time and visited us every once in a while because he was broke. It didn’t help that the government wouldn’t pay him on time. The things we used to afford comfortably, especially feeding and rent, became a struggle. Then my dad died in 1999, six years after my mum. I was an orphan at 13; me and my siblings’ lives changed forever.

What was it like adjusting to this?

My parents didn’t own a house, so the children had to split. My step-siblings were adults already, so they went on their ways. But My eldest sister had just started working as a secretary, so, my sister and brother went to live with her in a face-to-face apartment. My other sister, who was training to be a nurse, got pregnant and went to live with her boyfriend. 

I was the pampered bookworm, so I was shielded from selling newspapers on the street to make extra money like my brother and sister. I focused on finishing secondary school, which I did at 15. But in the seven years that it took before getting into the university, I realised that things would never go back to what they were when my parents were alive.

Why did it take seven years to get into uni?

I wanted to study medicine, and every year I didn’t meet the cutoff mark, I would wait another year to write JAMB again. When I eventually made the cut-off, I still didn’t get medicine. 

What happened in those seven years?

In 2002, my pregnant sister got married and moved to Kaduna with her husband. I left with them and took care of the kid when it came, so my sister could work. I also found my first job, as a teacher in a primary school, and it paid ₦10k.

About three years later, my eldest sister also got married and had a kid, so I moved to Port Harcourt, where she now lived, to take care of the child until I got into university. Our relationship changed in the years that I was there. I got a sense that she’d begun to resent me and my other siblings.

What do you mean?

She was just starting her life when my dad died and she suddenly had to be the primary breadwinner. I think the weight of the responsibility got to her, and she felt bitter that she sacrificed some of her life for us. At some point, she told her house help to hide her food when she wasn’t around. And when I finally got admitted into the university in 2008, she gave me ₦10k.

I imagine you needed more than that

My acceptance fee was ₦‎20k, tuition was ₦‎51k and accommodation was ₦‎35k. I had to look elsewhere for the money to sort out school bills, and it put me in a very vulnerable situation.

Do you want to talk about it?

In my first year, a family friend offered to pay for my accommodation. But after giving me the money, he demanded that I kissed him. He was married. 

Another family friend — also a married man — paid my school fees for a session, but it was only because he wanted to sleep with me. It was so exhausting saying no to him all the time. 

Thankfully, a church member paid my fees in my third year, and I didn’t have to go to this family friend’s house anymore. I also worked for a full year to raise money for my next tuition.

RELATED: The Exhausting #NairaLife Of An Outlier Struggling At ₦100k/month

How?

My IT. I worked as a secretary in a gas plant on a ₦25k/month salary. But the job wasn’t related to my degree in petrochemical technology, so I had to find another in a drilling company after a month. The pay there was ₦15k.

I had a strict budget. 50% of my income went into my school needs. Feeding, transportation and tithing took 25%, 15% and 10% respectively. 

Before the year ended, I got into a relationship with someone who supported me until I finished university. He liked giving and took the responsibility very seriously. We got married immediately after I graduated in 2013. 

Sweet

The plan was to look for a job, but I got pregnant three months after our wedding and gave birth to our first child in 2014. During my pregnancy, I started an online business selling wedding accessories. I made ₦150k – ₦200k in six months.

About a year later, our second child was conceived, and I had to remain at home for a little while longer. I did my NYSC during this time. As soon as my second child was a year and six months, I started job hunting and found a teaching job. The pay was ₦35k/month. This was in 2016.

What was it like earning a salary for the first time in years?

I don’t know because all the money went into feeding the house. We were supposed to be a family of four, but we had a house help, a church member and a family friend living with us. I wasn’t sure why we had extra people, but my husband didn’t bother about the cost we incurred because they were around. He was a natural giver, which was the same quality I loved in him. But now, it was a bit of an issue. Money matters almost tore us apart. 

Tell me more about that

His salary was about ₦130k, and ₦100k went into a monthly contribution. He had a side gig that brought in ₦50k monthly, and that was it. Our combined income was less than ₦250k, but he always wanted to take care of everyone, which worried me. 

He had an easier experience with money growing up, so the stakes were never high for him. On the other hand, I’d struggled for money and had learnt to look out for myself. Not having money meant relying on other people for help, and I didn’t want to be that person anymore. 

How did you navigate your frustrations with your husband?

I figured I might be happier if I looked for something else to do on the side. So I returned to selling jewellery, averaging about ₦40k/month. It was what I fell back on when I quit my teaching job in 2018. I’d get to work in the morning and be greeted with frowns. It was toxic, with no chance for growth, and when I couldn’t take it anymore, I was like “I’m out”.

What came after?

I was home for seven months, running my online business and making ₦30k – ₦40k/month. This was about the same I earned from my job, but I was working fewer hours and spending more time with my kids. 

I also taught myself graphic design because I was sure I could monetise it.

But when I got restless about not having the structure of a 9-5, I started job hunting again and got a teaching job at another school. My salary was ₦40k, and I was there for about two years. 

I was promoted to operations supervisor after my first six months, and my salary was increased to ₦50k. We had conversations about another raise, but it didn’t materialise before I left in December 2021. 

What else happened in those two years?

I was making extra money from my side businesses — freelance graphic design and selling wedding accessories, perfumes and female clothing — all of this brought in about ₦30k/month. The thing is, not all of them brought in money every single month.

Sometime in 2021, I found a freelance writing job with a media company. The pay was low, but I took it for the experience. 

How much?

They paid ₦1.25/word, and I wrote four 2k-word articles/month, so that brought in an extra ₦10k. But even with so many income sources, I was making less than ₦100k/month.

Phew. How were you moving money though?

There was barely anything to save. I could do more things than I did when I was earning ₦35k, but all the expenses were still tied to being a wife and mother. For example, my two boys were growing fast and always needed a change of clothes and shoes. While my husband paid their school fees, everything else was on me. Thankfully, the only person living with us this time was our house help.

On one side, I was frustrated. On the other, I was happy I could do the small things by myself, although they took everything I made every month. 

In December 2021, someone recommended me for an inventory manager job in a manufacturing company, and I got it. The pay was ₦100k/month.

That’s double your previous 9-5 income

I made an extra ₦50k from what I do on the side. These days, I shop for people too. I stopped the writing gig sometime in 2022 because the company said they weren’t making enough money to pay freelancers any longer. 

Can we attempt a breakdown of your monthly running costs?

Curious. Do you feel like you’re making enough money now?

No. But at least, I can save now, which is satisfying. I save ₦50k every month. It’s a non-negotiable. 

How much do you have saved altogether?

About ₦400k in savings and emergency funds. Although I’ve been talking to an investment company about putting money in the money market with an ROI of 13%, I haven’t taken the jump. I don’t think I’m ready for or can even afford to put money to work yet. 

It’s taken me this long to get here, but I rest a little knowing I have a little something of myself to fall back on if I need to. 

What do you see when you think about your financial future?

I don’t expect much of a breakthrough if we continue living in Port Harcourt. My husband earns about ₦300k/month, but he works almost every day; I also work Mondays to Saturdays. We’ve worked so hard and don’t really have much to show for it, except the things we’ve done to give the kids a decent life. The rent for our three-bedroom apartment is ₦750k/year, and our kids’ tuition/term is about ₦150k. We should be able to do more considering how hard we work.

We’ve been talking about japa, but it’ll cost us about ₦21m to move the whole family. There is no clear path to raising that amount at the moment. 

What do you wish you earned right now?

It’d be great if my husband earns ₦1m/month and I make ₦500k. I’ve never stopped learning or gaining new skills to bridge the gap that may stand between me and a high-paying job. In 2022, I got a scholarship for a UI/UX course. I may be able to get a job that’d pay up to ₦500k if I complete the course and build my portfolio. But with the schedule at my current job, I can’t pay much attention to it. 

When was the last time you felt broke?

Right now. I’ve only about ₦20k in my bank account; most of it will go into feeding and transportation, and I won’t get paid for another two weeks. 

I imagine there’s something you want but can’t afford

A vacation. I’m so exhausted. I don’t even need to go somewhere fancy; I just need the break. I’m thinking about going on a road trip when next I go on leave. My budget is ₦150k and my leave allowance, which is 75% of my monthly income, will cover some of the expenses. I’ll take the rest from my savings.

What was the last thing you paid for that improved the quality of your life?

I spent about ₦90k for my eyeglasses replacement, and I didn’t have to struggle to raise the money because I’d started saving. My vision is better for it. 

How have your experiences over the years shaped your perspective of money?

Money is your first line of defence. There’s a certain sense of security and satisfaction that comes with having enough of it — I don’t know what that feels like, but I know it’s there. But I’ve also learnt it’s best to control the things you can. At the moment, that means saving whatever I can and looking for other ways to make money. 

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

It’s a 3. I want to be in a position where I’m making money even when I’m sleeping. At the moment, I’m working almost every hour I’m up, and it doesn’t feel like I’m making enough. It gets really exhausting sometimes. 

My story doesn’t have a happy ending yet, but I’m filled with hope for the future. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

READ NEXT: The #NairaLife Of An Investment Manager Intent On Building Generational Wealth

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

Let’s take it back. What’s the first thing you did for money?

From JSS 3 to SS 2, I wrote notes for my classmates who didn’t want to do it themselves and charged ₦500 to ‎₦1k for it. On average, I made ₦4k-₦5k per month. 

What were you doing with 5k in JSS?

I paid a school prefect ₦2k, so they’d tell the other senior students to leave me alone.

But the rest was still a lot of money. My favourite meal was ₦50 bread and ₦40 akara. Imagine how many I could buy from what I made. 

A lot. Was there a reason you stopped writing the notes in SS 2?

I had an easier way to make extra money — my friends paid me to sit beside them during exams or do their assignments or projects for them. 

Was bread and akara the only reason you were hustling for money?

I don’t know why I started, but I suspect the state of my parent’s finances was a key factor. My dad repaired and sold computers and my mum worked in the civil service. My dad’s business had its on-and-off seasons, so we had to rely on my mum’s civil service and occasional loans during the off months. 

So, while they sent me ₦1500 to ₦2000/month, I could tell it was a struggle to do it. And I had three siblings they needed to worry about, too. 

Nothing much else happened until I got into university in 2014 to study systems engineering — I always knew I wanted to do something related to computers. 

Where did the interest in computers come from?

My dad. I grew up watching him repair and sell computers, and I started playing with them when I was about four years old. However, I wanted to do higher-level stuff than my dad ever, and studying a computer course was the first step toward that. 

But one thing temporarily stood in the way.

What was it?

Again, my dad. He had a stint in the military and wanted me to go to the Nigerian Defence Academy to study engineering. Luckily, I knew something he didn’t about the application process and used it to my advantage. 

If you wanted to go to the NDA, you needed to buy a JAMB form and a separate NDA application form. My dad thought I only needed the JAMB form, and I didn’t correct his assumption. Of course, I couldn’t proceed with my application or write the NDA entrance exam. 

With that out of the way, I changed my institution of choice on the JAMB form and chose systems engineering. 

Bruh. Did he ever find out?

Yes. But it didn’t matter because only had to pay my school fees for the first year.

Because I was on a first class at the end of my first year, I got a few scholarships that ran into ₦400k/year. The only term was that I had to maintain my first-class grades. I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about money until I left uni.

What else happened in uni?

In 2016, I learned C-sharp as part of my school work and Java, thanks to a government-funded program. Before I got to my third year, I’d gotten good at it and a learning organisation hired me as a training instructor. My salary was ₦50k. 

I worked there for a year before I left for my IT in 2018 where I worked as an Android developer. 

Was it a paid gig?

A ₦5k/month stipend.  It’s interesting because it was a cool startup and everyone thought they paid well. I had the scholarship money, so I didn’t mind.

I was more concerned about not enjoying Android development the way I thought I would. I needed to find and explore other options.

About three months into my IT, a friend dragged me to a conference organised by a non-profit organisation. To be honest, I went for the food. But I heard about data science for the first time, and I was curious. Something about using data to drive value and artificial intelligence sounded interesting. 

What steps did you take after that?

I went to a few boot camps and participated in hackathons. In December 2018, my team of four won a hackathon organised by a bank and the NGO that introduced me to data science. The prize money was ₦1m. Also, I got ₦150k in monetary rewards for winning in some other categories. 

Best in everything

The hackathon lasted for three days, and I made ₦400k at the end of it. From that moment up until I graduated, I was balancing side jobs with school and living on the random ₦50k-₦100k that came by and my scholarship money. 

How were you moving money?

I wasn’t spending money on myself: I was squatting with a friend and using the school internet. But I was big on sending money home. For the most part, half of what I made in a month went home. I was also heavily involved in the tech communities I was in. If there was a community event, the organisers could count on me to drop ₦30k – ₦50k. 

I went for another edition of the hackathon at the end of 2019, and my team won the ₦1m prize money again. When I graduated a few months later in 2020, I had ₦756k in my savings — my share of the hackathon’s prize money and the projects I worked on during the previous months. The most interesting thing, however, was that three companies were interested in hiring me.

A flex

Haha. After praying about it, I had this conviction to go for whatever offer I got first. When the first offer came, I saw that I’d be a graduate intern and get paid ₦30k/month if I accepted it. My first reaction was, “Which one is this again?”

But I decided to trust my gut and accepted the role. However, my plan was to leave if the other companies reached out with better offers.

Did they?

They reached out but they also offered me internships and salaries of ₦50k. I decided to stay for the experience and optimise for growth. 

What did growth look like for you?

The company had the most interesting clients and projects. Because of this, data engineering entered the mix and became something I was interested in. 

Why?

I wanted something that was close to software engineering and wasn’t as popular in Nigeria at the time. Besides, data engineers are big players and their job is to provide the right data for the data scientists. 

So I started figuring out how to transition into data engineering. 

The best path forward was to enrol in a data engineering certification course. The one I wanted cost ₦350k, which I couldn’t afford on my salary, even though it’d been increased to ₦40k. So I spoke to the company to pay for the course and deduct ₦15k from my salary every month. 

Now you had ₦25k/month

My internet was ₦20k and my tithe was ₦4k, so I was left with ₦1k. I lived on my savings from school, which was running out fast because I gave my parents ₦20k/month and also supported them with ₦400k to pay the rent.

