The origin story of most freelancers, digital creators, remote workers and basically anyone in the gig economy is usually the same: Full-time employment stops being as fulfilling, and you suddenly realise you’re great at doing your own thing.
Then, you enter the gig economy and discover it’s a whole different ball game, and you have to handle things like:
Building a personal brand
You want potential clients and your target audience to see you as someone who knows what they’re doing, so now you have to worry about building authority in your field and constantly showing up. In other words, you have to brag about your skills even if imposter syndrome is choking you.
Figuring out how to make money
Now, people know you can do what you claim to know. But how do you start charging for it? How do you meet your first client? So many questions!
And then, not underpricing yourself
Then, you start worrying about whether you’re charging too much money or not charging enough. Thankfully, the Sentz Webinar Series — brought to you by Sentz, a global payment app designed to cater to the unique needs of the Nigerian freelance market — has sessions directed at giving creators practical knowledge about things like this. If not, how we for do?
Handling clients on your own
Clients can determine whether you make money or sleep under the bridge, so now you must learn how to manage expectations, maintain cordial relationships, and ensure they have a good enough experience to refer you to others. Not difficult at all.
Casting your client nets overseas
You’ve heard you can work with foreign clients as a creator and earn in dollars. But where exactly do you meet these clients? Will they just come? How do you manage cross-border payments? Well, the Sentz Webinar Series to the rescue again. They have several sessions that speak to these topics, and the next session is on November 8, 2024.
Being consistent
You’re still human; sometimes, you just want to rest from showing up daily. That’s why you must have strong processes in place so your brand doesn’t suffer if you take a day or two off.
Building a community
No one is an island, and this is especially true for everyone in the gig economy. You’ll need to connect with fellow freelancers and creators and update your knowledge regularly. This can be difficult to do on your own, which is why you shouldn’t miss any session in the Sentz Webinar Series.
In the last session, Adeife Adeoye, founder of Penpalms and Remote WorkHER, spoke about how to move from earning $1,000 to $10,000 as a freelancer. On Friday, November 8th, Toyosi Godwin, a freelance content writer, will share expert tips on attracting foreign clients and freelancing without borders. Click here to register now!
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The topic of how young Nigerians navigate romantic relationships with their earnings is a minefield of hot takes. In Love Currency, we get into what relationships across income brackets look like in different cities.
How long have you been with your partner?
I met Glory in 2023, and we’ve been dating for about 11 months.
How did you two meet?
I’m a freelance graphic designer living in a university environment and often get design requests for birthday flyers. Glory and I have a mutual friend who sent me Glory’s picture so I could design one.
I liked what I saw and convinced the girl to send me Glory’s number to forward the flyer to her myself. She sent it, and I sent the flyer, wished Glory a happy birthday and offered to take her out to eat. I spent ₦10k that day on shawarma and drinks. We vibed, talked all night, and essentially became an item.
Just like that?
Yes. I told her I liked her, and she said she enjoyed talking to me. I didn’t ask her to be my girlfriend that night, but somehow, we knew we were dating by the end of the week.
Glory was even the first person to use the term “boyfriend”. Two weeks after we met, I came to her department building to see her. When she saw me, she waved me over and introduced me to her friends as her boyfriend. I remember being so excited that I had to consciously stop myself from shining my teeth in front of her friends.
Were you excited because she used “boyfriend”?
It was more because she seemed so proud to announce me. My last relationship was with a girl who never told anyone we were together, so it was a breath of fresh air. My ex claimed she hid me because she was a private person, but I realised that was a lie after finding out from a friend that she blocked me from viewing her WhatsApp status, where she constantly posted one G-boy who was spending money on her. I don’t really blame my ex sha. I was a broke student, so I guess she wanted better.
Was your financial situation any better when you started dating Glory?
Much better. I was in my NYSC year, but aside from the ₦33k stipend, I made money writing for blogs and designing. I had a steady client for the blog pieces then who paid me ₦35k/month, and I made extra ₦30k – ₦40k from graphic design. So, I felt confident and financially comfortable enough to pursue a relationship.
What about Glory? What was her financial situation?
She didn’t have a major income source as a student — she still doesn’t— but her parents supported her financially. I know that because when we started dating, I tried sending her money regularly. I always told her whenever I got paid, and would randomly send ₦10k here or ₦12k there.
I did that about three times in the first month, and she told me to calm down. She was like, “I’m not broke o. Stop sending money anyhow.” She made me understand that she’d tell me if she ever needed money, and she preferred that I save my money to do sensible things rather than spend it all on her.
Sounds like a keeper
That statement activated my mumu button. I reduced the money gifts and limited them to when she asked. But she likes going out and hanging out on the beach, so we went on beach dates and visited eateries. I paid for those dates.
My birthday was in February, and Glory bought me a cake and a wristwatch as my birthday gift. I bought her a ₦5k necklace for Valentine’s Day; she took us out to eat that day. We’ve mostly understood each other when it comes to money, but I think that’s been changing a bit since August.
How so?
Our finances have changed a lot. Glory lost her father, who was the family’s breadwinner, in June. Her mum is still trying to recover from funeral expenses, and Glory is always complaining about being broke. She’s in her final year now and needs money more than ever.
On my own end, I finished NYSC earlier this year, and my income hasn’t been stable. My steady client gets work from sites like Upwork and Fiverr and outsources some of his jobs to me. But jobs haven’t been as frequent; he says those sites are more competitive now. So, sometimes, I get only two gigs from him in a month that might not even reach ₦20k.
Graphic design has been my major income source for a while, and even with that, I struggle to make ₦60k. That’s hardly enough to do anything in this economy, and I still have rent to worry about. I squatted with a friend for free during NYSC, but I had to look for another option after we finished because his girlfriend wanted to move in. I’m sharing the room with another friend, but I still have to worry about my half of the rent, which is ₦150k.
Things are hard, and it makes it worse when my girlfriend complains because I can’t do a lot.
Damn. How has this affected your relationship?
Money has become a regular conversation for us now, and these conversations tend to get tense. One time, Glory complained about money as usual, and I tried to motivate her, but she got angry. She asked whether motivational words would bring the money to solve the problem. She apologised later, but I still feel bad.
I once told her that hearing about her financial situation made me feel inadequate, but she didn’t like that. She said it sounded like I didn’t want her to tell me what was going on and that if she couldn’t share with me, who else did she have?
Glory still says that she doesn’t expect me to provide all her needs, but I feel like there’s an unspoken expectation that I provide more than I currently do. I give her at least ₦5k monthly, and she often comes to eat at my place, but it’s like I’m not doing enough. I have this silent fear that she’ll find someone with more money and leave me for him.
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Hmm. I guess you haven’t spoken to her about this
How can I? It’ll just sound like insecurity. So, I just try to show my love as much as I can. I listen to her troubles and suggest solutions when needed. I also try to send money when I can afford to, and I still prioritise dates.
She has said she wants to start a thrift business, and I’m hoping I have money whenever she’s ready. I won’t fund the whole thing — she plans to speak with her uncle to dash her some money — but I hope to support her with something.
I hope it works out. Do you have a financial safety net?
I have ₦80k in a savings app, and that money is only there because Glory has warned me not to touch it so I can have something for rent. I’m currently job hunting for a steady salary to bank on. Once I get that, I can think about saving beyond rent.
What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?
I’d like both of us to have stable income sources so we can look at a better future together. A future where we can rent a place together, go on vacation to beach resorts around Nigeria and be free to be intentional with gifting. Glory’s phone is bad, and I’ve fantasised about changing it for her, but I definitely can’t do that now.
Interested in talking about how money moves in your relationship? If yes, click here.
*Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.
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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.
What’s your earliest memory of money?
That was in 2010. I didn’t really understand what money could do and how it felt to earn it before that time.
What changed?
So, I was in my second year and my uni was organising a rag day — it’s an event where students dress funny and go out to make money. I didn’t participate because it wasn’t my thing, but I helped a friend with their costume and jokingly requested a percentage of whatever money was made.
My friend got a lot of money almost as quickly as they went outside. When my other colleagues saw that, they rushed to me and asked me to help with their costumes. After the whole thing, they returned and gave me a cut of their earnings — ₦2k here, ₦1k there. I don’t remember exactly how much I made, but it was cool cash for simply exploring my creativity.
It was also the first time I held money that hadn’t passed through my parents’ strict approval process for financial matters.
Tell me about your parents
My parents were teachers and were very strict. They believed that letting children have money could lead them to vices. They were right, sha. In secondary school, I had friends who gambled among each other, but I couldn’t join because I didn’t even have as little as ₦5 on me — my siblings and I took lunch to school, so there was no reason to handle money.
Also, if a family member gave me money, I was meant to immediately hand it over to my parents, who decided what to do with it. If my mum saw a pencil she didn’t buy in my bag, all hell would let loose.
I can trace my lack of a savings culture to my upbringing. Imagine me trying to save as a child. With which money? Even if I miraculously found money, how was I supposed to explain keeping it? My parents controlled everything in our house, which followed me until that point in university when I finally did something independently.
