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.

This week’s Naira Life is brought to you by QuickCredit. With QuickCredit, you not only get the funds you need instantly, but you also get to pay back at the lowest interest rate in Nigeria.

On this week’s #NairaLife, this 30-year-old lady’s quality of life nosedived after the death of her husband in 2020. Her current biggest worry? Raising her four kids on an average monthly income of ₦14k.

When did you first realise the importance of money?

That would be after my father died in 2003. We lived in a village in Ankpa in Kogi state and didn’t have much. But we didn’t suffer because my father took care of us. He made furniture and was also a farmer. 

When he died, my mother had to mourn him for two years. This meant she had to stay at home, so someone had to take care of our family. 

And that person was you?

Yes. I was 12 years old and the eldest of five children. The first thing I sold was oranges. A basin of oranges cost ₦700, and I made a profit of ₦800 after each sale. Any money I brought home was what we used to buy food. 

After a while, I started going into the bush to gather firewood to sell. One bundle went for ₦300, and that paid for my school fees. 

How much was your school fees?

₦1200. 

How long did you do this for?

About two years. In 2005, one of my aunts who live in Lagos came to the village and asked me to come with her. She said we were suffering too much, and she wanted to help us. My mother’s mourning period had ended, so I didn’t have to stay in the village if I didn’t want to. I agreed and followed my aunt to Lagos.

What did you do when you got to Lagos?

I helped my aunt with her soft drinks business. She showed me how it worked, and I started selling on the streets. At the end of every month, she paid me ₦5k. She also put me in a tutorial centre. I sold drinks during the day and went to my classes in the evening. 

It didn’t reach two years after I came to Lagos when I got married.

Tell me about how it happened.

A soldier took an interest in me. Whenever he bought drinks from me, he gave me something extra. That was all at first. Later, he said he wanted to marry me. I looked at him, and I looked at myself. I thought if someone like me could marry a soldier, maybe our suffering would be reduced. So I agreed to marry him.

I introduced him to my aunt and her husband. From there, we went home to my village to meet the rest of my family. We got married later in 2006. I think the whole thing cost him like ₦50k. My people don’t collect a bride price, but my uncle took ₦50 and my mother took ₦20 out of the money to show that they supported the marriage. The remaining money was used to entertain our guests. 

Ah, I see. 

He was a lance-corporal in the army and his salary was about ₦48k when we got married. We gave birth to our first child — a daughter —  in 2007. 

Things were good: I won’t lie. He took good care of me. From his salary, he’d give me ₦10k to send home to my mother and give me extra money to buy food in the house and take care of myself. 

In 2009, we gave birth to our second child. That was also when I decided to start making some money on my own. I started selling fruits — oranges, pineapples and watermelons. For every ₦5k market I bought, I made ₦7500. 

I did this until 2011 before my husband asked me to stop. The market wasn’t selling very well anymore, and I was also pregnant with our third child. 

What made me stop was what he promised me. 

What did he promise you?

A shop where I could start a better business. At some point, he wanted to take a loan to start me up, but I told him not to — I fear loans. 

Now that I wasn’t working or selling anything, my children and I relied on him, and he didn’t fail. Not even when our last child came in 2015. He had started earning ₦60k and was close to being promoted to a corporal. 

Every month, he sent us ₦20k for our feeding. It was enough because things were still cheap at the time. I’d spend ₦5k on baby food and diapers, ₦10k for foodstuff and save the remaining ₦5k so we could have something to spend before the month was over. 

My husband also took care of the children’s school fees. When it was time to pay, he’d send his whole salary for that month. That’s how our family worked — I stayed home to take care of the children and he did the rest. 

Then in 2017, they said he should go to Maiduguri to fight Boko Haram. My last child wasn’t even up to two years at the time. Nothing much happened until March last year. 

What happened?

One night, I got a call around 9:30 p.m. The person introduced himself as a major and said that he was sorry, but they lost my husband in combat. I wanted to run mad. We had spoken the previous day, and he talked about coming back home in three months. 

Oh my God. I’m so sorry. 