I’m curious. Were you applying for other jobs?

I was. My salary expectation was ₦250k-₦300k, but no employer wanted to pay up because I hadn’t done NYSC. 

In the short term, I started working on side projects again, which brought in between ₦50k-₦100k/month. 

When did you go for NYSC?

I couldn’t go until December 2020 because of Covid. After returning from camp, I didn’t get a chance to speak to my boss about a possible raise until January 2021 — I’d written and passed my data engineering course, so I thought it’d give me more bargaining power.

How did that go?

The company offered me ₦50k, and my boss asked me to take it because the federal government was going to pay me ₦33k. I walked out of his office and never returned. 

Man, what was the plan now?

I interviewed with a new company almost every day in January 2021.  The highest offer I got was ₦50k, and they all gave the same reason for lowballing me. 

Let me guess: NYSC?

Yes! I finally found a company willing to do ₦100k in February, and I worked with them for six months. 

What happened after?

In July 2021, a company I applied to in 2020 reached out. After the conversations, they made me an offer. 

How much?

₦500k. But I didn’t accept it immediately — I was hoping that the company I was working for would make me a better offer because I was due for confirmation. Also, I was working on a major project.

When I saw my new offer of ₦125k, I bounced and accepted the job offer waiting for me.

One month into the job, the management of the company switched to paying in dollars because of the price fluctuations between both currencies, and my salary was adjusted to $1200. After converting to naira on the black market, my net salary was between ₦650k – ₦680.

Nothing major happened until November 2021. A client sent me a link to apply to a freelance platform, which I did and got a consulting gig there. I was charging them $20/hour and making about $3200 a month. 

Now, I was earning about ₦2.3m/month from my main and side gigs. 

Sweet. That must mean a lot. 

Man, it did. It gave me the freedom to start something I’d always wanted to do — clear my parents’ debt, which was about ₦2m. I started paying it off in December.

 It was in the same month I started interviewing with a big tech company. I was big on working with this company and even had a job alert created for them. The moment I saw a role I was suited for, I applied for it immediately. 

Fast forward to May 2022, I got the job.

The salary was ₦1.6m/month after tax. But the company had a policy: their employees couldn’t work on consulting or freelancing gigs that’d affect their jobs. My side gig at the time demanded that I worked eight hours a day — it was almost like another full-time job. 

It sounds like you had a decision to make

I did. I was torn between taking the offer for the big name and making do with the pay cut. Or sticking with my current job and making extra money with my side job, even though it was costing me my mental health.

Ultimately, I went for the big tech job. Besides, there were additional perks that came with the job. 

Tell me

$50k worth of stock with a vesting period of four years, housing and car allowances, and my signing bonus—

One question. What’s a vesting period?

When you join a company that gives you stock options, you will receive a percentage of your options every year over a period of time. When your stock options vest, it means that it’s available for you to buy.

Gotcha

My signing bonus was about ₦4m, and I took ₦3m from my savings to buy my car. The company also pays my rent — ₦2m/year.

I was happy with this, but something else happened. At my former workplace, I worked with a client that was sad to see me leave. Three months after I started my new job, they reached out to me about a consulting deal. The term was pretty much like “Give us two hours of your time every day, and we’ll pay you $2500/month.”

Get out!

The good thing is that the job is mostly a breeze, except for the very few times I’ve had to work all weekends. It’s not free money, but it almost feels like it sometimes. 

Omo. How much do you make from both jobs?

₦3.5m/month. 

Big energy! What couldn’t you do before this jump that you currently do?

Once I got used to the money, I started looking at investment opportunities. Fortunately, my current company makes it easy. As a staff, I get to buy the company’s stock at 90% of the market price. Also, while other people would have to buy in dollars, using the black market rate, the company charges me for it with the CBN rate of ₦420/dollar. So I get more stock units for less the price.

Since October last year, I’ve been buying $200 to $250 worth of company stock every month. At the moment, I have $14k worth of stock in my account, including the vested $12500 worth of stock.

Mad. What’s something you invested in that didn’t work out?

I tried some Agri-tech investment last year and lost the ₦400k I put in it. I guess you can’t win everything. 

Now, if I don’t trust that an investment will build wealth for me, I won’t touch it. I now know it’s best to save your money in dollars than put them in high-risk investments.

Back to your income. How do you stay on track of things these days?

Everything that leaves my account is recorded in a spreadsheet. But I split my main income into two — I buy stocks with $200-$250 and live on the rest. From the $2500 I earn from consulting, I put $1k in my emergency fund and set aside the remaining $1500 for projects. At the moment, I’m saving up capital for a business opportunity I’m pursuing soon.

What’s it about?

I know a lot about cars. Also, my mechanic is my best friend. We’ve been doing some research into buying high-end accidented cars, fixing them and reselling them in Nigeria, and the numbers look good. For example, you’ll spend around ₦6m –  ₦9m to bring a 2013 RX 350 car into Nigeria, do some minor repairs and sell at the retail price of about ₦13m.

I hope it works out. This sounds like a good place to talk about your running costs

My feeding budget is high because it also includes my family. I buy a bag of rice every month, which costs ₦40k and send another ₦50k for groceries. I spend about ₦60k to fuel my car and ₦40k on radiator coolant. 

Also, I’m currently working on a personal project and paying the intern that assists me ₦20k/month. 

What else has your income jump meant in the months that have passed?

A lot. My energy these days is that there’s room for more. In January 2021, my salary was ₦30k, but I make 100x that amount now. I’ve also worked for five companies in that time, and I think that says something, too.

That said, I’m now more scared than ever to be broke. It’s a flex when you want something and know you can afford it. 

The fear of being broke makes me think that I’m probably not earning as well as I should sometimes. 

Oh? How much would cancel out that fear?

$8k/month. 

When do you think you might hit that number?

I’m not sure. But I kinda have a five-year plan that should translate to a monthly income of $20k, and it requires me to go for an MBA and take leadership roles at my workplace. I plan to follow through with that.

Back to the present, what do you want right now but can’t afford?

My dream car is a Mercedes GLE 350, and it costs about ₦24m. It doesn’t make any financial sense to attempt buying it now, but I should feel doable by December. The car business will fund it. 

I’d like to know what you think about money these days

I think money is a spirit. When you do basic things to make your family happy and touch the lives of people around you, they’ll pray for you and ask for two things: good health and growth in whatever you do, so the money flow doesn’t stop. I believe very strongly that this works.

Also, I’ve learned that everything in life is about time and season. What you don’t have now will come later. The key is prioritising the resources and other key things that’ll get you there. 

A segue, is there a moment that you think could have changed everything and sent you on a different path?

Going to the NDA like my dad wanted would have changed things. Up until today, I believe sabotaging that plan and not applying to the academy is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’d have figured something out but I don’t think I’d be this happy.

Since you mentioned it, what’s your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

It’s a 7. I like very much that I can afford the basic things and certain luxuries, and make my family and girlfriend happy. 

I’m in my soft life era, which means that I’m looking to invest in the right businesses and cash out on them. I’ve seen that the best way to build wealth is to consistently put something in what looks like nothing but has the right propensity for growth, and then blows up over time. So that’s what I’m interested in now. If I’m successful at it, this number goes to an 8 or a 9.

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

How did you first realise the importance of money?

It was from making it. I was born and raised in a village in Kwara State. We were farmers in my family and planted crops like cassava, corn, and potato. On Saturdays, my friends and I went to the market to sell what we could and split the money among ourselves. My share was usually around ₦‎1k, and I usually gave it to my grandmother to use for the house and keep the rest for me. 

What about your parents?

My father left the village to work as a driver in Lagos in 1993. But in 2000, he asked me to go live with his mother. He wanted someone to be with her. 

So I was working on her farm and going to school. But I stopped school after primary school. 

Did you want to?

I don’t even know.  My father had two wives and six children. We were just managing, so going to school wasn’t what anyone talked about like that. Everyone just worked on the farms. Even when I left the village for Lagos, it was to go and work. 

When did you leave?

2003. My father said I should come, and he helped me find a place to live and a job with one of his friends who sold fabric and clothes at a market. I was a salesgirl for the woman, and she paid me ₦10k/month. 

I left the place after a year.

Why?

In 2004, I found out I was pregnant. The father of the child and I agreed to move in together. We didn’t do much. He just met my parents, and we did a little introduction before moving into his once.

What did he do for money?

Police work. And because he had a job and was earning money, he didn’t want me to work. When I asked for a reason, he said he didn’t want me to work for anyone. He promised to open a shop for me, and I believed him. So I stayed at home without a job for two years.

I was getting some money from him. Before he went out every morning, he’d give me ₦500 –  ₦1k to cook something.

I don’t know how much he was earning because he never told me, so I’m not sure if he could have done more. But he was leaving money for feeding and paying our house rent.

Did you have arguments about money?

Sometimes. If we fought, we settled it. Thank God we didn’t have too many responsibilities, so it was easy to manage the money he left. 

What about the child you were pregnant with?                              

   I lost the pregnancy.

Eish. I’m sorry

Thank you. But I got pregnant again and gave birth to my first child in 2006. There was one more person to worry about; I decided to find a job since my husband still didn’t set up the shop he promised. 

I got a job as a cleaner in a school. By fire, force and plenty of begging, my husband reluctantly agreed to allow me to do the job. I told him I couldn’t just sit at home anymore. 

How much did the job pay?

₦5k. I don’t know why my husband didn’t want me to work because the money I started earning at the job was used to support him and the house. One person cannot do everything.

Now that I had a job, he didn’t have to give me money every day anymore. But I left the job in 2008 when I was pregnant with my second child. 

How were you managing when you left?

I was back to living on whatever the children’s father gave us. Nothing after that. He was still saying that he’d open the shop for me, but he did everything by mouth. It never happened. 

About the time I started thinking about finding another job, I found out that I was pregnant again. This was in 2010, and I was at home for another two years before I found another cleaning job in 2012. 

How did you find that job?

I started telling everyone around that I was looking for work and someone introduced me to a family. I’ve been with them since. When I started, I was going there to clean the house and wash their clothes once a week, and they were paying me ₦10k/month.

I was also working for other people during the week. After calculating everything, I was making up to ₦40k/month. 

Was this enough to take care of the house and the kids?

We weren’t paying school fees because the kids were in public schools. But I was paying for their feeding, school books and uniform. My husband was taking care of the rent. On months when we didn’t have a lot to spend money on, I saved ₦10k. However, there were always reasons to touch the money and it never grew.

As the years passed, we were managing and the kids were growing older. Everything was fine until my husband started misbehaving and picking fights with me. 

Why? What happened?

He never wanted me to have a job, even though he saw what the money did for us. When I didn’t stop, he decided that I was having affairs and seeing other men. I think he was just jealous because where was the time to do that?

He’d been fighting me for years, but it got worse in 2020. Every day, he’d listen to my calls to see who I was speaking to. Most times, these people just wanted to give me work. Then he started checking my phone at night when I was sleeping. To him, everybody that called me was my “boyfriend”. 

Omo

There was a time he sent me and the kids out in the middle of the night, but we had no place to go at that time. When it was morning, I took my kids to my father’s house, and we stayed there for two weeks.

Where did you go from there?

Back to his house. Our families settled the fight, but it didn’t end there. Sometimes, he’d wake me up in the middle of the night and force me to swear that I wasn’t cheating on him. At some point, he even accused me of blocking his destiny because of my affairs. 

That’s a lot

It was. When he told me to leave his house again in 2021, I knew I wasn’t going back. Even his parents said I should leave the house for him because they were tired of his wahala. I carried my load, my three children and left. 

I’m sorry. But where did you go?

We stayed with one of my sisters for a few weeks. But she also started doing somehow, so the children and I had to leave. I had only one option left.

What?

The family I’d been working for since 2012. They heard what happened and promised to get a house for me. They also asked me to move in with them and be their children’s nanny. I agreed and went with my first child. I left the other two with their father’s mother.

I’ve been living in their house for about two years now. 

How much is the job paying?

₦25k/month. Once I get my salary, I take ₦5k out and send the rest to my account.

How do you spend money now?

I don’t spend a lot of money because my daughter and I eat whatever I cook for the house. But I go to visit my other children at their grandmother’s place at least once a month and spend about ₦10k out to buy things for them.

But I recently bought a phone for ₦56,500. It’s why I don’t have much in my account now.

How much do you have left?

 ₦14k. 

The next thing that I’ll need to spend money on is my eldest school fees. She is about to enter university, and I know I cannot carry it by myself. After she writes her JAMB, I’ll talk to her father’s family to know we’ll know how to do it. 

What about their dad?

We haven’t spoken since I left his house. He pays for what the children need in school though. But I don’t trust him that much and don’t know if he’ll continue doing this.

I’m taking it one by one. The one thing I want to do now is to rent my own house. This place is not that comfortable for me. 

How?

The work is too much. My boss has travelled out of the country. Now it’s just me, my daughter, my boss’s husband and their two children. Every morning, I bathe the kids and take them to school. Then I come back to clean the house and wash the dirty clothes. I also pick up the children from school and cook lunch and dinner for the house. I’m the only one doing all of this, and it’s not easy. 

And with everything I do, the husband will still talk to me somehow like I don’t know what I’m doing. One day, I corrected one of the children, and the husband called their mother to warn me. There was another time I forgot to tell him that the fuel inside the gen had finished and he said things to me like I did it intentionally. 

This is what happens when you’re working for your mates. But I’m coping. Things will be better soon. 

Do you know why they’ve not gotten the apartment for you?

The husband and the children are going to join the wife soon. I think they want to leave before they get the apartment so I won’t leave them. There was one time I was even angry about something the husband did and wanted to leave, but they begged me to stay so I can get all the things they promised me. 

The housing issue is why I can’t leave the job for them. I’ve worked for them for more than 10 years, so it’s like my reward.

But what happens if they don’t fulfil their promises?

Ah! The wife and I talk all the time, and they said they will do it. All my heart is on it, and I have no other choice but to trust them. If they don’t do it, I won’t know where to start.