Did you try something else to make money after that?
Yes. But I just pursued a passion and ended up getting paid for it. I loved organising tutorials for colleagues in uni, and one time in my third year, a friend asked if I could cover for her at work because she was writing exams.
She worked at a company that connected tutors to parents who wanted after-school lessons for their kids. So, while my friend was away, I tutored her client’s kid. When she returned after two weeks, the child’s parents called the company and asked to retain me for their child while my friend taught someone else.
They liked you that much?
Apparently, they did. The company employed me and paid me ₦20k/month to teach the child thrice a week. About a month later, I got a different gig through a senior colleague to teach maths and physics to someone preparing for WAEC.
Then, I got another referral from the same senior colleague. I juggled the three clients until my final year and made about ₦70k/month from all of them. In my final year, I had to scale back down to one client —the one paying ₦20k — because I wanted to focus on my studies and pass well. I’d been an unserious student for most of uni, and final year was my last chance.
Thankfully, I graduated with good grades and held the job for a few more months until I landed a new one in 2013. The new job was in health and safety, which aligned with what I studied in school, so I dropped the teaching gig to focus on my new role.
Was the pay better?
Haha. My salary was ₦5k/month. It was a serious pay cut, but I wanted professional experience. I lived with some friends and didn’t have to worry about rent. The ₦5k covered my transportation for only 2-3 weeks, and I had to rely on my friends for transport fare.
I supplemented my salary with occasional tutoring gigs — I got one in 2014 that paid ₦60k/week for a two-month period.
Fortunately, I landed a similar role at a non-profit in 2016. My starting salary was ₦60k/month, but it got up to about ₦100k after transportation allowance and other incentives.
A welcome relief from ₦5k/month, I imagine
It was. However, my lifestyle didn’t change much. I had free accommodation courtesy of my job. I’m not social, and I’d grown used to living on very little income, so there was almost nothing for me to spend on.
That said, I began giving out money. I like helping people, and since I wasn’t doing anything with money, I was using it to meet people’s needs — especially friends and family. If someone complained about a need on WhatsApp, I’d DM them and send them money.
About six months into the job, my salary increased to ₦80k. My need to travel for official duty also increased, and the allowances from travelling and field work brought my monthly income to ₦200k.
Did you consider savings or investments?
I didn’t grow up with a savings culture, so it wasn’t the first thing that came to my head. So, even though I was earning more than I ever had, I was always broke before month’s end.
In 2017, my mum noticed my terrible spending habits. She’d asked me for ₦50k, and I ended up sending ₦100k. She also learned from my siblings that I always gave extra money whenever they asked, so she called and told me it was time for me to learn how to save for a rainy day.
My mum opened a cooperative account in my name and asked me to decide on a monthly deposit I was comfortable with. I decided on ₦100k, and from then, I just sent the money to her monthly to help me save it.
I didn’t have access to it and had no desire to keep track of whatever I sent to her. My own was: They’ve told me it’s good to keep money, so let me just keep it. I didn’t have a goal.
I’m screaming
I worked at the non-profit till 2019, and my income grew to about ₦400k/month before I left.
Around the same time, my mum suggested I invest my cooperative savings in a landed property. Honestly, I was fine with just keeping it, but she advised against saving indefinitely.
So, I used most of the money — about ₦3m — to buy seven acres of land. The first day I stood on the land, I thought, “Hey, maybe investments aren’t so bad.” Like, I couldn’t see the end of the entire property, and it was all mine.
I farmed plantains on the land for about two years and made some profit, but I stopped because I struggled to juggle it with other responsibilities. Plus, I didn’t buy the land to farm. The goal is to build an estate on it someday.
I was just about to ask if you left the non-profit for farming
I left because I wanted to get a master’s degree, but my workplace didn’t let me. I even suggested a part-time study program, but they were against it. I decided that it was better to upskill than hold on to a job that could kick me to the curb, so I resigned and became a freelance consultant. I also stopped saving with the cooperative since I no longer had a consistent income.
Did you have a plan for school expenses with an inconsistent income?
I have contacts in the non-profit sector. I knew I’d still get something every other month. The only thing was, I couldn’t predict what my income would be. With consulting, you can make ₦200k today and ₦2m tomorrow.
I planned to freelance for only two years. After my master’s program, I’d re-strategise and return to an office job. Unfortunately, the pandemic happened and disrupted my academic calendar. Even after schools reopened, ASUU went on an eight-month strike, essentially wasting the whole of 2022.
I finished the program this year, so I’ve been a freelance consultant for longer than I planned. Fortunately, I get consulting gigs fairly regularly, so I survive. I also got married in 2021, and while that has increased my responsibilities, it’s also helped me manage the reality of having an inconsistent income.
How so?
We’ve already established I’m a spontaneous giver. I can’t stand seeing people in need and looking away. I could get away with that on a monthly salary, but consulting is different. If I make ₦1.2m today, I can’t just blow it because I don’t know if I’ll earn anything for the next few months.
It requires extensive financial planning, which isn’t my strength. After I got married, my wife and I decided it was best that she controlled my finances, and we’ve stuck with that. I don’t have access to my accounts or know how much I’m worth, and it works well for us.
Also, I believe that men having extramarital affairs is directly proportional to them having money. With the way I spend, I know having money might be a tempting factor to go that route, and I don’t want it. There’s no way to have a woman on the side if you don’t have a kobo to your name, and I’m fine with that.
I’m curious. How does the financial arrangement with your wife work?
My wife has all my bank apps on her phone, and she also receives the SMS alerts. I don’t get alerts, and I don’t have an ATM card either. I have zero access to my funds. Whenever I get paid for a job, she’s the one who tells me that money has entered my account.
She allocates the funds to whatever need we have at the moment. She also ensures there’s still money to run the home and attend to family emergencies in the months I don’t earn anything. She even buys me clothes or whatever she thinks I need. If I need money to repair the car, for instance, I call her, and she transfers money to the mechanic.
So, you don’t hold cash at all?
Nope. Sometimes, my wife puts money in one of the ATM cards if I want to buy something. But it’s always the exact amount because we both know I can still dash the extra cash to a random groundnut seller on the road.
I should mention that no one knows about my wife controlling my finances — not even my family. I know people would think it strange, so we keep it to ourselves.
Have there been any challenges with this arrangement?
The only challenge is that it’s quite difficult to make a transaction my wife disapproves of. For instance, I could ask her to transfer ₦150k to someone who needs a new phone.
Of course, she’ll query it, and if she doesn’t think the reason is good enough, she tells me we can’t do it or suggests a smaller amount. Sometimes, I try to defend my reason. Other times, I don’t push it.
I’d like to know how someone like you thinks about money
Money provides one of the easiest means to help people. I hate seeing people in need and looking away.
Right now, I’m looking forward to bigger consulting jobs and businesses, and it’s majorly because I want to be able to confidently ask my wife to increase our giving budget.
At least I’ve accepted that I’m a reckless spender, and I don’t mind that my spending is on those who need help.
So, how do you move money around these days?
I work from home most days, and with my wife handling the majority of the household’s needs, my spending oversight is limited to fueling the car, electricity, and monthly allowances.
Let me break it down:
Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?
Solar electricity to increase my efficiency. My house is also my office, and the epileptic power situation in Nigeria is so crazy. The last time I checked, I’d need about ₦1m for a small solar system to power my office. To power the entire building, I’d need about ₦4m. According to my wife, we can’t afford either right now.
What was the last thing you bought that significantly improved your quality of life?
My laptop, which I bought for about ₦1.4m earlier this year. It comes with a smart pen, and for someone like me who does a lot of pitching, it’s so easy to pictorially represent a concept or solution I’m trying to proffer to clients. The laptop just has a lot of crazy features that make brainstorming seamless.
Is there anything you’d like to be better at financially?
I’m currently working on diversifying my income, considering that Nigeria’s economy isn’t smiling anymore. I can put on many hats, and I just need to figure out which skill I can utilise to get another income source to stabilise my finances.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
I’d like to split that into two: income and spending. My income rating is 5 because I still need to get more income sources.
My spending rating is 2 because of my poor spending habits. I’ll rate it higher when I learn how to handle my spontaneous spending, or better still, earn enough so I can spend spontaneously and not feel it.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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?
Nothing specific comes to mind. But growing up, I always knew when my parents had money and when they didn’t.
How so?
They were open with me and my elder siblings on financial matters. When there wasn’t much money, my mum would say, “This is a difficult period. You guys should bear with us.” My dad would also call us together after morning devotion to share what things were like and assure us that he was working hard to fix them.
What did they do for money?
My mum didn’t have an income as a stay-at-home mum, but my dad worked as an analyst for a political party. I think that’s just code for him being “into politics.” But he was idealistic and rebelled against most of what happened in the party. He contested for the party primaries once in the early 2000s, and they kidnapped him.