Thank you. They buried him there and sent his things home. I couldn’t even go for his burial because it was during the lockdown, and they said everybody should stay at home. 

I’m very sorry. He passed on active duty. Did you get any of his benefits?

That’s where the problem is. His brother was his next of kin, so his name was on paper. After they got the money, his family turned their back on me. Now they don’t even remember me or the children. I don’t know how much they gave them, but nothing got to me or the children. 

Ah!

That wasn’t all. We were living in the barracks before my husband passed. After the army paid my husband’s people, they asked us to leave the barracks. I moved in with one of my cousins and that’s where I’m squatting now. 

What are you doing these days?

Since June, I’ve worked at the barracks. I sweep two blocks in the barracks every morning for ₦14k at the end of the month. I have no money in my bank account or my savings. I use everything to buy food and take care of my children.

How do you manage it?

The first thing I do is to take ₦4k out every month. From that, I give my children ₦50 each every morning when they go to school so they won’t be looking at other children. The rest of what I make is for food. Thank God for the neighbours that bring something from time to time. My aunt sends me money when she can and my younger ones send foodstuffs. 

My biggest headache is their school fees. 

How much is their school fees?

My first child is 14 years old and is in JSS 2. I withdrew her from the private school after my husband died and took her to a government school. They don’t collect school fees there even though I pay ₦5k for PTA and other things. The second child is 12 years old and in Primary 5, and the school fees is about ₦25k. I also pay about that amount for the third child who is 10 years old and in Primary 3. My last born is six years old and in primary one. His own school fee is ₦20k.

How do you raise the money?

Ah, when it’s time to pay their school fees, I start to disturb my people. Some of my husband’s friends also send me money for this. I gather the money from everywhere I can find. I fear that people will stop helping me soon. That’s why I want to start my own business.

What business do you have in mind?

I want to get a shop and start selling provisions and drinks. I don’t even know how much I need because I’ve not started asking around. I want to have some money in my hand first. 

But I know it’s the next thing for me. It’s my prayer request every day. I even drop something when I go to church — even if it’s ₦100. I just want to have enough money to take care of my children. 

As you are now, how do you see life and money?

If you’re alive and you don’t have money, you’re nothing and nobody. But if you have money, you will be okay and happy. The people around you will also be happy and proud of you because they know you can help them. 

Hmm. What was the last thing that made you happy?

When my husband was alive, he would send us extra money during holidays so I could take the children out. That used to make me happy. Now, it’s their school fees. Once I pay it like this, I’m happy. 

It’s been a difficult year, but how would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 0-10?

2. But I know that nothing is hard for God. I’ll be happy very soon, and people will know that I’m happy.

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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.

This week’s Naira Life is brought to you by QuickCredit. With QuickCredit, you not only get the funds you need instantly, but you also get to pay back at the lowest interest rate in Nigeria.

This 23-year-old has an investment banking job and a couple of side hustles, but that’s not the most interesting thing about him. It’s how he makes much more money from his side businesses than he does at his 9-5, and how leveraging his privilege and connections got him there. 

What’s your oldest memory of money?

I can’t think of a specific memory but growing up, my cousins and I danced for my uncles and aunts at weddings and other family events, and they sprayed us money. I liked balloons, and I understood that I needed money to buy balloons. I had to dance to get the money. It was that simple. 

Haha. That makes sense. Can you tell me what growing up was like, financially?

My dad works in financial services and is a senior employee at a company he has worked at for decades. My mum did and still does a lot of business. I grew up comfortable although I didn’t understand how well the family was doing until I was older. A part of it was because I was too young to understand how money works. Also, I was exposed to a lot of kids who came from wealthier families, and that skewed my perception of money. At some point, I may have developed a bit of an inferiority complex. 

For context: I went to a private secondary school and the kids there could spend $500 on an item when they go on vacation without blinking. There was no way my parents would sign off on such purchases. 

However, once I started to get a wider perspective, I understood that my family was indeed doing well.

When did you come to this realisation?