They even collected ₦20k from me last year. They said they wanted me to add some money to the rent too. If they don’t get the house for me, they’ll return my money.

If it was up to you, how much would you like to be earning every month?

If I get a job that pays me ₦50k, I’ll be very happy. At least I’ll have more money to save. I want to start a business now, so I won’t have to work for anyone again and no one will insult me. I’m thinking of buying a freezer and selling cold drinks. 

How much is a good amount of money to save for you right now?

₦20k/month that I won’t touch. If I leave that for a year, that will be ₦240k. It’s something.

How much do you think you’ll be making in five years?

By that time, I should have started my business, and I hope it’s bringing me at least ₦40k in profit every month. It’s not that much but it will be from my work and my business, and that’s enough for me. 

Is there anything you’d change now about how you spend money?

I don’t even have that much money to spend. But I want to learn how to say no. When the person I’m working for was in Nigeria, she was selling clothes. And she was pushing them to me to buy. I didn’t need the clothes or had the money for them, but I bought them because I didn’t know how to tell her no.

The clothes cost between ₦3k – ₦6k each. I think I spent up to ₦60k on everything I bought from her, and it pains me every time I remember this. I don’t even wear the clothes, so it’s like I wasted money. The thing really affected my savings.

That’s painful. So, how do you see life now?

Life is not fair. You’re working a lot doesn’t mean that you will make plenty of money. I don tire, but may God help us. I also think that life is hard on women, and we need to have our own money so no man will be able to control us.

Do you think you’ll return to your husband?

I don’t think it’s possible anymore. Let everyone be on their own. If it’s about the children, we can face it together. But I don’t even want to rely on him for that. I didn’t go to school, and I want all my children to. I pray God makes it easy for me. 

How happy are you now on a scale of 1-10?

4. I work a lot and don’t see a lot of money. It’s not balanced at all. I can only pray to God to have mercy. But if I get the house and start the business I want to, I’ll have more reasons to be happy.

*This interview happened in Yoruba. It has been translated and edited for clarity.

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

Do you remember the first thing you did for money?

An internship at a radio station in 2008 and my monthly stipend was ₦‎5k. I was in the second year of uni and was on break when I worked here. 

I interned the following year at a different radio station and was also paid ₦‎5k/month. My last internship was in 2010 at a bigger radio station that could afford to pay me ₦15k. 

After my internships, I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in broadcasting, even though I knew a radio job wouldn’t pay me much. I don’t know if it was a lack of ambition, but I never believed I needed a lot of money to survive. 

Interesting. What was your perspective about money at the time?

I don’t know that I had one. But I was always optimising for everyday necessities. Savings? What’s that? As long as I had food and clothes. 

It’s funny because while my sister — my only sibling — and I grew up under the same circumstances, she had a different approach to money and looked far beyond having money for daily needs.

What do you mean?

My dad was a deadbeat, so we were raised by our mum. And she worked hard to make sure we didn’t suffer — so feeding, accommodation and our education were her priorities. The bills may be late sometimes, but she always came through.

The lesson I took from early events was that money may come and go, but I’d always survive. My strategy was to take every day as it came, and this was where my head was when I graduated from university in 2011. 

What happened in 2011?

I worked as a secretary for three months at my mum’s office and my salary was ₦15k/month. Later in the year, I was mobilised to the north-central for NYSC. My first government allowance was ₦7500. Then it increased to ₦19800 the following month. 

Thankfully, a friend from uni offered me a room in her parents’ house — a walking distance from the radio station where I was posted to. So accommodation was sorted for the whole, and I didn’t have transportation expenses. 

How were you moving money out then?

I was sending ₦10k to my mum and ₦5k to my sister, and living on ₦4800. My favourite thing about the town where I served was how affordable the food was — my office had a restaurant where a full meal cost ₦500.  

The cheap standards of living played a role in my decision to stay back after NYSC. But the radio station also chose to retain me. They thought I had the zeal and passion for radio, and it’d be their loss if I returned to Lagos. 

Energy! Did you use this leverage to negotiate a salary?

I asked for ₦100k, but they could afford only ₦60k. However, my boss offered to pay me ₦20k out of his pocket, bringing my monthly income to ₦80k. The job also came with free accommodation. Overall, it was a good deal for me. 

₦19800 to ₦80k in 2012. How did that feel?

Almost like I was earning a million bucks. When I got my first salary, I was just thinking, “What am I going to do with this?” When I finally dipped into it, I sent ₦40k to my mum and ₦10k to my sister. 

Two months into the job as a full-time staff, my friends who were also retained and I started saving half of our salaries in a central account. But we weren’t holding for the medium or long term; the money had a very specific use. 

What?

We lived close to Abuja and would go there once or twice a month to blow the money on whatever we wanted. We were a bunch of 20-somethings who just started making money, so this was a big deal. 

Between 2012 and 2014, I was sending ₦20k to my mum; ₦10k to my sister; and living on ₦20k. The rest usually went on our Abuja trips. 

Fascinating

In 2014, the first signs of trouble showed up at work. They slashed everyone’s salary by 50% — something about the station not making enough money anymore. Just like that, my salary was reduced to ₦30k. The situation touched my boss too, so the additional ₦20k from him also stopped coming regularly.

At some point, the station couldn’t pay our salaries every month anymore. We could go two or three months before we got one month’s salary or half salary. 

I had to make some adjustments and started sending money home only when my sister needed something. The Abuja trips also stopped. But I could still cover my basic expenses because I had free accommodation and the food was cheap. 

However, I felt like I had two years to prepare for the salary cuts, and I didn’t. That said, I didn’t think about leaving the radio station or the town because I liked working and living there. 

Then my friends started leaving, which was depressing. Good thing that I got married in 2015.

That came out of nowhere

 Haha. My husband and I met in the town in 2014. He worked in a bank and was more hands-on with his finances. While I didn’t have any savings and was living from my irregular paycheck to paycheck, he had dollar savings. We were miles apart financially. 

When we got married, I was living off him and had everything I needed, except money. That I could never ask him. My dependence on him grew when we had our first child in 2016, and it was hard watching him take up everything because I was raised by an independent mum. 

How was it going on the job front?

Nothing changed until I left in 2019 — my husband and I decided that it was time to return to Lagos. My husband requested a transfer, and I quit my job. 

It’s wild you worked there for seven years without income growth

It’s why we had to leave. There was no real sense of growth. 

Before I left, my boss paid me ₦80k — a part of what the station owed me. But I didn’t even have it in me to protest. At least I was returning to Lagos with something. 

I was pregnant with my second child when we got back to Lagos, so there was no immediate pressure to find a job.

What was the cost of settling back in Lagos?

I don’t know. My husband handled the costs of moving and setting up our new home. But I know he had to dip into his savings for that. I couldn’t do much to support the process financially.

I spent the rest of 2019 casually looking for a job. The efforts intensified when my baby came in February 2020. My finances were back at zero because I spent most of the ₦80k I had during my pregnancy. So I watched helplessly as my husband picked up the bills again — the family’s monthly running cost was about ₦100k.

What was it like watching your husband be the sole breadwinner?

It’d have been easier if I wanted to be a stay-at-home mum, but I didn’t. So I was borderline depressed. Post-partum depression coupled with no job, personal income or savings wasn’t a great combination. But I bottled it all up because I wasn’t sure my husband or anyone else would understand. I mean, I had all the basic things I needed and lived a comfortable life. 

I was also the broke partner, and I hated it — it was like I was close to some form of wealth and far away from it at the same time. I could never claim my husband’s money as my own. 

The anxiety that came with that — not having my own money — was something. 

Tell me more about that

The biggest thing I worried about was how I would navigate things if something happened to my husband, and I suddenly had to take care of two kids by myself. Where would I start?

Or what if he started to resent me because I couldn’t pick any of the weights? 

But ultimately, I had to convince myself that the only thing I could control was job hunting. 

Ah, right! How was it going?

When I first got back to Lagos, I was looking for radio jobs and the only one I got offered ₦80k/month. I rejected the job, which was a brave decision because I wanted to start earning. But if I took the job, I’d be spending more than half of my salary on just commuting. Lowkey, I might also have rejected the job because I still had a safety net.

No offer came after that. There was no job website I wasn’t on, and no job that I didn’t apply for. When I didn’t get interviews at media companies anymore, I started looking into teaching roles. When those didn’t work either, I turned my sights to random jobs. At some point, I applied for a driving job. 

I was stuck in this process for two years before I finally got something in December 2021. 

Phew. I can’t imagine your relief. What was the job about?

It was a managerial role at a food company. The salary was ₦140k/month gross and ₦130k net, even though I didn’t know about the deductions until I got my first salary. 

What did it mean for you to earn money again after so long?

I could now pay for two things in the house — a nanny for the kids and the internet — and each cost ₦25k. You have no idea what it meant to be finally able to do something without my husband paying for it. 

However, the job where the money came from wasn’t the best place to work. The hours weren’t flexible — I was working from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., on most days. There was even a 3-week window where I barely saw my kids. 

The place was also toxic. My boss was an asshole and would deduct money from people’s salaries over little things. During my last four months there, between ₦16k and ₦33k was deducted from my salary every month because something I don’t even remember happened in the kitchen. 

But I knew I couldn’t leave until I found another job. Thankfully, I got a lifeline. 

I’m listening 

I applied to a travel company in 2021, but it didn’t work out. Out of the blue, they reached out to me in the middle of 2022 to fill a vacant role. The salary was ₦140k net — just a little over what I was earning at the food company but I took it.

I started the job in August 2022.

Sweet. What do you do for them?

The company helps clients — usually corporate entities — apply for visas for their staff. I’m a visa agent, and my job is to fill out the forms, gather all necessary documents and ensure that the applications look good. The company charge a service charge for this, which is between ₦50k and ₦250k depending on how hard it is to get the visa. 

Visa applications to the UK, US, and the Schengen area fall into ₦250k category, and it’s how I make more money; I get a 10% commission on each application. On average, I make ₦100k/month in commissions, which the company pays out every three months. My commissions are lumpsum payments. 

Ah! When did you get the first one?

₦400k in October 2022. The bank restricted my account because I’d never received such money at once. But once it was clear, I went shopping for some things I’d always wanted to buy in the house but didn’t want to ask my husband. I also saved ₦100k.

The next commission came in February, and the next one should come in a few weeks. 

I’m curious what the dynamics between you and your husband are like now

He still earns more money and handles the major bills, especially things around feeding the children and housekeeping. But now, I can pick up some random bills that come up each month. And I love that he asks me to do them, too. It could be paying for extra power units if we run out or buying groceries. I’m very happy to do all this and particularly enjoy how it’s made me feel about a lot of things. Finally, it feels like I have a stake in running our home. 

So where does your money typically go these days?

I save from my commissions and currently have about ₦150k in my savings. My current struggle is that I haven’t worked out how to plan my savings and stick to them. Once the lumpsum payments come, a thousand things to spend money on show up. Even if I draw up a plan and stick to it, I still end up dipping into my savings for random expenses. Need to fix that. 

Do you have a savings goal at the moment? 

I’m looking to have ₦500k in my account at the end of the year. I’ll be a very happy person if this happens. 

I feel like  I’ve been in the initial stage when someone has the urge to spend on everything they see when they just come into money. The excitement of having a consistent income is wearing off now, and I’m beginning to pace myself. 

How have your experiences shaped your thinking about money?

Growing up, I didn’t think money was anything important. I didn’t make it a part of my life, which is why I didn’t get a hang of it earlier. As a result, I didn’t have anything of my own to fall back on during the years of drought. So my thinking about money now is that it comes when you keep it.

But I’m still very much someone who doesn’t need anything beyond the basic things to live a decent life.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

It’s been a rollercoaster over the years. It started at 5, then went down to 2, and I was stuck here for years. Now I’m at a 7. I don’t think I’m earning poorly. And for the first time in my life, I have money saved up somewhere. The remaining 3 is because there’s room for improvement, but I’m confident that I’d hit 10 at some point. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

Let’s start from the beginning. What’s your earliest introduction to money?

When I was in primary school, my dad would give me money every morning to give to my mum. That was the family’s money for that day’s basic expenses. I’m the eldest of five children, so I get why he always sent me this errand. But I never understood why he didn’t just give my mum the money himself.

 I didn’t know the true value of money at the time, but this daily ritual was reassuring — it meant that as long as my dad did this, we’d have food to eat every day. 

Did you always have food to eat?

Until my dad died, yes. I grew up with a silver spoon. In the early 2000s, my dad ran a clearing and forwarding business for motorcycle spare parts, and he also had a shop where he sold them. The business did well, and I knew this because I took interest in it. I’d look at the sales book in the evenings to see what the numbers were that day, and sales were usually between ₦‎300k – ₦1m worth of goods.

We had a car, lived in a 3-bedroom flat and were the first family to own a generator in our neighbourhood. 

But the business started struggling— I don’t know why — shortly before my dad died in 2008. I was 15 years old and in SS 1. A lot of things changed after these events. 

I’m sorry about your dad

Thank you. Before my dad’s death, my mum was the stay-at-home parent, but she did many things on the side over the years. From selling zobo and kunu to ice-blocks and a couple of other quick small businesses that showed up. She eventually settled for baking and catering for events. But we didn’t have to depend on her earnings. 

Following my dad’s death, my mum became the breadwinner, even though she didn’t have a stable source of income. The sudden switch was hard on us, going from a comfortable middle-class family to a low-income household. I remember times when my mum’s friend brought us food and bowls of soup so that we could have something to eat. 

Man. How did the family navigate this period?

My mum made some changes to her catering business. Instead of waiting for contracts, she started selling cooked food. Her friends raised money for her to get a shop, and we were in business. But sales were slow because the foot traffic wasn’t significant in the location, so she found another stall in the market. 

Then she put me in charge of the first shop. It’s fair to say this was the first thing I did for money. 

After school, I’d open the shop and sell until 6:30 p.m. before my mum would join me from the other stall in the market. We’d be there until 9 pm. Also when my mum was away, it was my job to cook and keep the business open for the day. Before I left secondary school, I could cook for as many as 100 people at a time.

Do you remember how much was coming in from this?