Ah
They didn’t like him very much. His salary wasn’t great, and he only got extra money when the party shared money for meetings or whatever reason. That wasn’t consistent, and everything combined is why we had periods of financial drought.
Were there other pointers as to when there was money and when there wasn’t?
Oh yes. When there was money, I got expensive clothes and shoes. I didn’t get anything new during the dry periods. My parents tried their best to make these dry periods unnoticeable, but they couldn’t always shield me.
One time in SS 2, my school fees were delayed, and the principal went from class to class, embarrassing students. It was during exams, and I was writing a paper. The exam was supposed to last an hour and 30 minutes, but I rushed through it in 30 minutes because I knew the principal was coming.
When she finally did, she screamed my name and was like, “You’ve not paid your school fees!” I had to carry my bag and leave the exam hall. Thankfully, I was done with the paper, but I was so ashamed. My teachers were more empathetic. I was a smart student, and they liked me, so they secretly confirmed I was actually done before allowing me to leave the exam hall. It sounds dramatic now, but that was the most horrible thing that had happened to me at that point.
When was the first time you worked for money?
2008. I was 16 and had just gotten admitted to university. A family friend made beautiful handmade cards, and I had the bright idea of taking some of them to school to sell on Valentine’s Day.
He sold each card to me at ₦250, and I sold them for ₦800 – ₦1500. I made about ₦8k in profit the first time I sold them. I did the business for the two semesters I was in university.
Just two semesters?
Yup. I had to return home after a year. The thing was, I failed Physics in WAEC and NECO, and I was studying Industrial Physics. People had encouraged me to just resume and find a way to work around it. But school authorities said it couldn’t work, and my admission was revoked. So, I returned home in 2009.
But it wasn’t all bad news. A wealthy aunty told my dad to allow me to come to Lagos so I could prepare for a US school. She wanted to sponsor me. So, I moved to Lagos in 2010, took SAT tutorial classes, and wrote the SAT and TOEFL exams. I passed both. Then, I got admission into a uni in Seattle and they sent my I-20 form. Everything went smoothly until I was about to start my visa application. That’s when my aunty decided she couldn’t afford to sponsor me anymore.
What? Why?
My dad’s siblings talked her out of it. It was like she hadn’t even sent her own children. Why me? It was really disappointing. I’d spent one year on all those classes and exams. I’d even given out my clothes. I was that sure I was leaving Nigeria.
This woman had already spent so much money on the process — about ₦500k on the tutorials and exams. Anyway, I carried myself back to my father’s house to face my life.
To pursue uni admission, yeah?
Yeah. I had to sort out my O’Levels before writing JAMB. I returned home in late 2010, and it was too late to register for GCE, so I waited until 2011 to register. I wrote the GCE again and still failed the damn Physics exam.
It was wild because everyone knew I was smart. I didn’t know why Physics was kicking my ass. In 2011, I considered military school and took the exam to join the Navy. One of the officers saw me during the exam and was like, “You want to join the Navy with this your small body?” I even tried the pre-degree path and failed woefully.
Yikes. Sorry about that
After I failed the pre-degree in 2012, I took up a teaching job at a school where I taught the JSS 1 class English. My salary was ₦18k/month, and I mostly used it to fix my hair, buy data and look good. I also changed my phone during that period.
I rewrote GCE that same year and finally passed Physics. I gained admission to uni in 2013 — five years after graduating from secondary school.
Phew
I quit my teaching job. But you see that Physics that was kicking my ass in GCE? I got an A in it in my first semester. It turned out it wasn’t even that difficult; I just didn’t understand the teaching style in secondary school.
Moving on, let me tell you how I stumbled on a business opportunity in my first year.
I’m listening
I bought some clothes online from a UK shop but didn’t like many of them when they arrived. My roommates loved the clothes, so I ended up selling most of them. I made almost ₦60k profit from that first batch of clothes, so I decided to make it a regular thing.
I’d show my roommates and friends the clothes online and then order based on their selections. I shopped from AliExpress or ASOS. Then, I sent the clothes through the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST). The clothes arrived within five days.
I was a rich student. I often made ₦100k in profits monthly. I was also a baddie in school, so some random man would send me money — between ₦100k and ₦200k —once in a while. My parents also sent me money whenever things were good at home, which usually ranged between ₦20k – ₦30k.
What were your expenses like?
Mostly hair and clothes. In 2014, all the it-girls wore Brazilian hair, so my sister and I regularly travelled to Lagos to buy hair.
I spent money on a lot of random things. I’d enter town and buy groceries or whatever. I also sent money to my mum and elder brother — ₦30k/month to my brother and ₦50k/month to my mum. They knew I had a business in school.
I also took on a significant part of the house expenses when I was home from school. My dad was done with politics and was trying his hand at several businesses, so he had almost no income. I felt I owed it to my parents to pick up some of the financial responsibility.
I ran the business for almost two years until I had to scale it back.
What happened?
My grades began to suffer, so I decided to focus on school from my third year. I was still selling stuff, but not as frequently. In 2015, the dollar rate started shaking, forcing me to reduce the volume of clothes I imported and try other businesses.
First, I tried sneakers. I also sold cute earrings and necklaces. Then I sold jeans. Ultimately, I stuck with jeans and jewellery for the rest of my time in school.
My income dipped to about ₦30k/month due to my focus on school. My parents still sent money whenever they could. My elder sister had also started working, so she sent me random ₦5k once in a while.
In my fourth year, I did a four-month internship that paid ₦14k/month, but my main income came from my boyfriend. He got a job as a rig worker in 2017 and started making money, so he started giving me about ₦200k/month. This happened until I graduated in 2018.
What did you do next?
NYSC. I was called up in 2019 and served in a secondary school. My PPA didn’t pay me anything, and me too, I didn’t ask. There was a lodge, so I didn’t pay for accommodation.
I started a snail business with my boyfriend during this time. His contract with the rig had ended, so we decided to invest in snails. I think I just wanted to get down and dirty to prove to myself that I didn’t just get handouts from people all the time.
He brought in the money, and I did the manual work. I’d travel to Bayelsa and buy 200 snails for ₦18k. Then, I’d clean and process them. We made about ₦200k on each batch.
We did this for a while and then went into feminine wellness teas. I saw the tea online and did some research about the medical benefits. It was legit, so I convinced him to let us try it. A pack of the tea from China cost ₦700. We repackaged it and sold it at ₦15k. It was a big hit. I advertised to everyone in my lodge and PPA and handled social media management. We comfortably made ₦7k – ₦9k in profits per pack.
Nice
I finished NYSC in July 2020 and got a job working the front desk and onboarding clients at an investment company. My salary was ₦100k/month. The job also came with a car. I got the car because I was the only one in the office who could drive, and my boss thought it’d help with my role.
I should mention that a major reason I took the job was because I wanted to have something of my own. I wasn’t getting anything apart from ₦5k for data from the joint business with my boyfriend — we’d agreed to put the profits back into the business — and I needed to rent an apartment. He started acting insecure the minute I started working, and the relationship pretty much ended.
I saved my salary for three months and got a ₦250k/year apartment. Things were going well until I had the bright idea to invest my ₦600k savings in the company in December. I thought, “I can’t work at an investment company and not make small money too, abi?”
It already sounds like it didn’t end well
It didn’t. I was supposed to get a 20% return on my investment each month for six months. I got ₦120k in January and February. But after the second payment, the company packed up. To make matters worse, I’d been investing the returns and every extra money I got at work in crypto. Then Buhari banned crypto, and I could only get ₦80k out of the trading app I used.
Damn
I lost my job, savings and investments, everything. I cried my eyes out. I used the remaining ₦80k to do retail therapy on Shein. At least my company didn’t collect the car back, so that was a plus.
After two months of unsuccessful job-hunting, I decided to use the car as a cab. So, in May 2021, I registered on a ride-hailing app and became a driver.
That’s quite a pivot
The car was just gathering dust, so why not? My siblings were so scared. There was a 7 p.m. curfew in my city because of kidnappings, but I was often on the road till 9 p.m. When police stopped me, I’d lie and say I was just dropping someone. They often pitied me because of fine girl privilege.
Driving brought me around ₦30k – ₦40k weekly after fuelling the car and other minor expenses. Riders also tipped me ₦3k – ₦5k because again, fine girl. Me, I was spending money on gourmet meals, facials, pedicures and hair. I really don’t like to struggle.
So, when the car broke down in July, I had nothing saved up to fix it. I eventually sent the car to my dad, and that’s how my driving career ended after three months.
I’m screaming. What did you try next?
I remembered that people make money on sites like Fiverr and Upwork, so I created accounts and started looking for jobs. I didn’t get anything until the end of August— $100 for a small virtual assistant gig.
In November, I got another virtual assistant gig. It paid $10/hour and was capped at 25 hours per week, bringing my monthly income to $1k— $800 after Upwork removed its commission.
Of the $800, I saved half in my domiciliary account and lived on the other half. Sometimes I’d run back to my savings to remove an additional $100 before month’s end because I’d spent all my money on perfumes and shopping at Miniso.