That would be around 2014. I was 15 and about to leave Nigeria for uni. My dad had planned for me and my sister’s education and had a university fund for us. I had to go for my A-Levels first and I decided on a private college in Canada. The tuition was C$50k and my dad told me he couldn’t afford it at the time. Subsequently, I got a partial scholarship at the college and my dad still paid about C$30k. That was a lot of money, but he made it happen. Later that year, I moved to Canada. 

Lit.

At first, I was living on a C$100 allowance every month, but my dad always ended up sending more money before the month ended. When he realised that it was more expensive sending smaller sums of money to me, he started sending C$2k at a time. Now, it wasn’t a monthly thing. The money was supposed to last me for a few months before I could request more. On average, C$2k lasted me for three to four months.

I finished my A-Levels in March 2016 and got into a university in the US to study Economics. I moved there in May 2016

How did it go in the US?

Nigeria was in a recession in 2016, so I knew that my dad must have been stressed having huge expenses in dollars. He was sending $200 every month, and I was determined to make do with it. 

In my first year, I lived in school housing and was on a meal plan which had been paid for. I wasn’t saving money or working, so the $200 was everything I lived on. I finally picked up a job at a call centre on campus in my second year but I wasn’t completely committed to it. Thankfully, the minimum wage was $14 in the state I lived in. On average, I worked 20 hours in a month, which brought in an extra $200-$300. At that point, I’d say that at least half of my income went into feeding. I managed to save some $100 a month if I didn’t party a lot in the month, but those were far and between. I partied a lot when I was in uni. 

Haha. 

2018 was when I became intentional about making money. 

How?

I saw what was happening in the financial market in Nigeria, and I was like “Wait, this could be a gold mine.” Here’s what happened: the CBN decided that they were going to start a “promo” and would be giving between 13% and 15% returns on short-term government securities. I thought that was a sweet deal and went in. 

With ₦100k, I started buying and trading treasury bills. The returns weren’t a lot but I started to understand how money compounds over time. I did the math and the ₦100k would compound into millions of naira in 30 years, and I wouldn’t even have turned 50 years by that time. 

However, in the short term. I realised that to scale, I needed to increase my capital. The way I saw it, it could happen in two ways: I could work more hours to earn more money or I could convince people to let me manage their money for them and charge them a small commission. I went with the second option. 

Mad. Tell me how it went.

I started with my dad. I pitched the idea to him and managed to get ₦1m from him. I bought a few equities and invested most of the money in treasury bills, and it did very well. I made about ₦200k in fees I charged him. 

I managed to convince a couple of other people in my family to help me invest for them and I got small sums of money here and there. I put whatever money I made from them into my portfolio and by the end of the year, I had about ₦500k in it. 

That’s interesting. 

I had been coming to Nigeria every summer since my first year in uni to intern at investment companies, so I was plugged into the climate. This came in handy in 2020 when COVID hit. Prices of assets all around the world dropped like crazy. I reacted quickly and sold as many treasury bills as I could and started putting money in the Nigerian stock market, which was also pretty risky at that point. But when I was returning to Nigeria in August 2020, my investment portfolio was worth about ₦2m and I had another ₦250k in cash.

You want to know why I returned to Nigeria, don’t you?

Now that you mention it, please. 

I’d been thinking about it since my second year at uni. For the most part, I got my summer internships in Nigeria through my dad’s connection. My privilege became clearer and I thought it wouldn’t make sense not to take advantage of it.

Also, something happened when I was in the US that solidified this decision.

What was it?

I tried to get into an internship program at a big investment bank. During one of the interview stages, I met a girl I knew from school and her dad was one of the managing directors at the bank. We were in the interview room when one of the analysts came and was like “This is so and so daughter.” They took her from the interview room and gave her a tour of the facility. It was very clear that she was going to get the internship. I felt like I had this in Nigeria, so it made perfect sense to return and explore the opportunities I have here. 

That makes sense. 

I knew getting a job here wouldn’t be a problem. I had an understanding with one of the investment banks I had worked with to return to work for them when I graduated. I reached out to them, took a few tests, and that was sorted. In October 2020, I resumed work. My salary was ₦100k. 

That didn’t make all the difference though. What I did between August and October did. 

What did you do?