Between ₦20k and ₦50k – ₦ 60k, depending on how good the day’s sales were. The profit margin wasn’t that great, though. Or maybe the money just wasn’t enough to cater for a family of six with no other source of income. 

Two of my brothers dropped out of school because of this. And I didn’t go to the university until 2015, even though I graduated from secondary school in 2010. 

That’s hard. Did you do anything in the five years that passed before uni?

I was always involved in my mum’s food business. I also tried a couple of other things — a diploma in desktop publishing, learned hairdressing and tried to get another diploma in education, but I had to drop out because my mum couldn’t complete the school fees. 

I eventually got into a federal university in 2015 — tuition was ₦20k/year and accommodation in the school hostel was ₦3,600. 

How did uni go?

I didn’t do anything for the first two years because I wanted to face schoolwork. During this time, I made do with the foodstuff I brought from home and the occasional ₦2k that came. After sorting groceries, I usually had about ₦300 to ₦500 left to last me through the month. 

But it became unsustainable by my third year because the money wasn’t forthcoming — my mum had four other siblings that needed to be taken care of. 

So I started baking cakes, which I learned from my mum. People in my campus fellowship and my class were my first sets of customers, and I’d make between ₦500 and ₦2k on every order. An ex bought me an electric oven, which was a huge help. 

I also got contracts to cook for student and fellowship events, and I’d make ₦2k-₦5k. At some point, I was hiring other students to help with the orders, and I’d give them food and pay them ₦1k after we were done. 

I was also saving money when I could. When I graduated from university in 2019, I had about ₦12k saved up. 

Nice. What came after?

A few weeks after submitting my project, I travelled to Lagos to live with a family member and look for HR internships. 

Why HR?

I was a people person and led teams in church and associations in uni, so it felt like the thing for me. Also, I got active on LinkedIn in uni and followed many HR thought leaders to grow my knowledge in Human Resources. 

An acquaintance from the university gave me a lead at their company’s HR outsourcing company, and I applied for the role and got it.

My monthly stipend was ₦20k. It’s funny because I mentioned that I was willing to work for free in my application email. I had no idea how much it’d cost to live in Lagos.

Haha

Two weeks into the job, I realised that my stipend was only enough to cover my transportation expenses. Thankfully, I was a hard worker. Two months into the job, my stipend was increased to ₦40k. Subsequently, ₦25k went into transportation, ₦10k into lunch and ₦5k for plus snacks when I was in traffic.

I was living from stipend to stipend, but it was something. Then I had to leave the job after four months. 

Why?

NYSC. I was mobilised out of Lagos and didn’t have the money to redeploy back. So I had to leave the ₦40k job. My PPA was a media house, and the benefits were ₦15k monthly stipend and accommodation. The federal government also paid ₦19,800.

My primary station was the newsroom, but I still wanted to do something related to HR. However, my workplace didn’t have an HR department — just an accountant who handled payroll. Two months into the job, the accountant resigned. I saw an opportunity there and pitched myself to the Assistant General Manager, showing proof of my knowledge of payroll management from my internship at the recruiting company. He bought it and let me take up payroll responsibilities. 

Do you know why he agreed to it?

I was the cheaper option. The last accountant earned ₦50k while they paid me ₦15k. The new responsibilities didn’t reflect in my pay, but I didn’t mind. I did it for the experience. 

How did NYSC go?

I became the AGM’s right-hand person and learned every possible administrative task from him. Before my service year ended, I was handling five other sister companies’ payrolls and filling the tax returns. 

Everything was going well until I was nine months into NYSC and Covid struck. The company stopped paying, so I was left with the government allowance, which had just been increased to ₦33k. Since everything was shut down at work, I went back home to my family and stayed there until my service year ended. 

Before I left for home, I was saving ₦15k/month. But when I was at home, I increased my monthly savings to ₦30k. When my service year ended in June, I had saved up ₦150k. 

From my savings, I took ₦78k to buy a new phone because I had started building content and social media skills because of an NGO I was volunteering for. 

Now NYSC was over

And I needed to find a new job. I returned to Lagos in July 2020, but it was the wrong time to hunt for jobs. Covid had slowed things down and no one was hiring. I applied for full-time roles and internships but none were forthcoming. Not until October when I found a job as an executive assistant at an investment management company, and my salary was ₦50k.

Only three people worked at this company, so I was punching above my weight. I was handling business operations and also doing brand communications — content and social media. In January 2021, I got a raise to ₦80k.

Sadly, I lost my job in the same H1. The company ran out of money. 

Damn

Again, I had been saving — ₦15k/month when my salary was ₦50k and ₦30k when it increased to ₦80k, which mitigated the impact of losing my job. It took me six months before I found another full-time job. 

What happened during those months?

I kept looking for a job, but I couldn’t find one. Then a friend gave me a lifeline in June 2021. He owned a consulting company and brought me on as a contract staff on a project he was working on. My role here was as a business development officer — another pivot because I hadn’t done that professionally. But I came from a family of business people and had managed and grown businesses. The first contract work I did paid me ₦120k. 

While this was happening, the tech buzz was also getting stronger. I’ve always been a fan of innovation and technology, so I started looking for ways to find myself in the tech industry. I attended a couple of industry events to find work. But ultimately, I shot my shot at a company on Twitter. Things aligned here because I was operating in a business development capacity at my contract job and they had an open biz-dev role.

I took the job to help them drive sales on a monthly salary of  ₦133k. I was there for nine months before I joined my current company. 

I’m curious how you got the job

I’m very active on Linkedin, and this was the tool I used. During the japa wave of 2022, I started applying for several jobs abroad, hoping one of them would sponsor my relocation. Instead, I got a ton of rejections. They mostly said the same thing — they liked my experience but were not willing to sponsor my relocation. 

I was scrolling through Linkedin one day when I saw an ad for a remote business and partnerships manager role. Not the job that’d open a path to relocation that I was looking for, but I decided to start from here. I applied and sent my CV. They reached out to me and after a couple of interviews, I got the mail.

 Welcome to the team.

Congratulations. How much?

$2500. It’s about ₦1.5m when you convert it to Naira. One job change and I’m earning my one-year salary in one month. 

Wild

See, when I received my first salary, I thought it was a joke. I was just jumping and shouting up and down. It was almost unbelievable.

Some months in, I got a raise to $2800/month. I do a lot of hard work — from product to operations to marketing and sales — so I deserve it. 

What has this jump meant in this little time?

 I’m the only one in my family who has gotten to this income level. So I put my mum on a monthly allowance of ₦50k, pay the rent and have taken on a couple of projects in the past couple of months. They don’t know how much I earn, but they know my financial situation has improved.

As for me, I moved from my tiny and loud ₦250k self-con to a bigger and much quieter 2-bedroom apartment. My rent is now ₦1m. 

It also means that when I think about travelling these days, I think about flying, not going by road. I’ve gone on two trips this year already and should do a few more by the end of the year.

Where does your money go every month?

 Additionally, I spend between ₦50k-₦100k every three months on skincare. 

These expenses may not seem like a lot compared to what I earn, but it’s a lot compared to where I’m coming from. I always remember that. 

What about your savings muscle in the past couple of months?

Between June and December last year, I saved ₦500k every month for my rent. Now, I have ₦3m in that savings account, and it will cover rent for the next three years. 

In the last quarter of 2022, I made a financial plan for 2023, including the things I wanted to do this year and how to spread them over the year. The core of it is that I now invest $1k/month in real estate investment via a financial management app I use. The ROI is 10%/annum.

My naira savings is for short and medium-term expenses. I promised myself to go on vacation every quarter, and I’m saving ₦300k every month into that account. There’s another account where I save ₦150k — this one is for my mum’s rent. Also, I have a target saving account for my car; I put ₦400k in every month, and it will be due by Q3.

So yeah, I save a shit-ton of money. $1k goes into my core investments. Another $1k goes into my naira savings, and I live on the rest. 

It appears that you plan everything to the tiniest detail

A part of it is driven by my anxiety about money. I’ve struggled financially; I never want to go back there. Also, I deal with this gnawing feeling that something might go wrong.

I came from a family where the silver spoon disappeared all of a sudden. I’ve also woken up to being told I no longer had a job. So my thinking is still, what if I wake up and the job is no longer there?

 I’m trying to have so much buffer that even if a rainy day comes, I’m stacked up for at least a year. It’s also the reason I buy things in twos and threes. 

The only thing I can control is planning everything around my finances. and it keeps me sane. 

Now I want to ask how your experiences have shaped your thinking about money

I’ve always been a hard worker. I’ve been trained that hard work brings money, and I’ve seen it happen first-hand. So I don’t joke with work because I want to be sure nothing is happening to my salary — it’s how I can pay for everything. 

How much do you think you should be earning now?

I earn reasonably well. But if it comes to the work I do, I should be earning between $3k – $4k. My next promotion should get me there or close. I do a lot of work for my employers. I have some bargaining power.

Energy! What did you spend money on recently that improved the quality of your life?

My eyesight. I visited the optician recently and they recommended new lenses and frames. A pair of the lens cost ₦65k and the frame ₦35k. I bought two pairs of both, totalling ₦200k. Also, I paid a consultation fee of ₦10k. 

Love it! Is there a question you think I should have asked but didn’t?

My financial happiness?

Hehe. I was coming to that

It’s a solid 8/10. I don’t wake up to think about what to eat or how I would deal with any financial situation that may come from home. It’s not even pride, but there’s barely anything I want to buy that I can’t afford. It’s interesting how much can change in a year. Right now, I describe myself as comfortable and content.

This number might move to a 9 when I get my car. And a 10 when I get an MBA which, when I think about it, is probably the only thing I can’t afford very easily right now. 

Soon come. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Yes, I want to do a Naira Life

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

What’s your oldest memory of money? 

I remember my aunt coming to our house on weekends and bringing gifts with her every time. She was a badass tailor, and everyone said she was rich. Her frequent visits to the house meant I could ask her for anything and she’d get it done. My most expensive request was a bicycle. I was about six years old. 

I’d asked my parents for the bicycle, but they dribbled their way out of it. They were raising four children on their civil service salaries, so they didn’t prioritise things like that. However, we were very comfortable. 

Growing up, everyone in my family — from my parents to my aunt — was some of the most hardworking people I knew. And from watching them, I knew that if you worked hard, you’d make money and live a soft life. Also, my older sister became a millionaire at 19. All of this exposed me to the concept of money relatively young. 

Did this push you to go look for money yourself?

All I did was face my book. The thought of making money didn’t kick in until university. My allowance was ₦‎20k/month, which was great. But everyone in my family was fiercely independent, so I started thinking about things I could do to make money. Between my second year and third year, I started three businesses in school.

Tell me about them

At first, I was making hair for students, charging between ₦1500 and ₦2000 per job. In a good month, I could make up to ₦15k. I stopped this in the second semester because it was so much effort for little pay. I wanted to raise my prices and nobody wanted to pay.

Then I started making Ankara journals and selling them for ₦1k. Again, people complained about prices, and I wasn’t going to bring the price down. I shut that down too. 

When I got into 300 level in 2017, I settled on soap making. I’d learned saponification in secondary school chemistry class and knew what to do. I worked on a formula during the session break before returning to school.

Interesting. How did this work out?

A bottle cost ₦300, and I was selling an average of two bottles per day. Then a cousin advised me to pitch my services to hotels in town. I didn’t think anyone would take me seriously because I was 17 years old. But I landed two hotels and the deal was to supply each hotel with 50 litres of soap every month. 

A 25-litre jerrycan was ₦10k and I was making ₦20k from each hotel. That’s ₦40k a month from soap making, and I still had my ₦20k monthly allowance. 

Sweet. 

This lasted for a few months before both hotels ghosted me — I think they found a cheaper option. None of them even bothered to send me a breakup text. I was back to living on my monthly allowance. I didn’t bother to start anything else though. My attention had drifted to something else.

RELATED: NairaLife: The Photographer Who Went From ₦50K To At Least ₦800K/Month

What was that?

An internship at a radio station. I was studying zoology at the university, but I loved the arts. Also, I’ve always loved doing accents, and everyone said I had a nice voice. When the opportunity to intern at the radio station came, I took it. This led me to my next job.

How?

In 2017, another radio station was working on a jingle and wanted a fresh voice for the voiceover. A friend recommended me for the job because he thought I had a way with words. I went in and did what they needed me to. They paid me ₦7k for it. Thing is, I would have done it for free. 

Haha

They also thought I was a natural at it. Subsequently, they called me back for other projects. These were mostly unpaid, save for the “transport money” — ₦500 here, ₦1k there. But when they paid me, I’d go home with ₦5k.

Years later, I’d find out that the going rate for what I was doing for them was ₦20k. I don’t feel like they exploited me; I learned a lot about voice acting working with them. Besides, I was doing it mostly for fun. 

What happened after?

In my final year, I decided that voice acting was an option I’d like to explore. But I put everything on the back seat to face my books again. I graduated from uni in 2019 and applied to serve in a media house for my NYSC. My primary job role was as a front-desk representative, but I was also an audio intern. This meant jumping at voice-over tasks whenever the opportunity came. 

Were you being paid at the job?

I was. My combined income during NYSC was ₦55,500 — my salary at the job was ₦22500 and the federal government paid ₦33k. Sometimes, I’d get occasional radio jingle voice-over work on the side and get paid  ₦5k. But those weren’t consistent: I got about four of those the whole year.

How were you moving money out?

 I was saving ₦20k/month in an ajo scheme of 10 people I was in. We took turns collecting ₦200k every month.

I’d been robbed on my way to a job interview and developed a fear of public transportation. So

I made an arrangement with a driver to pick me up from home and back every day and paid ₦20k/month. 

Thankfully, I was living with my parents, so accommodation and feeding were sorted. 

When Covid came in 2020, my place of work stopped paying my salary, reducing my monthly income to ₦33k. Once I took ₦20k out to save, I was left with ₦13k. 

Phew

In April or May 2020, it was my turn to collect ₦200k from the ajo. The first thing I did was to take ₦150k out to buy a 2012 Macbook Pro. It was a necessary purchase because I wasn’t going to work anymore. Yet I needed to practice my audio production and record my voiceovers. In addition, someone gifted me a microphone and a sound card.