In May 2022, I got a new $20/hour project coordinator gig for an HR company. My contract was capped at 30 hours weekly, bringing my income to $2200/month after deductions.
So, you were juggling both gigs?
Yes, I was. By this time, the virtual assistant gig had increased my pay to $12/hour, so I got $900/month. However, my contract ended in August. By September, the HR company started having issues, and I worked fewer hours. I was getting around $800 – $1k/month. But I wasn’t too bothered because I had $5k in my savings.
The gig finally ended in January 2023, but then I got another one. It was $25/hour, but they only let me work five hours a week. It didn’t make sense to me, so I left in March. I had a long stretch where I didn’t make any money. My boyfriend was the one paying my bills.
How about the $5k savings?
I spent a good portion of it on retail therapy. I went on Zara and Fendi and got bags and other stupid shit.
From March to September, I was just coasting. I was applying for jobs, but nothing was coming. Then it was like my eyes opened. How was I comfortable with how things were going? I started fasting in October because God just had to do something.
Did He?
Yes! Ironically, I got a gig on the third day of October: $20/hour, 15 hours weekly, which was $1k/month. That lasted a month. Then, in December, I got another $600/month gig — a full-time project coordinator role at a pharmaceutical company.
At this point, the federal government had started restricting dollar payments, so I had to get a middle-man app. This delayed my payment for about two months, but I started receiving it again in February.
It helped me become more intentional with my spending. I spent only $300, most of which I sent to my dad and siblings since my dad no longer had an income. The remaining, I threw in another account so I wouldn’t even think of it. I didn’t even recognise the road to Shein again.
Love it for you
In May 2024, I landed another project coordinator role that pays $500/week. My other full-time gig also increased to $1200/month. So, both jobs now bring me $3k/month after deductions.
Let me not lie; I returned to Shein and Zara after getting my first pay in June.
Girllll
I mean, I had more income. So, I spent about $1k on clothes, shoes, bags, skincare and perfume. I felt I hadn’t spoiled myself in a while, so I did that to reward myself for all the hard work.
But I’m more structured with savings now. The $2k from my second job goes into a different account I haven’t touched yet. Then, from the remaining $1k, I invest $200 in Bamboo stocks and $100 in a savings app for gold. I think gold is a good investment option, so I’m saving for a good piece.
I also budget ₦100k monthly for impulse purchases, such as expensive perfumes.
What do these expenses look like in a typical month?
My tithe is essentially what I give to people. It goes to my dad (my mum is late now), siblings and anyone I want to support that month.
You’ve had an interesting financial journey. How has that shaped your thinking about money?
I’ve realised that I can always make money. Money comes and goes, but I can always come back from ground zero. I just think I can be a lazy person. There’s a lot I’m good at, but it feels like a lot of effort to actually go out and be in people’s faces.
However, I still want more financially. I’m brainstorming ways to move my income to $20k/month and actively considering cybersecurity.
Why cybersecurity?
I heard it pays a lot of money. Actually, I listened to a TEDx talk that encouraged me to try something difficult, so I guess this is me trying it. I’m honestly not sure if I’m cut out to do computer stuff, but I guess I won’t know until I try.
How would you describe your relationship with money?
I don’t have a money management atom in my body. I live within my means, but my thing is that I must spend all my means until it finishes, which is a bad thing. It’s just not affecting my finances because I earn more now. However, I’m now learning to act like the grown-ass woman I am and be a lot more responsible.
Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?
A car should cost me ₦15m – ₦20m, but I can’t afford it right now. I don’t want to pack all my savings to get a car. I also don’t like saving for things I want. I should be able to just take money and buy what I want.
Do you have any financial regrets?
I try not to live a life of regrets. I used to feel bad about my late start — starting school when my mates had graduated and every other setback I’ve experienced — but I’ve realised that the trajectory of my life has gone exactly how God planned it. Could I have made better choices? Yeah. Maybe I should’ve read harder for that Physics.
But at the end of the day, everyone is looking for financial freedom, and I’m grateful I’m not doing badly.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1 – 10?
7. Despite the inflation, I’m at the most financially comfortable I’ve ever been. It’s not a 10 because I’m still chasing that $20k so I can live a proper baby girl lifestyle and travel whenever I want.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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 the first money conversation you both had?
Michelle: Shortly after we started dating in October 2021, I took ₦14k out of the ₦60k I had saved up to replace my phone to buy him a surprise gift for his coming birthday. He knew I was saving for a phone and would have objected to my plan. Honestly, it wasn’t exactly a conversation. I used my strong head to decide on my own.
LOL. What was the surprise?
Michelle: I wanted to send him a pair of sneakers since we’re quite a distance apart. He lives in Aba, while I live in Keffi. But I had issues finding vendors, so I told him to find me one.
JC: I found a vendor, and she paid for it. That was the first birthday gift I ever received from anyone.
That’s sweet. You guys were long-distance right from the start?
Michelle: Yes. We met on a mutual friend’s Facebook group. JC and I were both admins of the group, and we progressed from exchanging banter on the timeline to talking every day. We’ve been talking every day since.
What’s navigating a long-distance relationship like?
JC: To anyone reading this: Don’t do it. Sometimes you just want to be with your person, but they’re several miles away. We have to rely on video calls, emails and virtual dates to keep the romance going. It’s tough.
Michelle: We’ve only seen each other physically twice since we started dating. The last time was in 2023. I visited, and we stayed together for about two months before I returned home to Nasarawa.
Who pays for these trips?
JC: We both do. When she visited for the first time in 2022, I was running a part-time university program which was taking the little money I had. We were both terribly broke, but she insisted on coming. She’s really the type to sacrifice everything she has — or doesn’t have — for me. So, we just ended up gathering what we had to cover the roughly ₦30k travel cost.
What about dates during these physical visits? Do you both pay for it too?
Michelle: We always have big plans about where to go when I visit. But we’re both introverted, so we end up not going anywhere. Plus, we hardly see each other, so spending all the available time together makes sense.
JC: Most of the time, we cook and have indoor dates. I’m the host, so I take up the cost for those. But we make up for our few dates by celebrating our anniversary every month.
How does that work?
Michelle: Sometimes, we exchange love letters and emails. At other times, we do virtual dates. We choose a meal and cook it on both our ends. Then we do a video call and chat about the past month. He once published a chapbook of 30 poems and dedicated it to me. It was so romantic. We’re just spontaneous like that.
I’m curious. Is it work keeping you both in your respective cities?
JC: Kinda. I moved here in 2017 to work as a graphic designer at a pharmaceutical company, but I quit in September 2023 because I kept getting owed salaries — which was just ₦50k/month. When they didn’t owe me, they’d deduct up to half of it for flimsy reasons.
I now offer freelance graphic and web design plus writing services. I have two consistent clients and a few occasional ones, bringing an average of ₦180k – ₦350k in a good month.
It’s not my first time in Aba, though. I first moved here when I was 10 years old. My family was forced to leave Kano in 2001— run is the correct word here — because of increased religious violence that became widespread following the infamous Reinhard Bonnke-Kano crisis of 1991. I’d experienced violent riots before and even lost friends to them, but I think another one happened in 2001, and my pastor dad decided enough was enough.
Oh my. What was it like starting afresh?
JC: Quite traumatic. We left with no properties and stayed in our family house in the village for seven months to figure things out. Fortunately, my mum worked in NIPOST, so she resumed work after her formal transfer request to a city nearby was approved. My dad also got transferred to a branch of the church there. We soon became financially stable and got our own place.
I’m glad there was a happy ending. How about you, Michelle?
Michelle: I’m a freelance writer, but I’ve been living in Nasarawa since 2016. Actually, let me start from the top. I lost my dad at five years old, and this affected the family’s finances. My mum was going to hold it down, though. She was a big-time seamstress in Lagos and had a huge foodstuff store, but she died nine months after my dad.
I’m terribly sorry to hear that
Michelle: Thank you. After her death, my siblings and I were passed around different relatives’ homes till I travelled to Zaria to write post-UTME in 2016.
It turned out that I had the wrong information and had travelled far ahead of the exam. So, I decided to stay with my elder brother who lived in Nasarawa with a relative in the meantime.
My brother had a sickle cell crisis shortly after I arrived, and I picked up a ₦6k/month restaurant waitressing job so I could care for him. I didn’t even write the post-UTME because the university eventually used JAMB and WAEC grades to decide the cut-off aggregate.
When I got the admission, I couldn’t go because I’d used all my money to take care of my brother. I tried JAMB again a couple of times, but my brother’s health problems always came up, and I’d have to pause the process. He eventually passed away in 2018.
Damn. I’m so sorry
Michelle: I should’ve given an “emotional story ahead” warning. After his death, I did several things for money. I was once a sales girl for ₦5k/month, then I worked at a cyber cafe serving chicken and chips. I learnt how to use a computer there. Then I had stints as a receptionist, admin officer and front desk officer. My town is pretty underdeveloped, so there’s nothing here.