A couple of my old friends had returned to Nigeria before I did, so they had their feet on the ground already. When I got back, one of the first things I did was reconnect with them. I realised how much money they were spending when we went out.

We could go to the club and by the end of the night, they would have spent ₦1m on drinks. They split the bill but each person chipped in at least ₦150k. For the first few times we went out together, they didn’t ask me to chip in but I knew it was only a matter of time. The first time I dropped ₦50k, I knew my cash savings couldn’t possibly sustain that kind of lifestyle. I figured that they must be making a lot of money if they could afford to spend like that, which was interesting because they weren’t working 9-5 jobs — they had businesses. 

What kind of businesses?

They did everything they thought could work. Eventually, I spoke to a couple of my friends and asked about businesses I could do with little capital. They gave me a couple of ideas but the most viable one was pushing large volumes of commodities. In my case, it was finding a rice supplier who needed to sell their trucks of rice and a buyer who was willing to buy. 

A truck takes 600 bags of rice. Now, if the supplier sells a bag for ₦24500, I could add my markup, sell a bag for ₦25,500 and make a profit of ₦600k. The good part was that I didn’t need capital to start — I was just a middleman. The hard part was finding a buyer, but I committed to it. 

The easiest way to find the right buyer was by leveraging my contacts. I asked everyone in my family and someone linked me to another person who knew the right person to call. Ultimately, it was about my connections. Between August and December 2020, I was able to sell three trucks of rice,  and I made about ₦1.8m from these deals. 

Sweet! 

This was also the period my perspective started to shift away from my job. It would have taken me 18 months to make ₦1.8m at my day job. Naturally, I started looking out for more business opportunities. The next one happened in January 2021. 

I’m listening. 

In December 2020, I met someone looking to sell two plots of land in an upscale neighbourhood on Lagos Island valued at ₦350m. I told them that for a commission, I would ask around and see if I could find a buyer, and they agreed to it. I was pretty confident about it because a few of my friends’ families are into real estate development and are constantly on the lookout for properties. Within a week, we found a buyer. Less than a month later, the deal closed and they bought the land for about ₦340m. I got the biggest lumpsum amount ever in commissions. 

How much?

₦20m. It was a complete dream. I mean, it was the kind of thing I envisioned would happen for me in Nigeria — being able to use my contacts for opportunities like that but I had no idea how it would materialise. Then this happened. 

I was just looking at my phone over and over again, trying to take it all in. Once I got over the excitement, I knew I wanted to keep grinding. Now that I had some cash, I could afford to join a few of my friends in one of the businesses they were so big on — importing cars. 

These moves. Inject it!

I wanted to see how it would work out, so I dropped ₦1m the first time when the total cost of bringing the car in was ₦4m. My cut on that was ₦100k when the car arrived and we found a buyer for it. Afterwards, I started increasing the amount of money I had in the business. 

What types of cars were you bringing in?

At first, it was the old 2008/2009 Lexus RX and Toyota cars. We have a car dealer in the US who finds these cars at auctions and ships them to us. On average, it cost ₦3m or ₦4m to bring one of such cars in and we typically added a 30% markup, but it’s not set in stone. 

Later, we noticed an uptick in demand for higher-end cars, so our focus shifted to the Highlanders, the newer Lexus RX, and Mercedes C-300 cars. We could make a profit of about ₦2m each on these cars. It’s only been a couple of months but we are growing and expanding the business. 

I put ₦18m in the last batch of cars we imported from the US. They should arrive soon, and I expect to make about ₦4m in profit, which I think is very fair. Fingers crossed on their arrival. 

Fingers crossed. I’m curious about what your earnings look like now.

Well, I still make ₦100k from my day job. But I make anything from ₦3m-₦4m every quarter from importing cars. Usually, I re-invest whatever I make back into the business and only take money out once every quarter. 

What about your investment portfolios, how much are they worth now?

Most of my money is tied up in physical businesses, mostly car importation. The total value should be about ₦30m now. My other major investment is primarily in the Nigerian stock market and my brokerage account has about ₦10m in it. Because my portfolio is liquid and I can take money out any time, I don’t feel the need to save a lot of money in Naira. I have less than ₦500k in cash at the moment.