I spent the rest of the lockdown and 2020  practising and learning everything I could. I was constantly broke because there was always something voice-acting related I needed to spend on, mostly self-development. 

But I came out of the learning phase sharpened and confident in my skills. So I started putting myself out there and got my first regular gig in October 2020. 

How did that happen?

I opened an Upwork account when I was at uni in 2017. I even did two $5 jobs before I abandoned it. When I returned to it in 2020, I was vigorously sending proposals and pitches. Then I landed the first client who wanted a voice actor for their audiobook projects. The pay was $50 per finished hour.

What’s a finished hour?

It’s how payments are decided in the voice-acting industry. Typically, you’re paid for each hour of the actual recording output.

Gotcha

This was a recurring gig, and I was making $500/month: each book I narrated was about five hours long, and I’d do two books in a month. It gave me a sense of stability and a bit of financial wiggle room. For example, my earnings from this gig were the reason I could attend a voiceover course I’d always wanted to take in February 2021. The fee was ₦100k. 

How did that go?

It was great. I came back with so much ginger, equipped with how to navigate the business parts of voice acting. 

I also realised that I wasn’t cut out for radio jingles and commercials. I wanted to do animation voiceovers and audiobook narrations. There weren’t a lot of local opportunities for these, so I set my sights on foreign audio production companies. 

I’d go on Instagram, find audiobook publishing companies, find the email addresses of whoever was in charge of recruiting talent and send them an email introducing myself and attaching demos of my work. 

Did it work?

I got tons of rejections, man. I call that period a dry season, and it lasted for the first half of 2021. I lived on my savings from previous projects and whatever I made from the local projects that occasionally came in. For those, I was now charging ₦15k-20k for a minute ad. 

When did your pitches start yielding leads?

I landed my first project in June 2021; an audio drama series. I was supplying them with five to eight hours of audio every month.

How much were you charging per finished hour?

$100. This project brought in between $500 and $800 every month for the three months it ran for. After that, I got another audiobook project that paid me $1300. For the rest of the year, I got a few more gigs here and there. I was a little busy. 

Do you know how much you made in the second half of 2021?

Over ₦1m. But I was also in debt. ₦800k. Most of what I made in the year went into paying it off.

That came out of nowhere 

Living in Nigeria showed me a lot and affected my productivity in 2021. Power shortages and noise pollution were my biggest opps. So I needed to set up a studio to improve the quality of my work. My mum borrowed me ₦300k at first, which went into acoustically treating my room to block out noise. Then ₦500k later to buy an inverter and an air conditioning unit. Productivity boost. 

2022?

I increased my rates to $125/finished hour. However, there was another bit of a dry spell in the first half of the year where I didn’t have regular gigs. But things opened up again in the second half. From June 2021, I was making about $1k/month from two major clients plus $500 extra from one-off gigs. 

At the same time, I took local gigs when they came, even though I didn’t depend on them. These brought in ₦50k – ₦100k for a minute voiceover. They weren’t consistent because I wasn’t looking for work in the Nigerian market – I wasn’t interested in doing commercials.

By the end of 2022, I’d increased my rates a few times and it was now $225/hour. I’d also built my emergency savings up to $2k. 

Well done. What’s happened between then and now?

I increased my rates again to $250/hour, which means working on fewer projects and having more freedom to choose the projects I want. I now make about $3k in a good month and $1k in a bad month. 

I’ve also landed a big project with a studio for a 13-episode project. 

How much?

About ₦7m – ₦10m per season. I’m currently working on that now and the other side projects. 

Phew. I think you’ve come a long way in the past five years 

The major driver has been my insatiable thirst for growth. I’ve realised that learning how to put myself out there while learning the work to be better at what I do has a direct influence on how much I get paid. It’s why I’ve been so big on self-development. I spent about $3k on a couple of voiceover courses in January, and they were worth it. The more I put in, the more I can take out. 

By the way, remember the voiceover course I took in 2021? I work with the organisers as an instructor now. I’m not being paid a lot but it’s just proof of growth. A few years ago, I was dying to go there. 

Love it for you

I work in the gig economy but I’ve transcended the stage where I fear I won’t find work. I know I’m good at what I do. That said, I make sure my emergency savings is always there. And before I finish off a job, I’m already pitching for a new one. 

That’s probably smart. Let’s take a look at your monthly running costs. 

I live on a monthly budget of ₦350k

I have an audio editor who works for me, and I pay them monthly. They save my time and help me increase my output. I budget for Aso-ebi and wedding gifts because a lot of my close friends have started getting married. If there’s no wedding in a month, I save the money somewhere. 

Interesting. What about your core savings?

I have $2k in emergency savings. That’s my safety net and I don’t touch it for anything. 

Beyond my emergency savings, I also save 40% of my income every month. At the moment, I’ve built this up to about $5k. The next step for me is learning more about what to do with my savings and not just leaving them in the bank.

Do you have any investments?

I invest $100 in stocks monthly. I’ve done some research and the one thing that keeps coming up is that it’s best to invest in companies that I like and believe in. That’s my strategy. My stock investment is a combination of S&P 500s, Apple, Disney, Netflix and Starbucks. I’ve done this consecutively for a few months now and have invested about $700 – $1k.

How much do you think you should be earning now?

Anything between $5k – $7k. Investing in tools and resources that will help my output and productivity is a direct line to hitting this number. At the moment, I still live with my parents but am looking to set up a better studio outside of the house. 

Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

I’ve been thinking about a trip to Paris recently. But I’d need $5k for the kind of trip I want. I can’t shell that out right now. Looking to save for it for the next few months. 

What’s your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

It’s a 7 seven right now. I might hit an 8 or a 9 when I start making $5k – $7k/month. But I’m still 22 years old — it will come. The millions will also come. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

When was the first time you understood what money meant?

As early as I could tell my right hand from my left. I come from almost nothing. Right from 2005 when I got into secondary school, I knew my family didn’t have money. 

How?

My parents worked in the civil service; their salaries barely covered anything. However, they sent me to primary and secondary schools filled with kids whose parents were super comfortable. My parents could only afford the tuition because they had access to loans and other forms of credit from the cooperative societies they belonged to. They thought it’d shield me from our poverty, but you can’t hide things like that. Going to school every day was a reminder of how poor we were. 

One time, in JSS 1, I went to a friend’s birthday party and the light tripped off while I was there. My friend casually said, “Up Daddy”, because her dad always changed their light to the inverter when NEPA did their usual.

This was in the mid-2000s. I didn’t know what an inverter was. Hell, we didn’t even have a small generator at home.

Bruh. What was it like switching between two worlds?

I always thought my friends didn’t deserve the money they had, but that was probably my inferiority complex. I also started thinking of making the best use of the situation. By SS 1, I’d realised that if you can provide value or service to people with money, you’d be their best friend. 

What did you do?

My friends were in boarding school. My parents couldn’t afford the fees, so I was coming from home every day. Most of my friends wanted devices — Blackberry phones and PSPs were huge at the time — but phones were not allowed in school, so they couldn’t ask their parents.

I followed an uncle to the market to buy devices a few times and knew my way around, so I decided to help my friends get these things, hike the prices and pocket the margin. 

The first time I did this, I made enough to buy my own phone.

Mad 

I did other things for them. One time, I was cooking a plate of noodles and eggs at home and selling them to whoever showed interest. Another time, I was smuggling alcohol into school for them. Once they got bored of something, I’d think of something else to help them with. 

All that ended when we left secondary school in 2012.

What was the next thing you did for money?

I didn’t start thinking of making money again until 2015. I was in my third year of uni when my dad retired from service. My mum became the only one earning money, and I had two younger sisters, so things went from bad to worse. I only got allowances whenever it was available, and the max I ever got at a time was ₦3k. 

Everyone in school was jumping on the photography trend. So I became friends with student photographers, borrowed their cameras and found students willing to pay me money to photograph them. I earned an average of ₦3k to ₦5k per shoot once or twice a month. 

Did you have any experience?

Nope. But I had access to cameras, free internet in school, and my mum had just bought me a laptop for my birthday — her cooperative financed it. I’d download tutorials and put whatever I learnt into use. I had everything I needed to wing it. 

The occasional ₦3k – ₦5k meant I could afford meals and cab fares. Later in 2015, I got a social media management job at a restaurant in school that paid me three meals a week.

By my final year, nothing was coming from home anymore. 

I had two DJ friends who helped me get a job as an in-house photographer at the club where they worked. The deal was to work two nights a week and earn ₦20k/month. 

When I started handling the club’s social media page, my salary increased to ₦30k/month. The job got me through the rest of uni. I quit when I went for NYSC in June 2017.

Where did you serve?

In the South-South. An older cousin lived there, so accommodation was sorted. When I started thinking about how to make money, they also showed me where to look. 

The locals loved adire clothes, so I found someone who made them in the South-West. They’d deliver batches to my mum who’d send them to me. I sold them mostly to people from my cousin’s office with a profit margin of between ₦2500 and ₦3k per piece. In a month, I sold up to ten pieces. 

I’d started shooting corps member friends, making ₦10k – ₦15k, which I used as capital for the adire business.

What about your NYSC allowance?

I was a ghost corper. I struck a deal with the principal of the school I was posted to; they’d take my allowance every month and clear me, so I didn’t have to show up to work. 

I was interning with a photographer in town. It wasn’t a paid job, and I had access to their cameras and studio for my own gigs. Before my service year ended in 2018, I almost made my first big money.

But you didn’t?

Hmm. My cousin told me about ethereum, and I put $100 into it. Within a month or two, $2500 was in my wallet. I kept putting my entire returns back into the investment. In my mind, I was saving money. 

Then I woke up one morning to a market crash. That money was the only thing that gave me a sense of purpose; it was what I planned to use to open up a photography studio when I finished NYSC. I almost ran mad.

I’m sorry, man

I had to figure out what to do after my service year ended. The adire pieces weren’t selling as quickly anymore. I wasn’t making money from photography either because the corps members I knew had now left town.

And then I was robbed twice in one month, so I decided it was time to return to the South-West. 

Did you have a plan?

Na-da. For a few months in 2019, I had nothing to do. I tried to get back to club jobs, but everyone who could fix me in one had moved away. The club I worked at before NYSC had changed management. My mum got me interviews for a few government and bank jobs, but I didn’t show up for the interviews — I didn’t think I was built for a 9-5 job. 

I – 

Before the year ended, I got a studio manager job with a photographer, and the pay was ₦30k. The job was another lesson about privilege. The guy I was working for couldn’t photograph for shit; his dad owned the space he converted into a studio, and he had the money to buy the gear. But I was the one running the place.

This wasn’t even my problem, but he wouldn’t pay my salary until the 15th of the following month. His excuse was we weren’t making enough money, but that was a lie. I ran every aspect of the business and knew about every single naira that came in. After my fifth month, we had a big fight that almost got physical. I left and never went back. 

Wild 

I left with most of the studio’s customers. But the gigs still weren’t consistent.

As if I wasn’t dealing with enough, I had a fight with my dad, and my mum advised me to leave the house to reduce the tension. But I had no money or savings. 

One of my friends managed a boys quarter block in his grandmother’s house, and he had no problem renting a room out to me. We negotiated a 100k/year rent, split into two payment plans. I borrowed ₦50k from a friend and moved in with a box of clothes and a rug. I paid the balance and my debt four months later, from the money I made from photography gigs — about ₦30k/month.

It was almost like I was wasting away. I needed to leave that town. The next best place was where everyone looking for opportunities moved to. 

Lagos?

Yup. In May 2020, I spoke with an uncle who agreed to let me live in his BQ with two other people. My uncle was nice enough to give me ₦500/day to hold myself together. But I needed to build a client base and find gigs.

I met another photographer in my uncle’s estate, by chance. Soon, we started collaborating to organise shoots to build our portfolios. Our relationship was mostly transactional: he had the money to pay for all the logistics, and I could teach him a thing or two about photography. Also, my uncle bought a professional camera for his business, but he let me use it for my own stuff too.

When did you start making money in Lagos?

Man, it took four months. At some point, I reached out to my sister who worked in financial services and told her I could use some referrals. She put the word out, and I got a job to shoot one of her colleagues. The pay was ₦50k. But she didn’t come back because she “had someone who could do the same thing at a cheaper rate.” Then she spread the word to other people in my sister’s place of work that I was too expensive. 

I later met an actress through a photographer I worked with, and I started photographing her. She wasn’t paying me for the shoots, but her influence brought a couple of one-time gigs my way. These paid between ₦30k and ₦50k, and I invested most of my earnings in photography gear. 

In 2021, I got a job as an in-house photographer for a fashion house for ₦70k/month. I only had to show up twice a week. In my first month, I took a bank loan of ₦400k to buy my first camera. For the next six months, ₦60k of my salary went into repayment. 

So you were living on ₦10k per month?

Yes, and I used all of it on transportation. But one or two ₦30k side gigs usually got me through the month. After repaying the loan, I quit the job because I still wasn’t a fan of 9-5s and returned to the streets, hustling for gigs. I’ve been here since.

How have these gigs evolved over time?

I’ve been optimising for beauty and fashion photography jobs. Although they don’t come often, they pay the most — up to ₦300k per gig. But man, it’s difficult to find them. 

I’ve shot about six weddings since 2021, and they paid between ₦300k – ₦400k. Sometimes, I assist other photographers and earn as much as ₦50k.

Birthday and portrait shoots are the most consistent, bringing in ₦30k – ₦50k per outfit change. In a good month, I could have ten clients. But the bad months could be as low as two or nothing at all. 

It doesn’t even matter how much I make in a month, it always gets back to zero before the next month. 

Why?

I’ve never been able to explain it. One minute, I’m boxed up. Then I spend money on the basic things I need, put some back into the business, and the money is gone. 

I shot two weddings back-to-back in December 2022, and had ₦500k in savings at the end of the year. In January 2023, I did another job that brought my savings to ₦700k. But after paying ₦600k rent? 

So far, my average income this year is about ₦250k. But I spend almost as much every month. 

Can we attempt a breakdown?