I got my first real job in 2019. I started working as a secretary/paralegal in a law firm for ₦10k/month. In 2021, I moved to another law firm in Abuja for ₦30k/month in the same role. It was the same year I discovered I could get paid to write, and I started getting small gigs writing guides for a software product blog. That brought in an average of ₦100k extra monthly.
In December 2022, I took a risk and quit my law firm job to start my freelance business when the stress of moving from Nasarawa to Abuja every week became too much. I’ve worked freelance since.
How has that been?
Michelle: Really tough. I feel like I should’ve found my footing in the freelancing world before I left my 9-5. Right now, I’d say my income is zero. I haven’t had a constant gig in about seven months.
You’re both freelancers with somewhat unstable incomes. How do you manage bad financial periods?
Michelle: We don’t have bad financial periods at the same time, so we come through for each other. There’s no month that goes by that we don’t send each other money. I haven’t had a steady income in a while, but whenever I get anything from favours or random gigs, I send a token with a narration like, “I’m grateful that I’m able to love you with my money”. I get a sense of fulfilment from it.
Is there an average amount for this per month?
JC: No month is the same, really. It depends on how the month goes. I don’t even keep records. However, our bank did something like a 2023 summary of who you send money to the most, and we were each other’s.
Love to see it
Michelle: JC, I’ve been thinking we need to budget an amount every month for each other. Of course, we can go higher or lower depending on how much money comes in that month. But it’d also help us keep our expenses in check.
JC: Sounds good to me.
What does the future look like for you both? Say, the next five years?
Michelle & JC: Oh, we’ll definitely be married.
Michelle: I feel like our financial future is bright. I want to get into data analysis, and I’m currently taking Udemy courses. So, in the next five years, I should be working remotely full-time and contributing more to our finances. We’d have upped our game financially by that time.
Have you both thought about how money will work in your home? How will the bills be managed?
JC: We haven’t discussed this, but sharing responsibilities, depending on who has money at the time, has always worked for us, so we may continue that way.
Michelle: There will definitely be more structure to how we plan our expenses. Like if we’ll need to save for our kids, or how much goes into taking care of the home. I think the major change will be creating a joint account. I’m the lavish spender in the relationship — I mostly spend on gifts — and a joint account will help keep my spending in check. We actually tried to open a joint account in 2023, but it didn’t work because JC had BVN issues.
Psst! Have you seen our Valentine Special yet? We brought back three couples – one now with kids, one now married and the last, still best friends – to share how their relationships have evolved in the last five years. Watch the first episode below:
How was the joint account supposed to work?
Michelle: The plan was to send whatever we made there, and the goal was to use it to monitor our spending. He was still working his 9-5, and transportation was taking a huge chunk of his money, which bothered him. He wanted to clearly track how the money was spent. Plus, I mentioned I tend to overspend, so we thought it’d be better if he was the only signatory to the account. That way, I’d think twice before asking for money to buy something unimportant.
JC: So before anyone withdrew money, we’d have to discuss and agree on why that particular expense is necessary. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, but it’s still something we intend to do when we get married so we can use it to handle bills together.
When you eventually do, would it still be a “send everything to the account” arrangement?
Michelle: I think it’ll depend ultimately on our earning power. For instance, if this person earns more, they contribute more and vice versa.
JC: Also, I started learning about finance intelligence in September 2023 from one of the companies I freelance for. It’s the 50-30-20 method, where you spend 50% of your income on personal needs, 30% on savings and 20% on investment. I’ve been trying the savings and investment bit with a savings app, and I think it’s a good blueprint for how we’ll likely plan our joint expenses when the time comes.
How would you describe each other’s relationship with money?
JC: She already confessed hers. She’s a lavish spender. It’s not that she spends on herself; she’s just generous to a fault. She always goes out of her way to do things for people who don’t even value her.
Michelle: Because the Scriptures say don’t pay evil for evil!
I’m dying
JC: She’s very accountable, though. She keeps track of every expense and shares them, no matter how excessive it is. I struggle with that degree of attention to detail, and I really admire that in her.
Michelle: JC thinks twice before spending money. He evaluates everything; Is this important right now? Can we get a cheaper alternative? I’m not like that. Once a need arises and there’s money, I spend it on the spot before thinking of how I could have gone at it in a better way.
Have these differences ever caused a fight, though?
Michelle: Ironically, we had a slight disagreement about money earlier today.
Do share
Michelle: You know how I mentioned I haven’t really had an income for a while? Well, I still get random money from my friends and siblings occasionally. As a Christian, I’m quite big on tithing. I’ve tithed since I was a child.
So, recently someone sent me ₦20k, and JC knew about it. The plan was for me to take some time away from home and travel to spend some time with my big sister in Abuja. But this past Sunday, I used most of it to pay tithe — I accumulate my tithe and pay when it’s gotten to a tangible amount — and announced to him today that I no longer had money to travel. He was like, “I thought it’s money you earn you pay tithe with, and not money you’re given?”
Haha. I see his point
Michelle: It wasn’t a big issue, though. We talked through it, and he understood why I did it. I’ve tithed for years. It’s not just something I can just stop.
We’re gradually embracing the fact that we’re different people. So even though we don’t always have the same attitudes to money, we know to talk through the faults we notice and accept that our differences complement us.
Do you both plan to shorten the distance between you soon?
JC: We plan to move together to a new state in the second half of 2024.
Have you thought about how much it’d cost?
JC: With how the Nigerian economy is going, it’s difficult to be decisive on a budget. But we started a joint savings plan on a savings app this January so we can have something saved up when we’re ready. We didn’t set a specific amount to save monthly, though.
Michelle: He has a more stable income and will probably move first to prepare for me to join him at the end of the year. Hopefully, my income will be better by then too. But we have to bridge the gap somehow this year. We both can’t deal with the distance again. This year is our year.
Amen to that. How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
Michelle: 2. And that is me being kind to myself. It should be below zero. Not having an income in this economy is crazy. JC: 5. My finances improved this year, which I’m grateful for. I’m looking to lock in two more consistent clients soon, and that could increase my income significantly. The future is bright.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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?
My dad left our family — my mum and younger sibling — when I was 11, and I remember a lot of anger on my mum’s part. Figuring out how to provide for us on her civil servant’s salary was a lot for her. Even when my dad was around, he wasn’t the provider. So, there was no love and money at home, and she took the frustrations out on me and my sibling. There was one time she just came home and slapped me for no reason after I opened the door for her.
Ah
It was a toxic environment. There was a period where she called me an idiot almost every day without cause. Whenever a visitor was around, she’d make sure to publicly humiliate and insult me or find something to accuse me of. She barely talked to me unless she wanted to give me a chore.
Escaping her became part of my prayer points. It’s why I started hustling for money the moment I entered the university in 2008. My allowance was ₦2,500/week, but I wanted to reduce my dependence on my mum, so I set up a phone call business.
How does one set up a phone call business?
I just needed my phone and airtime. I charged ₦20 for calls between one second and one minute. The price doubled based on how long the call went, and I used what I made to buy airtime. Combining business with school was tough for profitability because I only had time to work in the evenings. I realised I wasn’t making anything after some weeks, so I stopped.
Between 2008 and 2011, I did a few other things for money. My major gig was writing exams for GCE and WAEC students.
Tell me more
Tutorial centres wanted their students to pass, so they’d arrange with the parents and invigilators to get people like me to impersonate the student in the exam hall. I was usually paid ₦30k for four major subjects. I regularly got those gigs during exam season.
When I wasn’t writing exams, I was gambling with the little money I had. The only thing on my mind was making money, and sports betting brought me hope that I could make it big one day. I didn’t make it big; in fact, I lost more money than I won. I eventually made my first million, but it wasn’t from gambling.
How did it happen?
I was a fan of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and tried to get on the show three times before I got in. There was a code you had to send to a number in order to get invited, and they invited me after I did it the third time. This was in 2011, and I was in my final year.
I went on the show and walked away with ₦1m, though I didn’t get the money till 2012. They taped the shows months in advance, and winners got paid only after the show aired. I got ₦900k because there was a 10% tax deduction.
When I got the money, I stopped going home and cut off my mum. I was finally independent and didn’t need to endure the toxicity. Plus, she saw me on the show and started billing me. I didn’t want that.
What did you spend the money on then?
I decided to set up a business centre on campus. But first, I wanted to multiply the money. So, I turned to sports betting again. In my mind, I only needed to reduce the risk by reducing the number of bets I made on a single ticket.
This is how sports betting works: You can have several bets on a single ticket to increase the value of your possible winnings. But the challenge with that is, you have a lesser chance of winning. For example, if you predict 10 games, all have to be correct before you win. You can win 9, but one wrong prediction will “cut” the ticket.
Knowing that, I decided I’d have better chances of winning if I reduced the number of games I staked on a ticket and placed bigger bets. I made bets worth ₦30k – ₦50k per ticket. I lost more than I won. But I kept playing, hoping to recover what I’d lost. But every gambler knows that hardly works out.