I’m very focused on opportunity cost and returns. If I think that I can make more money from my portfolio in the period it would take to ship and sell a car, I will pull money out of the business and put it into the portfolio.

Interesting. Let’s break down your monthly running costs, please.

How much do you think you should be earning now?

At least ₦600k at my 9-5. I’m underpaid at my day job, and that’s mostly because I haven’t done my NYSC yet. I love my job but I’m starting to value my time more than I value the work and the experience. The original plan was to work in the capital market for five years, then branch out on my own to start a business in fund management. Now, I’m not even interested in managing money for other people. I’m all about generating money from multiple businesses and pumping it into my investment portfolio. That’s always been the end game. 

Nice. How have all your experiences shaped your perspective about money?

Working in the capital market where my job is to bring people who need money and the people who have it together has shown me that the best way to make money is to have money. It gets exponentially easier to grow wealth when you have some of it. 

Also, the people around me have always been wealthy, and the more I see the way they spend and make money, the more confident I am to take risks. 

Do you think there’s a part of your finances you could be better at?

Ah, yes. My investments are not as diversified as I’d like them to be. Most of my money is currently tied up in the car importation business. If something goes wrong — like if a ship sinks — it will wipe out most of my net worth. 

I could be better with budgeting as well. Sometimes I need to make a purchase but can’t because I don’t have liquid cash around. For the most part, this wouldn’t happen if I’d budgeted better. 

Speaking of purchases, is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

It’s not a pressing need but I’d like a new car. I only started thinking about it when our focus shifted to higher-end cars. A Mercedes GLE-63 will be great but I need around ₦20m for it.  As much as I want it, I can’t spend that much money on a car right now. My net worth has to be at least 10x what it is now before I consider it. 

What about a purchase that significantly improved the quality of your life?

I paid for a one-year subscription to an online service that provides data in financial markets across Africa. It cost only $300, which was such a good deal and since I paid for it, it’s been way easier to do research. The quality of my life has improved because of it. 

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

7. I’m not doing badly for a 23-year-old, and I acknowledge that I had a lot of help to get here. I know the role my privilege has played, and I’m proud of the ways I have leveraged it. My salary from my day job is only enough for my baseline expenses, and I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have people to help me get into these side businesses. I’m definitely in a better place than I was a year ago. However, there’s a lot of things I want but can’t afford yet but I’m taking it one day at a time.

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Great! You got to the end of this article. Know what’s even better? You can get QuickCredit faster than the time it took you to read this article. With Quickcredit, GTBank customers can get N2million in less than 2 minutes and pay back over 12 months at an interest rate of 1.5%. No forms. No collateral. No hidden charges. Get Your Quick Credit on GTWorld

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.

This week’s Naira Life is brought to you by QuickCredit. With QuickCredit, you not only get the funds you need instantly, but you also get to pay back at the lowest interest rate in Nigeria.

What’s your oldest memory of money?

When I was eight years old, I found a big bar of soap at home and dissolved it in water. The younger kids in the compound were fascinated by the bubbles it formed, and they wanted it. I told them they had to pay ₦5 for a handful. They all went to their apartments and brought the money. However, their mums found out and confronted me. I had to return the money.

I liked how I felt when I thought I was going to make some money, and I wanted to feel that way again. I told my mum, and she said I could sell something tangible and she would help me get it started. During the next holiday, she helped me set up my first business — selling homemade zobo drinks. A cup went for ₦10, and I sold it in a neighbour’s shop. I don’t remember how much I made at the end of the holiday period, but I gave everything to my mum.

I sold a couple more stuff when I was in secondary school. My mum owns a primary school and during the summer lessons, I’d make snacks and sell them to her students.

However, I got my first real job at my mum’s school after I finished secondary school in 2008. 

Tell me about it. 

I wrote an application letter to my mum, asking to work as a staff, and she agreed to bring me on as a teaching assistant. My salary was ₦6k and I stayed for two months. Then I got into a pre-university programme in a state in the north-central and moved in with a family friend living in the state. My parents put me on a ₦10k monthly allowance.