Feeding – ₦90k 

Transportation – ₦40k

Black tax – ₦50k 

Internet – ₦30k

Girlfriend allowance – ₦50k

This is what a normal month looks like. But I haven’t had a normal month this year. Every cent I make has gone into something I’m sorting out. 

What?

Some legal mess I was dragged into. I’d rather not talk about it because it’s still complicated. 

How do you approach your income instability these days?

I’m tired, man. Sometimes, I feel stuck in this gig life. I keep making money that’s only enough for survival, which is a shame because I should be making more with my set of skills. But I’ve not been able to crack the code for better-paying gigs.

I’m not a big fan of 9-5, but it might be my escape route from my unstable income. At least, a fixed sum will come in every month, and I can plan my life around it. I’m currently job hunting for a full-time, in-house photography role with a studio or beauty brand. 

How do you feel about this move?

I won’t even lie, I’m scared. I haven’t had any great experiences with 9-5 jobs so far. But I’ve tried everything I can, and nothing has worked. 

What does your ideal 9-5 photography income look like?

Based on my years of experience and the quality of my portfolio, I’m hoping to get something in the region of ₦400k – ₦500k.

I hope you get it, man. I’m sure there’s something you want right now but can’t afford

In 2022, I got three admissions abroad that I couldn’t afford to take. And even though I’m currently in two ajo schemes, saving ₦50k each every month, I would only get ₦1m in total when it’s my turn to collect. It’s not enough to fund my education abroad. 

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

3. I barely get the things I want, and I struggle to get the things I need. A good month is one when I don’t starve to death. I’d really like to stop doing so much without seeing the impact on the quality of my life. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

Since getting his first job in 2018, the 25-year-old accountant on this week’s Naira Life has been on an upward income trajectory. Is he close to financial stability? He doesn’t think so. His biggest struggles? toxic financial decisions and his inability to manage lifestyle creep.

What’s your earliest memory of money?

In 2002, I was five years old, and it was the first time I was sent home for unpaid school fees. I remember my sister — who was in a senior class at the same school — and I had to go back home around 9 or 10 a.m. It’d be the first of many times I was sent home for that reason. 

Can you paint a picture of what things were like at home?

We were good until my dad lost his accounting job at an oil company and couldn’t find something else. Then my parents decided to invest everything they had into starting a school, which wasn’t profitable for years. They struggled to raise six kids – I’m the fourth – and we had to make lots of adjustments. We had to share resources — from pieces of meat during meals to clothes — because that was the only way they’d go around. 

Thankfully, the money situation started to get better around 2009.

What changed?

My parents’ school became more popular, so more kids enrolled. And we gradually moved from the struggling middle class to the comfortable middle class. When I got into university in 2012, my parents could conveniently send me ₦5k/month, and they increased my allowance every year. My final year monthly allowance was between ₦20k – ₦30k.

So how did uni go?

The financial struggles I grew up with did a number on my confidence, so I had a lot of insecurities about money. In uni, all I wanted was to be one of the cool kids, and my allowance took care of that. It started with the small things. In my first year, Blackberry was the popular phone, and almost everyone was on BBM. I made it a mission to get one, so I saved from my allowance for a semester to raise ₦12k, which was enough to buy a used Curve 2 from a classmate who wanted to buy a newer model. 

As my allowance increased, so did my compulsion to do the seemingly cool things everyone was doing. Things took a turn in my second year. 

How?

I made new friends who introduced me to the nightlife. The rest of my time in uni was fueled by food, parties and alcohol. I was living above my means; my allowance couldn’t match the lifestyle. So, on a regular month, my allowance only lasted a week or two.

It only worked because of my community of friends. Everyone chipped in, so when someone in the group was broke, the rest of the group covered them. 

The downside to this was that I couldn’t build a savings culture, and I didn’t even realise it until I graduated in 2017. I left uni with zero naira to my name. 

Inside life

The next step was NYSC. I served in the south-south. My parents cut me off, but the federal government paid ₦19800, and my PPA paid ₦10k and an additional ₦10k welfare allowance. All this brought my monthly income to ₦39,800. 

In addition, my PPA provided accommodation and feeding for corps members. 2018 was the most comfortable year of my life. I was balling, man. 

By the end of my service year, I had saved about ₦100k and even bought a laptop. I returned home in October 2018 and started job hunting. 

How did that go?

I got a job within three weeks. I was hired as an account officer in a hospital, and my salary was ₦100k.

Sweet

In the first few months, I saved ₦30k out of my salary and lived on the rest. Then my employers started acting up. 

What did they do?

The salary stopped coming on time. And when it came, it was never paid in full — they could pay 60% first and the remaining 40% days later. 

I found it difficult to plan around their payment schedule and had to dip into my savings to survive each month. In the end, I figured that I had two options: find a way to live with the new arrangement or find a new job. 

I’m guessing you started looking for a new job

I did. After 11 months at the hospital, I found another job as an accountant in an entertainment company. In my excitement, I didn’t think to negotiate my salary. I accepted their first offer.

How much was it?

₦120k. I could have gotten up to ₦150k. 

Anyway, I started the job in December 2019. My short-term goal was to rebuild my savings, so I put ₦40k aside each month.  I lived with a member of my extended family and only had to worry about feeding and transportation expenses, which were about ₦1k every day.

Three months later, my plans hit another obstacle. 

COVID?

Yes. When COVID hit in March 2020, the company said everyone would have to take a 33% pay cut. This brought my salary down to ₦80k, so I had to return home to my parents. 

By August 2020, I had about ₦140k saved up and decided that it was time to invest in something. 

What?

Forex trading. I had friends who put money in it and cashed it out. So I started thinking, “What could it hurt?” The entire point of saving was to make it work for you anyway. 

₦360k was the minimum capital I could invest, and I had ₦140k. To raise the balance, I took a ₦220k loan from my bank and dumped all the money into the investment.

What were the terms of the investment?

15% Return on Investment (ROI) every month. I was expecting ₦54k from the scheme every month. But this happened once before the whole thing crashed, and the people in charge disappeared. I lost my capital, my entire savings, and I was in debt. I was paying the bank about ₦23k/month out of my ₦80k salary. I’m not sure how I’d have survived if I wasn’t living with my parents. 

Did the company return to paying full salaries?

They did in January 2021. I got two raises in quick succession — one in February and another in April — which put my earnings at ₦200k. 

In a few months, I’d done a complete turnaround. I was out of debt and earning twice as much as I did in 2020. I left the company in June 2021. 

Why did you leave?

I was poached by a holding company, and they offered me ₦300k. For the first time in my life, I had more money than I knew what to do with. So once again, I decided it might be time to invest in something. 

What was the plan this time?

Agric investments. The company I was now working for had an investment department. The promise was “Invest a minimum capital of ₦500k for a quarterly ROI of 10%.”

RELATED: The #NairaLife Of A Lawyer Who Is Obsessed With Investment Opportunities

After your last experience with investments, didn’t the ROI seem suspicious to you?

I thought, “I work here, so what could go wrong?” The investment arm of the business had been working smoothly for years. They seemed credible enough. However, I didn’t want to use my savings as capital this time, so I applied for another bank loan of ₦500k.

I got my interest payment twice, then nothing happened after that. 

While I was still trying to figure out what was wrong, the cracks started to show. Salaries were delayed in December 2021 and January 2022. At first, the management said this happened because they had some issues with the bank. After that, they stopped talking to us, and I didn’t receive any payment from the company. 

The company didn’t officially fire me, and I even did some work for them here and there until May 2022. But I knew I was in trouble by March 2022. I was no longer saving, and I owed the bank quite a bit of money, so I had nothing to fall back on. It was a mess. 

Sounds chaotic

As a short-term fix, I took another ₦200k loan from the bank, hoping that the company would pay my outstanding salary at some point. 

They didn’t. 

After missing my loan payments for three consecutive months, the bank sent me a demand notice. I was in panic mode. 

How did you navigate that?

I rang one of my sisters and asked her to loan me ₦200k, buying me three months to figure out how to get a new job.

Luckily, I made it to the final stages of an interview at another firm later that month, and a job offer followed. 

How much?

₦330k. When I resumed in June, my biggest priority was clearing my debt. I managed to do that in September 2022. 

Phew. What’s happened between then and now?

I got a raise to ₦400k in January 2023, and I have been saving ₦190k/month. My savings goal for the year is ₦2.2m. But I’m afraid I might not hit it. 

Why not?

My biggest struggle right now is lifestyle creep and the nightlife. When I first got this job, I stopped trying to save money. For the rest of 2022, I spent between ₦30k – ₦40k going out every weekend. I ended the year with zero savings. 

I’ve gotten a hold of myself and saved every month since 2023 started. But I’m not entirely sure how long it’ll last. I’ve reduced the number of times I go out to once or twice a month, and now budget for lau-lau in my monthly expenses. But I don’t trust myself with money,  so it doesn’t feel like a lasting solution.  My predisposition to making bad financial decisions is unmatched. I guess I’ll have to take it one day at a time. 

Sounds like a plan. Speaking of budgeting, do you have an idea what your recurring expenses look like?  

Tithe – ₦50k

Black tax – ₦15k

Data – ₦20k

Feeding – ₦60k

Subscriptions – ₦10k

Lau-lau (nightlife) – ₦30k

Shopping – ₦20k

Miscellaneous – ₦5k

Savings – ₦190k

What do you see when you think about your financial future?

I have a toxic relationship with money, so I can’t help the feeling there’s still a lot of financial instability ahead of me. I don’t stick to my plans and I’m just a decision away from reverting to old habits and making questionable financial decisions.

However, I’m done with investments. I just want my money to breathe into my account. What I eventually do with it is another conversation. 

Fascinating. Do your family know about your struggles with money?

They have an idea but don’t know how deep it runs. I didn’t open up to them until after I got my new job, and I believe they think I’m good now. I live with a member of my extended family and they don’t know about this either. 

To be honest, I feel like I need help. And it’s interesting because I get good financial advice from people in my circle, but I never put it to use. In a way, I know what to do — I just never seem to be able to do it. 

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

It’s a six. I still remember how tight things were growing up. In fact, it never occurred to me that I’d be earning this much at 26. While my financial decisions have gotten me into tough situations, I’m glad I’m here and can afford my current lifestyle. 

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

When would you say you figured out the importance of money?

In 2006. It was the year I got into a private boarding secondary school. One of the first things I learnt was that there’s a set of people who have money and others who don’t. It was my first lesson in “social class”. 

What was it about secondary school that brought this into full view?

The school had a fair population of rich kids and children from comfortable but not quite rich homes. There was a constant show of money — little things like the quality of provisions students brought to school and big things like the fancy places they travelled to for holidays. 

I was in the “kid-from-a-comfortable-home” category. My parents ensured I got the nicest things, so I didn’t feel out of place. But by the time I graduated from secondary school in 2012, my biggest realisation was that I needed money to get nice things. While I could rely on my parents to provide for me, it was also top of mind that it’d be my job to make money and provide for myself at some point.

When was the first time you made money? 

2013. I got into university in 2012, and ASUU went on strike barely a year after. Sometime during the strike, I worked as a lesson teacher and earned ₦5k/month. My first salary was my first fruit offering. 

First what?

I was raised in a Christian home, so this was important to me. I believe that when you get a job or an increase in earnings, you should give out the first payment to someone who could use it or to the church. 

I spent two more months at the job before the strike ended and I returned to school. Subsequently, I lived on my monthly allowance of ₦20k – ₦30k until I found another opportunity to make money in my second year. My motivation was having enough money to save up for a phone I wanted.

What job did you find?

My roommates had ushering gigs, so I started tagging along and working with them. I started with the small ones, usually at wedding ceremonies, which paid ₦5k. I got a two-week job advertising brewery products and got paid close to ₦30k. It completed the amount I needed for the phone — a Blackberry Z10. 

I started working with an ushering agency where I was paid ₦15k for every job I did for them, an average of two events per month. I was with this agency until my third year in the university; it was a good place to work until it wasn’t. In 2015, I did one job for them, and they ghosted me. It was the last I heard from them. 

Wild. How was money moving in and out at this point though?

My monthly income at that time — allowance and earnings — was ₦50k – ₦60k. My major day-to-day expenses were feeding and school bills. Once these were sorted, I saved whatever remained, about ₦10k/month. I always dipped into my savings to make big purchases — clothes, accessories, random gifts to my boyfriend.

When the ushering jobs stopped, I lived on my monthly allowance and occasional money gifts from my boyfriend — he had a business, so he had more money. 

I didn’t bother to find another job until I graduated in September 2017. By this time, my savings were at zero. Whatever I managed to save, I ended up spending on a want. 

A familiar struggle. What came after graduation?

My parents wanted me to return home, but I was determined not to. I was in Lagos; the job opportunities and my friends were here. So I struck a deal with my parents: they’d send my allowance for three more months, but if I didn’t find a job within that window, I’d return home. 

I moved in with a friend and started job and internship hunting. I studied computer science, but I couldn’t code to save my life, which complicated my chances. Luckily, I found a job in December — a week before the three-month deadline my parents gave me. 

Must’ve been a relief

It was. It was a telemarketer role at a startup, and my salary was ₦‎50k/month. About four or five months later, I was mobilised for NYSC. The plan was to continue working at the startup after I left camp, but they pulled an interesting move. 

What did they do?

They wanted to slash my salary in half; something about how I was now a corps member and would be paid ₦‎19,800/month by the federal government. It didn’t make sense to me, so I quit. NYSC reposted me to a government agency, but there was nothing to do there. I was pretty much a ghost worker who only showed up once a week. The good thing about it was it gave me the time I needed to job hunt again. Multiple applications and rejections later, I got a job at a tech startup. My salary was ₦25k. 

The universe said you must take a pay cut by force 

They had the same argument — I was a corps member. But I took it because they seemed to have more structure than the previous startup. 

Three months after I started working there, they increased my salary to ₦30k. For the rest of my service year, my combined income was ₦49,800, and I was saving ₦10k – ₦15k. 

How long were you at the job?

Until 2020. After my service year ended in 2019, they retained me and increased my salary to ₦70k. My idea of a decent income for an entry-level role was ₦200k. Since I wasn’t earning that, I felt very insecure about my finances. I knew I wasn’t doing badly, but I thought I could be doing better. Another source of my discontent was the job itself; it was almost like I was stuck there. 