Oh no. Did you gamble away all the money?
I lost about ₦600k. I did manage to set up a business centre, but it was smaller than I planned. I also couldn’t afford a prime business location.
It cost ₦300k to set up and buy equipment — a computer, printer, photocopier and laminating machine. After that, I had ₦100k left, and then I fell sick. The rest of the money went into treatment.
Sadly, the business centre packed up after three months. The location affected business since it was far from where students frequented, and I was forced to close shop and sell off the equipment. I used the ₦80k I made after selling to just hold body.
I still feel terrible that I gambled away that opportunity, but it helped curb my gambling addiction. You can call me a casual gambler now: I still bet once in a while but with smaller amounts — the highest I go is ₦2k/month, and I only bet during game weekends. I can’t go back to losing more than half a million.
Got it. What did you do after the business packed up?
After I graduated from the university in 2012, I started writing projects for undergraduate and postgraduate students. I charged between ₦30k – ₦50k per project. The business took off quickly, and I regularly got referrals. I was even able to rent a ₦150k/year one-room apartment.
I still do this today, but my services now include conducting academic research and, sometimes, data analysis for my student client base. I started having foreign clients (mostly Nigerians abroad) in 2020 when some of my clients travelled abroad for school and began to call and refer me for their coursework and assignments.
How much do you currently make in an average month?
Between ₦150k – ₦300k/month. However, work is slower at the beginning of the semester. The middle to end of the semester is when things get busy. This only applies to my foreign clients with stable academic calendars, though. Nigeria is a different ball game. ASUU can strike at any time and resume when they want.
So, I depend more on my foreign clients. At least, with them, you’re sure of at least six assignments in a month.
What’s the most difficult thing about your job?
Nigerian lecturers. Too many of them make ridiculous corrections on projects, and there’s no consistency in the quality of work they accept. You can write a project, and one supervisor loves it, but take it to another supervisor, and he says you’ve done rubbish. It’s exhausting. Some of them are just wicked.
Back to your finances. What’s your relationship with money like?
I try to live reasonably within my means and save, but unexpected expenses consistently scatter my plans. Top of that list is hospital bills. I’m a regular customer of malaria and typhoid. I think I just have a poor immune system.
I reconciled with my mum in 2015 — I got tired of staying away — so black tax regularly takes my money too.
I’m also looking to increase my income. I can’t continue with this one source. I recently started taking data science and analysis courses on Udemy, and I hope to land tech opportunities soon.
Let’s break down your monthly expenses
I hardly spend on transportation because I walk to the university, where I use a relaxation centre as a free makeshift office. There’s electricity and a place to sit, so I only need my laptop and data.
Savings only happen in good months when I’m not ill. Most times, I spend it on medication. I currently only have about ₦130k saved up.
Curious. Do you have other plans if a tech career doesn’t work out?
I’m currently doing some research on YouTube and following creators who share the different ways people make money online daily, and I’m honestly open to trying all the options available to me. I intend to diversify my income sources and start earning a significant dollar income. And I hope to do that with content creation. I’m actively planning to start a comedy skit-based YouTube channel in 2024.
Interesting. This came out of nowhere
I think it’ll be an opportunity for me to meet people. I’m not someone who makes friends easily. But if I achieve a level of fame with comedy — which I believe I will — I’ll be able to lead a more exciting life.
Plus, I’ve seen how these people who do skits live. They’re making serious money, and I know I have the right ideas that will get people to subscribe, engage and help me get to my earn-in-dollars goal. I’ve done my research on content distribution, too. I have a website, which I intend to sponsor with Google Ads to generate traffic. I’ll share some of my skit videos via the website and also direct visitors to my YouTube.
Have you considered what you need to start?
I’ll need some creator tools like a microphone and ring light, and I’ll also need to improve my video editing skills. With ₦40k, I should be able to buy the tools I need. I’ll start small and grow from there.
Rooting for you. Is there any other thing you want right now but can’t afford?
A car. ₦3m would get me a decent car, but I don’t have that right now.
Is there anything you wish you could be better at financially?
Knowing the right skills to invest my time in which would be financially beneficial to me in the long run. I think I’m already on the right path, but I want all the knowledge.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1 – 10?
4. I can afford my basic needs, but I need to earn far more to improve my quality of life, and I’m not there yet.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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?
I didn’t pay much attention to money until I graduated from secondary school and got my first job as a teacher. Prior to that, my parents provided everything I needed. It’s not like we were rich. My dad was a civil servant, and my mum was a petty trader, so things were average at best. But they did their best to make sure my siblings and I were comfortable in school. If we didn’t take homemade lunch with us, they’d give us lunch money. So thinking about where money came from wasn’t top of mind until I got that job.
Let’s talk about your first teaching job
I finished secondary school in 2009 and decided to do something while waiting for university admission. So, I got a job teaching primary four students all subjects for ₦4,500/month. My salary was increased to ₦5,500 three months later.
The first thing I did when I started earning a salary was to save up for a Nokia torchlight phone, which cost about ₦10k – ₦11k. Then, my dad took me to the bank to open an account so I could save my money there.
I didn’t save sha. When salary landed, I’d buy clothes and recharge cards for my phone and even my secondary school teachers. Sometimes, I’d give my mum money. I was quite generous because I had no expenses or responsibilities, so I gave it out freely.
I left the job after a year to teach at my former primary school because they were going to pay more.
How much?
₦7,500/month. But I only worked there for one month during summer lessons. The principal didn’t want to hire me when school resumed because he knew I was going to go to uni soon. So, I returned home until uni resumed in November 2010.
Did you do anything for money while in uni?
If you count scholarships, yes. I’d been hearing about them since my first year, but I didn’t pay any attention until my second year. I topped my class and was automatically shortlisted with one other person from my department. I did the assessment and got a full scholarship till my final year.
How much did the scholarship come with?
They paid ₦150k into my account every year. My tuition was only ₦50k, so I had ₦100k to do whatever I wanted. I had to maintain a particular CGPA yearly to remain on the scholarship, though. Another rule was that I couldn’t take another scholarship, but I did anyway.
The second scholarship was from an oil company and was worth ₦100k every year till graduation.
Baller
I only enjoyed the second scholarship twice before I was caught. Actually, I confessed. The people from the first scholarship had come for the usual review, and the person in charge was like, “I heard one of you is on another scholarship”. I think they just said that to scare us, but when they started asking us one by one, I said, “I am”, when it got to my turn.
They made sure I discontinued the other one. I had to write to the oil company asking them to stop the payments.
So, I was left with just ₦150k. After paying my tuition, I’d usually spend the rest carelessly on my girlfriend, food, friends and my parents. I got a laptop too.
At the end of my third year, I got another ₦50k scholarship.
What happened to not taking on more scholarships?
Technically, I didn’t process the scholarship myself. I wrote the exam on behalf of a friend. We agreed to use my name and some of his own details — his year and department — and if I got in, I’d give him some percentage of the money.
I gave him half of the first payment, but I didn’t give him a cut in the subsequent two payments.
Was he okay with that?
He complained, but the money was entering my account directly, and I basically did all the work, so he dropped it. I was now in my fourth year and needed money for my project and other off-campus accommodation expenses, so the extra income came in handy.
Final year came, and the scholarships ended. I failed one of my final exams and had an extra year.
Yikes. So sorry about that
Thanks. I didn’t want to take any risks, so I started going for night classes regularly. That was how I stumbled into a business opportunity. I noticed there were no snack or drink vendors at night in the building we studied in, so I started setting water and snacks on my table whenever I came to read. People would come to buy, and the demand became so high that I stopped reading for my class and focused on the business.
I moved my “stand” to the entrance of the hall. I’d regularly sell ten bags of pure water and several cartons of biscuits in one night. I even had to employ two part-time students to stand at my spot while I moved around to market my goods. I paid my staff in free biscuits and, sometimes, ₦1k per day. I made close to ₦30k daily, but I usually put most of it back into the business.
How long were you at it?
About two years. I started in 2015 and continued even after I sorted the extra year because I was still in school processing my NYSC and project.
By this time, some other people had noticed I was making money and decided to start their own night snacks and water business too. Then the school management became aware. Normally, businesses in school had to register through the authorities, but since I sold at night, they didn’t quickly catch on. I eventually stopped in 2017 because of the school’s wahala.
I really made money within those two years. At one point, I was sponsoring my younger sister at the polytechnic and regularly sending money home to my parents.
What did you do after?
I went for service in 2018 and taught maths and other science subjects at a government school. They didn’t pay an extra allowance, and I had just the NYSC ₦19,800 monthly stipend. So, I started looking for other income opportunities. I first tried after-school tutorial lessons for ₦100 daily, but it didn’t quite take off. I was serving in the north, where students hardly came to school during the normal hours. So, I just made the lessons free as a form of community service.
Six months later, I got a secondary place of assignment from NYSC. It was at a private school in town that paid ₦15k/month, bringing my total income to ₦34,800.