The programme lasted for seven months, and I returned to my parents after that. When I didn’t get into uni that year, I returned to working at my mum’s school. My salary was now ₦10k. On the side, I was making and supplying snacks to the school and some of my mum’s friends and making a monthly profit of ₦5k and ₦8k.

Baller.

Hehe. In 2010, I quit my job and went for a diploma programme in another university, which meant I had to go back to being on a ₦10k allowance. The family friend I lived with gave me an additional ₦5k every month. 

A year later, I finally got an offer to study biochemistry at the university where I did my diploma. I moved out of the family friend’s home and into the hostel. 

I renegotiated a new allowance with my parents, and they started sending me ₦10k every two weeks. This was what I was on until I finished university. When I settled into school, I looked for ways I could make extra money but that happened only once.  I constantly had to figure out the best way to manage my allowance. Funny story. . .

Yes? 

Sometime in 2012, a friend introduced me to a lady who was looking for students to help sell her magazines. A copy of the magazine sold for ₦300, but she said we could add a markup and keep the extra money. It sounded easy, so I signed up for it and I took some copies off her. I walked the length and breadth of the city and couldn’t sell one. As I was returning home, tired and frustrated, I met a group of people and one of them was like, “Fine girl, what are you doing out so late?” I told them that I was out selling magazines and hadn’t sold any all day. They asked for the price and for some reason, I said it was ₦5k. They took one magazine and paid.

Oh wow. 

There’s more. I decided to make one last stop at a country club close to where I was. I approached two guys who were leaving and told them about the magazines. When they asked for the price, I told them it was ₦10k, and they also paid. They didn’t even take the magazine with them. On some level, I think they just felt some pity for me. Anyway, I made close to ₦15k that day.

Mad. 

I didn’t do anything else for money until I left university in 2015. 

NYSC was next?

I took a gap year before I went for NYSC. My parents had started a publishing company when I was in uni, and they needed someone to manage the place. I took it up since I was available, and I was put on a ₦30k salary. Also, I started selling hair products by the side and made about ₦20k in profit every month. I was saving my salary and living on what I made from the hair business. 

Towards the end of 2016, I was mobilised for NYSC and went on to serve in the north.  My Place of Primary Assignment (PPA) was a health centre, and they paid a monthly stipend of ₦5k. There was also the federal government ₦19,800 allowance. But I thought I could do better than that, so I started looking for a new job. I got a part-time job at a primary school where I taught two days a week, and they paid ₦7k. A few months later, I got a better paying offer at another school — ₦12k per month, but I had to go in every day. Not long after, I found another job in a spa as an attendant. This paid ₦15k.

Interesting. How did you juggle three jobs?

I had stopped going to my PPA because there was hardly any work to do. I worked at the school from morning until afternoon and resumed at the spa afterwards. 

It worked for me, and I was able to save as much money as I could. When NYSC ended in 2017, I returned home with about ₦240k in savings. 

Lit. 

My parents still wanted me to work at their publishing company. My starting salary was ₦50k, but it was going to increase to ₦100k after my first six months. I agreed, but I didn’t spend up to six months there. 

Why?

I got restless after five months and wanted to do something else. My parents weren’t happy with it because they thought I was abandoning the family business, but they respected my decision. I actively started looking for a job in FMCG companies and banks. I applied to a few places and landed some interviews. I joined a bank in 2018. In their training school, I was paid ₦30k. After training school, my salary increased to ₦80k.

A few months later, I realised that the money wasn’t a lot. But it was fair in comparison to what a lot of my friends were earning. 

I was spending a lot on transportation too, and the best thing to do was move closer to my workplace. I found a mini-flat and the total package was ₦600k. I got ₦240k from a monthly contribution scheme I was a part of. My parents took care of the rest and I moved into the apartment. 

What’s happened between then and now?

I was promoted for the first time in 2019 and my salary was bumped up to ₦100k. My standards of living remained the same, and I started saving ₦20k every month. In January 2020, I got another promotion and my salary increased to ₦195k.  This meant I could save more, so I joined another contribution scheme with a few people and started putting ₦50k away every month. Three months after my promotion, the pandemic hit. 