Why?

I was doing business development — which I didn’t like very much. Sadly, I couldn’t quit because I didn’t have much to leave with. The plan was to transition into something I’d enjoy more, which was product management. However, I hadn’t built the skills, so I couldn’t apply for product management roles. I spent the next year taking courses. 

How much did this cost you?

I took two paid courses. One on Udemy which cost $9.99, and the other was a ₦150k course on Product Dive. I also took any free course I could find.

Nice

On the work front, my salary was reduced to ₦50k when COVID hit in 2020. I knew I had to find another job. Thankfully, a friend came through and linked me up with a product management role in another company in August 2020. 

Whew. How much did it pay?

₦180k. I probably would’ve earned more if I didn’t mess up during negotiations. I asked for ₦250k, but they asked what would be a fair amount if they couldn’t pay that, and I told them ₦180k. They sent me an offer letter almost immediately after. 

It felt like the world had stopped because it was a bump from my previous salary. Then I started my new role and found out that my colleagues were earning about ₦270k. If I’d insisted on ₦250k, they would’ve paid it. 

This plot!

While I felt cheated, I was still happy with my ₦180k. For starters, I could conveniently save ₦100k/month. However, the job was the absolute trenches. The work culture wasn’t great. There were lots of organisational issues and we were often running behind on projects. This took its toll on my mental health — there were lots of tears. But I was doing the job and money was entering my account. 

The experience boosted my technical skills and put me on a path to earning more. First, I got a raise to ₦220k in April 2021. Two months later, I got another job in an American startup I applied to earlier in the year. 

*Drum roll*

The offer was ₦600k/month. I felt like I’d arrived. I called my family, and everyone I know, to let them know there was a new boss in town.

DFKM

See, I started the job with my shoulders up. Then I was laid off in my first week. My opps were working hard.

Wait, what?

That was my exact reaction. The company was closing down because the CEO had mismanaged investors’ money. 

Omo

I thought I’d left the ghetto, but now, I was in the proper trenches with zero income. My routine during the weeks that followed was waking up in the morning, crying, ordering food, watching Netflix and crying some more. 

My savings from my previous job — about ₦600k — saved my life until I felt ready to hit the job market again. As short-lived as that job was, it taught me one thing — I didn’t have to limit my search to Nigerian companies. I was international material now. 

So you were looking for remote roles?

Yes. Linkedin was my main job search platform. I’m not sure how many I applied to, but I got a few leads. After a series of interviews with one, I got an offer from a company in Europe in August 2021.

How much was it this time?

$1500. Again, I called my parents to let them know. 

A sidebar, but it’s interesting that your parents know how much you earn

It’s just the dynamics of our relationship. Although I’ve told them my salary at every job, it’s not information they keep in mind. They also don’t reach out often to ask for money or put me under pressure, so there’s no reason why I can’t tell them how much I earn. 

Back to the job. Has your salary evolved since you started working there?

I got a raise to $2k sometime last year. At the moment, I save about $1500/month and live on the rest. I haven’t considered investing because I like seeing the money in my account. Besides, I’m afraid I don’t know much about putting money to work. The crypto bust of last year has only worsened this fear. Maybe there’s a version of the future I have “fuck you” money and can use that to test the waters.

What lifestyle changes have happened in the past year? 

My lifestyle didn’t change much during the first few months because I was afraid to touch my salary, just in case what happened at my last job happened again. Save for improving the quality of the food I ate, fashion accessories and occasional money gifts to members of my family, I wasn’t spending on anything else.

 I didn’t make any major purchases until December 2021 when I bought a new wig for ₦300k. I waited until March 2022 before I made another purchase — an iPhone 13 Pro Max for ₦660k. By this time, I was sure I’d saved enough money to get me through any rough patch. I still live in the same apartment. My roommate has moved out, and the rent has increased to ₦350k/year.

Where does your money go every month?

I live on about ₦400k on a regular month. 

I keep ₦50k aside for miscellaneous expenses. Also, I don’t save for rent monthly. I just pay when it’s time. This extends to other things. I’ve always had to plan for the big expenses. But now, I don’t have to think too much about them. I just close my eyes and pay. 

Energy! How have all of your experiences shaped your perspective on money?

There’s money to be made, and I can make it. There’s this confidence that a regular stream of income gives you. I used to think I wasn’t good enough to make decent money, and while I haven’t gotten to where I want to be, I now know I can. 

I’m curious. How much is good money to you right now?

$5k/month. I’m grateful I have this job, but I can’t help feeling I’m a little underpaid too. I’m expecting another raise soon, though. 

I’d planned to leave but decided against it. I thought the better strategy would be to get my master’s degree before looking for a new job. Hopefully, it will give me more leverage and negotiating power. I’ve been saving $1500 a month because I want to school in the UK. I already have $14k, and my target is $20k.

Well done. Where do you see yourself in five years?

I hope I’ll be married, and my partner and I will be raking in a joint income of $400k – $500k. Omo, I feel like a thief saying it out loud. But it’s not impossible — difficult, but not impossible.  

Back to the present, what do you want right now but can’t afford?

I’d like to go to France, Spain and Italy in one trip. But I can’t do that right now because it’d mean touching my master’s savings. It can wait until next year. 

What do you think you could be better at in terms of managing your finances?

Saying no when people ask to borrow money from me. In 2022, I had almost ₦3m outside. I’ve only recovered about ₦500k. I might still get ₦1.3m back. But I’m not sure about the rest. I’ve learnt to say no. Everyone will be all right.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

I’ve always wanted to afford nice things, and now, I can. So anything less than a 6 would be disingenuous. That said, I’ll be spending my life savings on tuition and school expenses in a couple of months, so I feel a little exposed. But I’m confident it’s the right move. I’m not worried about getting a job after I get my master’s degree. I believe this number will go up to an 8 in the next two years.

If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

Do you remember the first thing you did for money?

When I was 12, I started helping my mum at her foodstuff stall in Imo state. Because I spent a lot of time there, my mum bought me a manual grinding machine to make some money for myself. When people bought egusi or ogbono seeds from my mum, I’d grind them for them. I made ₦‎20 – ₦30 for every cup I ground and ₦200 and ₦300 per day.

What did you use the money for?

Taking care of small-small expenses in secondary school. My dad died when I was six, leaving my mum with eight kids. It’d be a challenge to raise us, so the family decided to give my mum time to take care of herself and figure things out. For the first three or four years after my dad passed, my siblings and I lived with relatives. 

When she started her business in the market, I moved back home. By this time, I knew enough to know that money had value and could solve problems. The easiest problem I could solve for myself was a few things I needed in school.

This was my life for five years until I finished secondary school in 2012. I was 18 years old. 

Did you know what you wanted to do next?

The plan was to continue my education, but money was a problem. I needed to find something else. My mum knew the principal of a school and helped me find a teaching job there. The pay was ₦10k, and I started work during the holiday, but I didn’t last a month there. 

Ah! Why?

I had a short temper and was teaching the nursery 2 class. It was stressful dealing with the children, so I couldn’t sustain my interest in the job. One day, in the middle of an argument with my mum, I told her that I wasn’t going there anymore, and that was it. The school paid me my salary for the month, though.

But I quickly realised that it wasn’t easy to get a job, and I needed one to save to attend a higher institution. I apologised to my mum and asked if she could help me talk to the school to take me back. 

How did your mum take this?

As well as I’d hoped. She talked to the school, but the position had been filled. Fortunately, there was another option – the school had a branch in Anambra state, and they needed a security guard. The pay was ₦‎11k plus free accommodation. I took it and moved to Onitsha. By the time I left a year after, my salary had increased to about ₦‎14k.

Your first structured salary

Yes. It was an eye-opener for me. It became clear that the actual value of my salary wasn’t as much as I thought it’d be.

 I wasn’t extravagant, but almost all my salary went into feeding. I struggled to save ₦3k/month, and I wasn’t even consistent with it. If my salary was delayed for one day, I’d probably go to bed hungry that night. 

Tough. Was this the reason you left the job?

It was. I needed to make more money. I left the job and the town and moved to Lagos. One of my brothers was in Lagos, and he told me some companies in the city paid better. He offered to let me stay with him and take care of my feeding while I found my feet.

In December 2013, I moved to Lagos. In 2014, I found work as a machine operator in a company that produced plastic products. My pay was ₦7k every two weeks. 

So, ₦14k/month?

I was making extra money for meeting the production targets, which brought my salary to about ₦17k – ₦18k/ month. 

I won’t lie, it was hard to meet these targets, but I took the job like it was my own. My production manager noticed this and put me in the quality control department. 

Fascinating. How did this affect your pay?

It didn’t. The management didn’t sign off on it, so I didn’t get a raise. Nobody also told me why. What I knew was that I had more responsibilities in doing quality control for three different departments. 

The more work and lesser pay finally got to me, and I left the factory.

Phew. We move

The good thing was that I built a savings structure while I was on the job. I was living with my brother and his wife and didn’t have to worry about feeding. My major expense was transportation, which was almost 50% of my salary. Other miscellaneous expenses took about 20%, and I saved 30%. Still not enough to go back to school.

What was your next job after you left the factory?

I worked at the loading bay of another factory that produced detergents. My experience was better here. The pay was about ₦108/hour, and the normal working hours were 8 am to 3 pm. But I also worked overtime until about 7 pm. At the end of most days, I made between ₦1200 – ₦1500. All of this put my salary between ₦33k and ₦35k/month.

I joined a contribution group, where I saved ₦10k per month. I was also sending some stipends to two of my siblings studying at the university. 

Things were stable for a while. Sadly, my mum passed away in 2015, and her children — all eight of us had to chip in for her funeral. 90%of my savings went into this.

I’m sorry about your mum. How much did you have in savings?

About ₦100k. After we buried my mum, it was like I had to start all over again. But it was also time to try returning to school.

In 2016, I quit my job and moved to Delta state to stay with a relative. I had saved just enough to attend tutorials, write JAMB and apply to the university. I couldn’t combine preparing for the exams with my job in Lagos. Unfortunately, I wasn’t offered admission into the university I applied for, even though I did well in the exams. 

Now, I needed another job. I called my old boss at the factory, and he offered me a space that had just opened up. When I moved back to Lagos, my job was still waiting for me.

Must have been a relief. 

It was. Later that year, I moved out of my brother’s house in Lagos and started living with a friend. Our rent was ₦2k/month, which my friend took care of. On my part, I sorted some of the bills in the house.

How was it going at work?

In 2017, I was promoted to a supervisor at the warehouse, and my hourly pay increased to ₦115/hour, which ran into a little over ₦40k/month. When this happened, I increased my monthly savings to ₦15k – ₦20k. 

But I also started feeling dissatisfied at work.

Did you know why?

I looked at people who had been in the factory for years, and there was a big difference between the life they could afford and the years they’d spent at the factory. I also noticed that the factory dropped workers when they felt like they no longer needed them. I just told myself that my future or the life I wanted to live wasn’t there. 

When you pictured the life you wanted, what came to mind?

A life where I didn’t need to work long hours almost every day to make money. This is why I quit the job for good in 2018, returned home to the east, registered for JAMB, and applied to a university. I didn’t get the course I wanted, but they offered me another course. I decided to take it.

Sweet

I was hoping my older siblings who were already working would come in and sort out things like school fees. But the family called a  meeting to tell me there was no money. I’d waited six years to return to school and supported my siblings who were in school during this time, so this was demoralizing.

However, one of my sisters called me aside and promised to make it happen the following year. In the meantime, she wanted me to follow her home to Abia state, where she lived with her husband, and find some work before it was time to write JAMB again. 

I took her offer. But in my mind, I wasn’t going to build my plans around what anyone promised anymore.

Did you find another job?

Yes. I started working in a distillery as a forklift operator, where I earned ₦30k/month. I’m not sure how much I was saving this time, but I had more than ₦100k by the end of the year. Luckily, I did well in my admission exams and was admitted into a polytechnic. I used this money to sort out my acceptance fees, school fees, and house rent. 

 In 2019, I started classes in the department of food science at the Polytechnic. See, it felt like I had broken through a barrier.

I feel you. It’s impressive that you nursed this dream for seven years.

Thank you. That said, the issue was finding an income source to support me through school. The first opportunity was acting as a middleman between clothes wholesalers in the market and buyers in my school. I was making ₦500 – ₦1000 on each piece of clothing I sold, and I typically sold four clothes on most weeks. 

Then Covid hit in 2020, and the school was closed. With nothing else to do, I tried going into the business of making popcorn, but the constant price increase of materials chased me away. 

 Oof.

Later that year, my brother-in-law helped me get a tricycle to use for commercial transportation. The deal with the owner was that I’d deliver ₦3k every day. Whatever remained was mine. During Covid, I made about ₦5k – ₦8k every day. But after Covid, my profit went up to ₦8k and ₦10/day, even though my daily delivery was also increased to ₦3.5k/day.

When I saw that I was making decent money from driving the tricycle, I decided to stick with it. After I finished my ND in 2021, I faced this hustle full-time. In May 2022, my brother-in-law came through again and helped me get a tricycle on a hire-purchase basis.

What was the payment plan like?

₦25k/week. It was supposed to run for 10 months, but I thought I could complete the payment faster if I worked hard. Between May 2022 and January 2023, any extra money I saw went into paying for the tricycle. I paid the full price in seven months. 

Well done. 

Another factor that played into this was that I’d applied for HND and wanted to finish paying for the tricycle before I returned to school. Thankfully, this happened and I’m back in school now. I gave the tricycle to someone, and they deliver ​₦4k to me every day. 

Do you plan on returning to this full-time after your HND?

Not really. The thing is, as much as I’ve been making decent money from this tricycle, I don’t want to make it for the rest of my life. It’s a stepping stone to the life I want, where I earn more. 

What do you plan to do after your HND program?

Plan A is to become an entrepreneur and go into food production. I’m studying food science at the polytechnic, so this experience will be useful. I already have a recipe for a breakfast cereal I’m hoping to produce. 

However, my capital and the availability of raw materials will determine if this is something I’ll do. I’m crossing my fingers.