I also decided to try the tutorial business in town — that one worked better. Though, the parents always negotiated payment to the extreme. It was ₦5k per child, but they’d bring two other siblings and say the ₦5k should cover them too. I sha accepted it. I just wanted to make money.
What were your expenses like during this period?
It was mostly feeding and transportation. The school I worked at gave me a two-bedroom apartment, so I wasn’t spending on accommodation.
Remember the students I was giving free lessons? I also paid some of their school fees and bought books and math sets for some of them to encourage them to come to school and keep participating in my class.
Apart from these, I also sent money home and occasionally financially supported my pastor. I didn’t have any savings.
Interesting. What happened after NYSC?
Job applications. There was one that had five interview stages. I passed three and failed the fourth one. I was still in the north and was travelling down to Lagos for each of these interview stages. When it didn’t pull through, I decided to move to Lagos to focus on job hunting. This was late 2019.
But when nothing came after two months, I returned to teaching for ₦15k – ₦20k per month. When COVID lockdown happened in 2020, I used the opportunity to learn copywriting and social media marketing. All the money I made from teaching paid for my digital marketing classes. It was like a new world. I started offering services as a freelancer, even though I did a lot of free work in the beginning. Once in a while, I got social media management and digital marketing gigs and made the odd ₦10k – ₦20k.
In October 2021, I landed my first full-time job as a content writer and social media manager at a real estate company. My salary was ₦40k/month, and I got free accommodation in Ikeja.
I was also freelancing on the side: CV writing, LinkedIn optimisation, personal statements, social media management, and everything else that came. My goal was to save ₦100k per month, and I planned to do that with the side gigs.
How did you manage the side gigs with a full-time job?
My job required me to be online, and I had access to the office Wi-Fi and electricity, so I used the resources to work on my freelance gigs.
I didn’t keep a record of how much I made, but I met the ₦100k/month savings goal a couple of times. Then around the end of 2021, the office headquarters moved to Banana Island. The long commute from Ikeja was so expensive, and I couldn’t keep up, so I resigned in January 2022.
Did you have another job lined up?
I freelanced for a bit, taking up social media management gigs to stay afloat. But in March 2022, I got a digital marketing role at an agribusiness company in Abuja, so I had to move. My salary was ₦100k/month.
This one didn’t come with accommodation, and I initially squatted with a friend. But his place was far from the office, so I started living in the office to save transportation costs. There was always light and data, so I didn’t have to pay for those. It also meant I could save more. With my freelance gigs, I saved ₦150k in some months; other times, I saved ₦100k.
Was there a particular savings goal?
I wanted a new apartment in January 2023, so I was just locking the money — like fixed deposits — in a savings app until the new year.
But my savings plan derailed a bit when I left the job after four months. They could no longer afford to pay me, so they discontinued my contract, and I returned to Lagos.
Back to social media freelancing?
I decided to focus more on CV writing and LinkedIn optimisation training. I realised the demand for social media managers was far lower than the supply. Anyone can wake up and start managing pages for ₦50k. I’d rather train someone in social media management than manage their page.
Going freelance meant my monthly savings had to stop. I was living in a single room that my elder brother left after getting married, and my younger brother came to stay with me, increasing my monthly expenses. The fixed savings I had couldn’t mature faster.
When it matured in January 2023, I got paid ₦500k+, which went into renting and furnishing my one-bedroom apartment. I still freelance full-time, but my income has gotten better. Since January, I’ve been getting more gigs. I resumed my ₦100k monthly savings, and I’m now locking it till next year. My new goal is ₦1m by 2024.
How much do you make from freelancing in an average month?
I’m terrible at keeping track of my income. But I notice an inflow of at least ₦300k/month on my bank app, and I religiously save ₦100k.
You seem to take saving very seriously
If I don’t save, I have no option when I’m in need. It’s my safety net; I don’t have anyone else to run to. I even feel I should be saving more than I currently do. I’m not as prudent with my expenses as I want to be. I plan to take financial courses soon and explore long-term investment options like stocks and real estate.
Can you break down your monthly expenses?
Sometimes, I look at my income inflow on my bank app and wonder where all the money goes. The thing is, when I’m broke, I go on social media and aggressively market my services. When I get clients, and they pay, the money goes to solve any urgent need at that moment. I think that’s why it’s so difficult to track.
Do you ever worry about the unpredictability of freelancing?
All the time. If I see a community management role in a decent company willing to pay ₦350k – ₦400k/month now, I’ll take it.
I’m still actively job-hunting, but recruiters have just been ghosting me. I’ve gone through several interview stages with major companies. After creating three-month content strategy plans or visibility case studies as the final test, they go, “Unfortunately, you’re not qualified”. I’m not even interested in doing any case study again. It’s like free work.
Is there a backup plan in case both freelancing and the job search don’t work?
I’m currently taking a six-month software engineering program I started three weeks ago. A politician sponsored it, so I didn’t have to pay anything. There’s also the possibility of job placement at the end, so that’s my long-term career goal for now. At least, they say tech is where the money is.
Is there anything you wish you could be better at financially?
Definitely financial record-keeping. Maybe I’ll go and withdraw all my money so I can watch it physically leave my hand because, right now, I don’t know exactly how it moves.
How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?
5. I’m earning reasonably well, but it’s not stable. A full-time job would help me plan my finances better, and I’d then use my freelance income to augment it.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
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?
I made my younger brother and I trek home for a week in primary school because I was saving money to buy a football.
Ah. What was his offence?
He was just a victim of my ambition, really.
Our parents gave us ₦20 daily for transportation and an additional ₦20-₦30 for lunch. I can’t recall how much the football was, but the plan was to save in my kolo for a week to raise the money.
I was responsible for my brother, so he couldn’t go home before or without me, hence the trekking. It turned out to be a wasted effort though.
What happened?
On the Thursday of that week, my mum saw us walking home while returning from her shop. Of course, I had to explain, and she was angry I made my brother go through that.
For context, the walking distance between school and home was about an hour and thirty minutes.
She revealed I wouldn’t even find any money in my kolo. It turned out she’d been using it to give her customers change at the shop.
Screaming. Was there money growing up?
There was. My mum was a trader, and my dad owned a petroleum tanker for African Petroleum before it became Forte Oil. He was also an executive in their petroleum tanker drivers association, so he was hardly home during the week. We looked forward to the weekends because he always returned with goodies. But everything changed when I got to SS 1.
How so?
There was a change of management at my dad’s workplace when Forte Oil acquired the company, which brought new rules. For example, they brought new type and model specifications for the tankers, meaning my dad needed to buy a new tanker, but he didn’t because he couldn’t afford it. He also wasn’t part of the association anymore because his tenure ended, and some benefits stopped.
I know all this because he sat us down to explain the situation. Our new financial reality meant I had to leave my school’s boarding facilities, which I’d attended for junior secondary school, for day school in SS one. He still got contracts to transport fuel, but it wasn’t regular anymore.
How did this affect the family’s finances?
It didn’t immediately become obvious that we didn’t have as much money. My dad protected us from it as much as possible. It was only after I failed my JAMB exam in 2013 that I realised we didn’t have much.
What happened?
I scored 166 on the exam, so we explored the A-level route. But when my dad and I inquired about the cost of studying petroleum engineering, they billed us almost ₦600k for the one-year programme. So, the plan changed to attending a polytechnic, though I didn’t like the idea.
I remember my dad saying, “You know this wouldn’t be an issue if things were like they were before,” and I had to be reasonable.
I got into a polytechnic the same year, but I still wanted to go to uni. So, I focused on getting good grades for direct entry. That meant no hustle till I finished ND in 2015.
What was the hustle?
I interned with an electrical company during my IT. The pay was ₦10k/month, but I got paid ₦40k during a two-month period — I was assigned to a special project where I had to work from early morning to late at night.
What were you spending money on?
Mostly on the direct entry application — I had to process transcripts, sort out school clearance, and then buy the forms. I was advised to also apply for HND as a backup plan, but I refused. Guess what?
Direct entry didn’t work out?
It didn’t. I also could no longer apply for HND as the time frame had passed, so I was stuck at home for another year. I’d left the internship because I thought school would work out.
To pass the time, I got a job with a family friend who had a microfinance firm. They collected daily contributions from traders, and I was a marketing officer — a posh name for a money collector.
How much did it pay?
₦15k/month. But my boss — because of her relationship with my family — used to give me random lunch and transport money.
Although I didn’t spend much from my salary, I couldn’t save because I sometimes made mistakes when recording the amount I collected daily. When this happened, I used my money to balance up the difference so there’d be no story.
When it was time to apply for uni again, I took up an additional job at a JAMB tutorial centre where I taught in the mornings. I got paid the odd ₦3k or ₦4k/month for teaching, but the payment wasn’t structured —the centre was new and was owned by someone I considered an area brother. I honestly did it to help myself prepare for JAMB, considering I had to cover the syllabus to teach the students.