How did that affect you?

It didn’t affect me directly, but my parents felt the heat. Shortly before the lockdown started, they had invested heavily into publishing some new books, hoping to recoup their investment when schools opened, but that didn’t happen and they had salaries to pay. 

My parents are proud people, and I knew they would never ask me for money even though they needed help. During the height of the pandemic when they were out of business, I sent about ₦300k home to them. 

I don’t think my savings took a big hit because, at the end of the year, I had ₦1.2m in savings. 

That’s lit. 

Then I blew everything away. 

What happened?

I got married and the wedding wiped out my savings.

Lmao. How much did your wedding cost?

About ₦4m. It’s weird it cost that much because it was a small wedding, and we invited only 100 guests. My parents were recovering from the effect of the pandemic and couldn’t do a lot. My husband’s family did what they had to do, but I had to chip in something too. 

Fast forward to January 2021. I started the year with nothing. I tried to save more but realised that it was going to take some time before I recovered. So I did something different. 

What was that?

I took a ₦700k small interest loan from work and I invested in a mutual fund, which yields anything between 7% and 14%. Now, you’d expect me to have more than ₦700k in my mutual funds account, but I have ₦500k in it. I have access to the account and can liquidate it at any time. This has happened a few times in the last couple of months. 

I’m curious about how you approach savings and investments.

At the moment, I only have investments in mutual funds. I like to have emergency funds too, so I used to take ₦30k out of my salary and save somewhere. But I kept dipping into that because I needed to do something before my salary came in. Recently, I started another ₦50k a month contribution scheme with a few people, and that money will probably go into starting a new business. I’ve been thinking about starting one because I’m not making as much money as I’d like to.

How much do you think you should be earning now?

The number I have in mind is ₦400k, but it’s tricky. On one hand, I feel like I can’t ask for that much because I have only my BSc certificate. I have a couple of skills, but there’s no certification to back them up, and I work a job where certification is important. 

What do you need to do to unlock your next level of income?

For starters, I need to upskill. I was going to start getting the certifications I needed a few weeks ago, but my laptop gave up on me. Can you believe it?

Also, I need to return to having a side business. Working in the banking industry has shown me that having one source of income can be dangerous. Last year, I saw people with families and responsibilities come into work in the morning and before the day ended, they lost their jobs. It was horrible. I’m sick and tired of my job and thinking strongly about returning to my family business. I feel like I will be better appreciated there, and it wouldn’t even affect my finances. My parents have agreed to pay me what I currently earn, and I’ll have more time to focus on starting and running my side business. However, it’s not an easy decision to make.

I get that. What part of your finances do you think you could be better at?

Making more money. I don’t have a bad savings habit, but I end up dipping into my savings because I’m not making enough. I could do better with following a strict budget, but the priority is to get my earnings up. 

This feels like a good point to talk about your monthly running costs. 

There’s not a lot left after all of this, so I’m mostly surviving on vibes. Thankfully, my husband comes through when I’m almost out of money and salary day is still some time away. 

How have your experiences shaped your perspective about money?

As a kid, I didn’t have a reason to worry about money but now I think about it all the time. While money is not the most important thing in the world, it’s central to the quality of life you can afford. I like to see money in my account at all times because it’s security for me. I always want to know that I have something to fall back on if push comes to shove. It’s stressful, but it’s what it is. 

I’m wondering if there’s anything you want right now but can’t afford?

I’d love to get a car. Public transportation in this country is killing me. But I imagine that I’d need about ₦3m to get me something that works, and I don’t have it right now. 

What about something you bought recently that improved the quality of your life?

A pair of ear buds. I talk to more than 50 people on the phone every day, and I’m doing other things while I’m on the phone. The ear buds have made the experience better, and it cost only ₦28k. Great value for the money. 

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

2. There’s a lot of things I currently don’t like about my finances — my paltry savings and the fact that my salary is not enough to get me through the month sometimes. I don’t like that I don’t have an extra source of income even though I’m working on it. It’s stressful crunching numbers every time I need to buy something. 

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