How much is good money to you right now?

I don’t know because I don’t think about it. I’m in the investment phase of my life, and that’s why I returned to school. At the moment, the bulk of whatever I make goes into my education. I also recently started learning digital skills. 

I believe money is a seed of corn. The more you plant, the better your yield. I’m currently planting all the seeds I have and hoping for a big reward. 

Rooting for you. Where do you see all of this in five years?

If things work out the way I plan, I’ll be financially free. Essentially, this means that I’ve worked out a system that allows me to earn money without necessarily working every day. At the same time, I’ve put my money to work, and it’s making me more money. I’m not sure what these look like yet. But it’s my biggest dream. 

I hope it comes true. Back to the present, what do your monthly expenses look like?

I’m not in school right now. I’m staying with a relative because of the elections. My expenses are a bit higher when I’m in school, but it’s also harder to track because I buy most of the things I need in bulk. 

Is there anything you want but can’t afford?

A laptop or a saxophone will make me very happy right now. I make music on the side and released my first song in 2020. I’ll need about ₦150k to sort out both things.

What was the last thing you spent money on that made you happy?

This is also music-related. I paid for music production earlier this month, and it cost ₦50k. I’ve been writing songs for years but couldn’t produce them because I didn’t have the money. Now I can do this. It makes me happy because it gives me hope I can only do better from here on. It’s my biggest evidence of progress. 

Wholesome. On a scale of 0-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

7. I no longer feel incapacitated. There were times I looked away from things I needed because I couldn’t afford them. But now, I can comfortably afford the little, basic things I want. I would have extended this number to 10, but I don’t want to celebrate. Although I believe I’m on my way to where I can be and a future where my biggest dreams come true, I’m not there yet. 7 will have to do it for now. 

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.

Every week, Zikoko seeks to understand how people move the Naira in and out of their lives. Some stories will be struggle-ish, others will be bougie. All the time, it’ll be revealing.

The civil servant in this #Nairalife has worked for 18 years and her current gross salary is ₦684k. But she also owns real estate worth over ₦40m. 

How did she do this while supporting a family? Years of little moments adding up, relationships and access to loans. 

What’s the oldest memory of money you remember?

My first job comes to mind. While waiting for my WAEC results after secondary school, I took a job at a video club and the pay was ₦‎2500/month. This was in the early 2000s. This was significant because my mum told me to buy my dad a gift from my first salary. I bought him a pair of singlets.

What did your parents do for a living?

My dad was a bursar in a school. My mum worked with some shipping companies as a transporter – she was a middleman between the shipping companies and the owners of containers coming into the country. When the containers landed and got cleared, she liaised with truck companies and make sure the containers got to their final destinations. That’s how she earned her commission. 

Although my mum earned more than my dad, they shared the financial responsibilities of the family. My dad bought foodstuff in bulk and my mum took care of everyday groceries. Whenever my dad couldn’t pay our school fees, my mum did. Their partnership worked. 

Also, My dad had been married and divorced before he got with my mum. I’m the first of my mum’s four kids and the fifth of my dad’s eight kids. At some point, my half-siblings started living with us. My mum’s nephew also lived with us. We were a pretty big family. 

What came after your first job?

School. At 16, I was admitted into a college for a National Diploma in Marine Engineering.

What does a marine engineer in Nigeria do?

The job is to work on marine vessels and design, develop and maintain the electrical and mechanical systems that power them. 

​​

Did you do that?

I did when I started working. But I tried other things in school first. I had a fridge, so I started selling sachets of pure water. I’d buy 10 bags for ₦‎500 and get one extra bag. One sachet sold for ₦‎5, and I typically made ₦‎600 in profit for every batch of 11 bags. I did this until I finished my ND programme in 2005.

HND next?

No. Industrial Training (I.T.).  In April 2005, I got placement at a new oil company. The company was starting to import petroleum products and had just bought two vessels. I worked there as an administrative staff for a few months. The plan was to finish off my I.T. and go for my HND programme. That never happened. 

Why?

A vacancy opened up in a federal ministry. I applied and got the job. In October 2005, I ditched the oil company and started working for the government. 

 I joined the civil service because of the Job security and other monetary benefits like pension and end-of-year allowances. I was placed on Grade Level 4, and my starting salary was ₦16,500.

Another great thing about the ministry where I worked was the all-expense paid training programmes out of Nigeria. About two months into the job, I was sent to South Africa for six months, and my salary was paid while I was away.

When I returned to Nigeria in 2006, I was balling. Thankfully, my mum had some sense and foresight and helped me put the money to good use. 

How?

My parents bought some big pieces of land from the government and my mum thought it’d be great to buy a piece in my name. When I returned to Nigeria, she mentioned it and advised me to pay for it. It cost me about ₦120k.

You bought your first property at 19. Energy!

Now I was curious about tangible things I could do with money. The first step was to start saving a portion of my salary. 

In 2006, I was working on tug boats as a trainee marine engineer. As a result of the federal government’s privatisation policy, the tug boat was being managed by a private company. We negotiated with the company to pay us a stipend, and they agreed to ₦16k/month. My government salary was also there, so my monthly earnings were ₦32,500. ₦10k went into my savings account every month.  

By 2009, I had been promoted to Grade Level 8 and had returned to working with the government full-time, earning ₦100k. 

From ₦16k?

Between 2006 and 2009, the federal government started the monetization policy and some benefits were added to my monthly salary. When this happened, I started saving ₦20k a month. 

2009 was also the year I tried to buy my first house. 

Oh? Tell me about that.

The state government put up some properties they were developing in an estate for sale. I applied to buy a 2-bedroom apartment, which was ₦5.5m. The plan was to pay the required down payment of 10% and spread the rest over a few years. It was like a mortgage plan. 

After paying the down payment, I started saving ₦30k for the apartment, in addition to saving the routine ₦20k/month. It was easy to do this since I was still living with my parents.

In 2010, my dad retired and things changed a little – I stepped up at home and my mum convinced me to put my dad on a monthly allowance, so I started giving him ₦10k. I was also spending about ₦15k every month to buy food for the house. These were my major expenses until I got married.

When was that?

October 2010. My salary was almost twice what my husband made from his bank teller job. As a result, it quickly dawned on me that I’d pick up most of the bills. We rented a 2-bedroom apartment for ₦300k, paying for it with my leave allowance and end-of-year bonus and some money gifts from our families. 

We moved into our apartment in January 2011.

How did getting married impact your finances?

My biggest worry was rent. The moment we moved in, I started putting ₦20k for rent. The plan was to augment whatever remained to make rent with my leave allowance and end-of-year bonus as those typically came in at the end of the year. 

But the only thing on my mind was to finish paying off the mortgage, so my husband and I could move into our apartment.

Right. How was that going?

Between 2009 and 2011, I paid the government ₦1,650,000 for the apartment. But for some reason, they suddenly stopped receiving money. Ultimately, they revealed that the board in charge misappropriated funds meant for the project, and the houses never got completed. That’s how my money went. 

When the government scams you, who do you report to?

Man, I’m sorry. That sucks. 

2011 was a tough year. My mum also passed that year. But I also gave birth to my first child, so it wasn’t all bad. 

On the work front, they introduced promotion exams, which were scheduled every three years. I was due to write one in 2011  – I did and passed and moved to Grade Level nine, increasing my salary to about ₦250k.

The timing was perfect because two of my younger siblings were still in school, and I had to take up their school fees after my mum passed. I had also enrolled in a part-time programme at the state university and was paying my tuition fees. In addition, I was still in charge of raising rent money rent for my family and saving for emergencies. 

Did it ever feel like you were punching above your weight?

Sometimes, but it wasn’t bad. The next thing that happened at work was the unbearable part.

What?

In 2013, they transferred me to the south-south. I was pregnant with my second child when this happened, but they allowed me to stay home and go on maternity leave before I resumed at the new post. 

However, I was nursing my baby when I returned to work, so I had to travel with him. I’d come home at least once a month to check in on the rest of the family. This meant that I had new expenses – the cost of transportation for myself and a support person I travelled with, typically any relative available to go with me. When my baby turned 18 months, I stopped taking him to work. Subsequently, my children stayed with their foster parents – my husband’s cousin and his wife – while I was away. 

How did it go at your new station?

The staff there had a thrift contribution and cooperative society. Basically, you save a portion of your salary with them, which makes you qualified to get loans if you need to. The interest on the loans was great and the repayment plans were flexible. So I joined because I figured it was a useful option to have. From that moment on, my monthly contributions were deducted directly from my salary before it even got to me. 

Two years later, I spent a year in the UK for another government-sponsored training. While I was there, my salary for the whole year was largely untouched. I also got £6k in stipends and $5k in some other allowances. My expenses that year were monthly stipends for my dad and my children’s foster mum. My husband took care of the remaining bills. 

When I returned to Nigeria in 2016, I had enough money to take up my next real estate project.

What was that?

Completing my mum’s building project, and it cost me a little over ₦1m.

In the same year, my family moved to a 3-bedroom apartment, which cost ₦850k/year. 

That’s a huge jump from ₦300k/year.

Yes. I still had enough money to cover the first-year rent. Besides, it improved the quality of our lives – it was closer to town and where my husband worked. 

Speaking of, my husband started a photography business in 2012 to complement what he made from his bank job. He quit in 2016 and went full-time into the business. Thankfully, it picked up. So he was paying the kids’ school fees at this point. But rent was still primarily on me.

Got it. Did you get another promotion at work? 

Yes, I did. I wrote the next promotion exams in 2016 and was promoted to Grade Level 10 with a gross salary of ₦513k. After deductions, which included the thrift savings, pension and tax payments, I was left with ₦153k. That was what I was planning my life around. 

In 2018, I got totally sick and tired of paying rent. The next best thing was to take up another real estate project – build or buy a house. I decided on the latter. 

That had to cost money. What was the plan?

I had to find an estate in development first. I found one that was being developed by the state government. Although I still had some PTSD from what happened in 2011, I went ahead and made enquiries. The cost of 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom houses in development were  ₦15m and ₦18m respectively. 

Also, it needed to be a one-off payment. I didn’t have the money but I filled out the allocation form and requested a 3-bedroom house, even though I had no plan or money to pay for it. 

Did you get it?

Not really. I got a 2-bedroom unit but I really wanted a 3-bedroom. Somehow, I found someone who had a 3-bedroom slot and was willing to sell. 

Something to note – some people apply for these things without any intention of buying the properties. Instead, they sell their slots to people who wanted them.

I’m not surprised. How much did you buy a 3-bedroom slot?

₦2m. Plus the original ₦18m, I was now looking for a total of ₦20m, and the grace period to pay for the house was three months. 

Omo. 

The way I swung into action. The first point of call was the organisation where I worked. I applied for a land loan and ₦3m was approved for me. Secondly, I reached out to the thrift and cooperative society I belonged to. I’d been paying ₦190k per month into my society for more than three years now, and I knew they’d help. They approved a loan of ₦2.5m for me at first, then an additional ₦2.5m.

Remember that corner-piece land I bought when I was 19 years old? I carved it up into three portions and sold a portion for ₦3m. My dad ran this process. 

Now you had ₦11m.

Yes. ₦9m to go. 

I sold my car for ₦1m. My leave and housing allowance for 2018 came in around this time,  and I got ₦1m. The next thing to do was to borrow money from people: a rich aunt-in-law loaned us ₦2m and never collected it back. Then I let people at work know what was going on, and between all the people I spoke to, I raised the remaining ₦5m. 

We got the keys to our apartment in 2019. 

Phew. You really hustled, didn’t you?

I’m really grateful I did. But at this point, I was in debt. I’m still paying off those loans.

How’s it been going?

I started off paying the individual loans. My dad sold another portion of my land for ₦2m in 2019, and I used that to service some of it. My end-of-year bonuses and leave allowances between 2018 and 2022 went into paying the soft loans. I’m cleared on that front.

What about the loans from work and the thrift society?

These are more flexible. The tenure for the land loan I got from my organisation is five years, and I’ve been paying ₦52500 since 2018. The thrift society has also been deducting ₦220k from my salary. Both should be paid off by the end of 2023.

Well done. 

Last year, I was promoted to grade level 12, bringing my gross income to ₦684k. After all the deductions and loan payments, all I get is ₦248k. 

I’m curious. How have you been taking care of other expenses since 2018?

My husband’s business grew and he began making enough money to pay all the bills. He earns much more than I do now. He even added money for me to buy a car and pays for its maintenance until today. 

Asides from feeding, I barely pay any bills in the house anymore. I love this about our marriage. We’ve covered for each other over the years. 

Sweet. What’s happened so far in 2023?

My monthly expenses are not the same every month. But this is what January looked like.

By the way, my husband chips in for both feeding and other household expenses.

What do your savings and investments look like now?

My end-of-year bonuses and allowances for last year were ₦2.5m, and it’s in the money market. I’m keeping it there until the next project. I’ve seen another apartment I’d like. I don’t mind taking another round of loans to pull it off. 

Of course, the bulk of my investments is in real estate. I’ve started building on the last portion of the land I haven’t sold, and my dad says the property is valued at ₦10m. The current house we live in is now worth ₦30m.

Curious. Do you ever think about retirement?

I do. I’ve spent 18 years in the civil service, and I still have about two decades to go. My greatest wish was to own my own house before retirement, and it’s happened. 

I have about ₦20m in my pension account at the moment. The only thing is that I have to retire properly before I have access to it. If I retire voluntarily, I won’t get more than 10% of the total amount. 

I wonder if there’s something you want right now but can’t afford.

The 2-bedroom apartment I mentioned earlier. The asking price is ₦21m but I’m super optimistic about pulling it off. The plan is to buy and put it up for rent. At least, it can be a source of income when I retire. 

How has all of this shaped your perspective on money?

Growing up, I saw my mum work and make her own money. She was also independent and supported her husband. My experiences with her helped form my financial decisions when I got married. 

I guess that’s the perspective I’ve held on to – having your own money gives you the best form of independence. 

Fair enough. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your financial happiness?

7. I’m grateful for all I’ve achieved in my life and career. I think I’ve done pretty well. But you see that apartment I want? When I finally get it, this number will jump to 8.5.