You did JAMB again?
I wanted to give myself more options, so I applied for both direct entry and JAMB. I wanted to ignore HND again, but my dad insisted and gave me the money for the form. Thank God he did, because both direct entry and JAMB didn’t work out.
Ah
I dropped my uni dream and faced my HND squarely. Before leaving for school in 2017, the area brother I worked with advised me to do a little bit of everything, so I decided to do anything legally possible to make money.
I started writing and joined a couple of writing communities, where someone introduced me to ghostwriting gigs. He got the clients, and I’d write for him at ₦1 per word. The gigs weren’t regular, but I remember getting two gigs that paid ₦10k and ₦40k at some point. I did that for a semester before I stopped working with the guy. I found out he got paid as much as ₦5/word but only paid me ₦1.
Did you try getting the gigs on your own?
I didn’t have the connections, so I dropped the gigs. I still wrote because I got into campus journalism in 2018. But I didn’t get paid for that.
Interestingly, campus journalism led me to tech.
How did that happen?
In February 2018, someone I exchanged contacts with at a program for journalists posted about a digital skills training for students who were home during the ASUU strike. I was interested in web design, so I paid the ₦6k fee and attended the two-week training, using a friend’s laptop to practise what I learned. A couple of months after the training, I got my first web design gig.
How?
I was part of the press council in school, and I pitched the idea of having a web presence. I charged ₦25k to design and build the website.
Did you get more web design gigs?
The guy I mentioned earlier wanted to bring the training to my school. Let’s call him B — he’ll come up a few more times.
We got closer, and he noticed how committed I was to pushing the startup. So, B made me a campus ambassador, giving me access to learning skills like graphic design, social media management and digital marketing for free.
Also, B regularly referred me for web design gigs for a small cut. A gig could be ₦60k, and I’d pay him ₦10k as a commission. In 2019, I made approximately ₦50k/month from the gigs.
This was enough to get me a ₦53k smartphone when my phone had issues. I also paid my tuition that year. It felt good to be able to do things with my money without having to call home.
But I was still using my friend’s laptop, and when I graduated in November 2019, I realised I no longer had something to work with for the gigs.
Yikes. What did you do?
I had about ₦20k in savings, which couldn’t buy a laptop, so I went back to live with my parents. I got bored after one month, so I worked with a tech consulting company for a month-long unpaid internship as part of an entrepreneurship program. I moved in with a friend who lived closer to the company to save money and to get away from home.
What happened when the internship ended?
I got a reality check. I had no source of income and was broke. I considered returning to work as a marketing officer for my family friend, but B came through.
He brought me on as a tutor at his digital skills training startup, and I started teaching there on the weekends. I taught graphic design, web design, digital marketing and social media management. I got paid ₦4k for each session and roughly ₦32k to teach one class per month. And I taught four classes.
Not bad
With this income, I got a laptop for ₦80k in March 2020 to resume my gig hustle. B introduced me to someone in the U.S who needed a social media and web manager, so I took up the role in addition to my tutoring. That paid ₦50k/month, but it lasted only three months.
Why?
Some personal issues led to a mental breakdown, so I quit both jobs and deactivated my social media. My U.S boss tried to persuade me to take a one-month break and offered to pay for therapy, but I was just really tired of the work. I knew accepting the help would make me indebted to her, and I’d have to return. I didn’t want that.
Sorry you went through that. What did you do next?
After I got better, I borrowed ₦40k from my mum and applied to a program to learn product design. Three months later, B introduced me to someone who wanted to build a mobile application. I got the gig and was paid ₦90k. I remember being so shocked that I could earn so much for a one-time thing. The first thing I did was pay off the debt I owed my mum.
So, you added product design to your hustle
Yes. It was also when product design became more popular in the tech space. B decided to add product design classes to his training, and I handled the class for ₦4k per session as usual. That was all I did for a while because I kept getting rejections on job applications. Both junior product design roles and internships –everywhere rejection.
Omo
In 2021, B reached out and pitched the idea of both of us co-founding a fintech startup. My job was to design and manage the product to save us money, while B provided the finances. It was awkward being a broke co-founder, but it was also an avenue for me to build my portfolio. It helped give me a sense of purpose, too — I was building something.
How did that go?
We’re still trying to get funding, so we’re still at it. But I finally got a ₦250k/month junior product design job in September 2021.
That was after over a year of unemployment
Omo, I felt free. I had to relocate to a new city because it was on-site. Fortunately, I found a friend who’d paid for his apartment before leaving for South Africa. So, I lived rent-free for the five months I worked at that company.
You left?
I got into an eight-month-long, fully-funded tech entrepreneur training program in Ghana. While I could’ve kept my job, I wanted to give the program my full attention.
I was paid a ₦40k (GH₵ 600) monthly stipend, which I didn’t really spend because data, transportation, food and accommodation were already paid for. I sent money home periodically, though.
But after the program, I returned to Nigeria and my eyes cleared.
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Let me guess. No job?
Back to square one. I’d also run out of my savings and had no income for about five months. Luckily, I got a gig in December 2022 to design a product and mobile application. I was supposed to be paid ₦700k but only got ₦500k. The person still owes me, but that money lifted me out of poverty.
LMAO. How did you survive when you were unemployed, though?
I borrowed a lot from my mum and younger brother. So, the first thing I did was clear my debts and used the rest to do fine boy. I also travelled to see my girlfriend — now my wife — because our relationship had become long-distance when I was in Ghana. It was as if I knew I’d be returning to Ghana.
Why did you return?
I’d applied for a job while I was still running the program, and they offered me the job in January 2023. The salary was GH₵ 10,000 — about ₦600k — but I had to be on-site for three months. Of course, I accepted.
I mean, it’s ₦600k
After three months, they agreed to let me work fully remotely, so I returned to Nigeria. I still work there on the same salary, but the exchange rate in the past two months means my salary now moves between ₦725k and ₦820k.
Has your spending increased with your earnings?
Somewhat. I try to be more intentional with my savings now, but the last six months have been capital-intensive. I had to fund my wedding, rent and furnish my apartment, which cost about ₦2.5m in total. 80% of that went into the apartment, though. We had support from family for the wedding.
But now, I only focus on spending on essential things. I don’t do delayed gratification if the item is important because if I don’t buy it now, the price can change tomorrow. I also take emergency savings seriously. Then there’s the regular savings and investments in fintech apps.
What does this look like in a month?
There are other expenses I can’t account for now because they seem intangible, so I’ll just tag them as miscellaneous. My savings and investments portfolio is currently around ₦300k – ₦400k, but now that I’m off capital-intensive projects, I should be able to grow it more. My target is to finish the year with a portfolio of above ₦1million.
How has your view on money changed over the years, coming from almost no income?
Having money gives you confidence and leverage. It can practically solve almost 90% of the issues people have.
It’s good to have money, and it should be spent. I believe that it’s the money that I spend that’s truly mine. So, I don’t usually have money lying around. Before the money comes in, I already have what I want to use it for.
How are you thinking of long-term career plans?
Honestly, anything that’s paying me handsomely. I like to say I can do anything legal to make money. Product design is still paying me at the moment, so I’m still here. I’m also considering DevOps engineering and have started taking courses. If it pays me more than product design, I’ll switch to it. I’m just pursuing financial stability.
What does financial stability look like to you?
At least, ₦1m – 1.5m/monthly. Or preferably in dollars. $2k/month isn’t bad.
How happy are you financially? The scale is 1-10
4. I’m not in debt, but I’m not liquid enough. I want to get to the point where I have heavy investments and can also become unbelievably liquid.
If you’re interested in talking about your Naira Life story, this is a good place to start.
The topic of how young Nigerians navigate romantic relationships with their earnings is a minefield of hot takes. In Love Currency, we get into what relationships across income brackets look like in different Nigerian cities.
Mason* (24) and Kelly *(24) are a young couple trying to make money off the thing they love — music. In this week’s Love Currency, Mason shares how they met during a music business course, curating music playlists for each other and their plan to take over the music industry together.
What’s your love language?
It’s always been quality time. But having my girlfriend send me constant business opportunities has made me realise it’s also acts of service.
What type of opportunities?
She’s a music marketing personnel, so she usually takes me to events where I can network, and whenever she gets a talent to manage, she tries to bring me on board for the PR.
Oshey, power couple. How did you two meet?
I saw her speak at a friend’s event in 2021 and liked her immediately. Then, we met during an online music business course in September 2022. I needed help with an assignment, and she offered to help. From there, we started talking, but I tried to keep the relationship professional even though I already liked her.
Why?
We had met with work so I didn’t want to cross the line. But then she found me on Twitter. I had tweeted asking who was interested in reading something I’d written, and she replied. I sent it to her, and she loved it. She said it resonated with her.
What was it about?
It was a piece about depression. While everyone else had interpreted it as a cry for help, she understood that it was just for documentation.
I recently started giving her handwritten notes because she seems to prefer them. Whenever she isn’t feeling good, I write something for her to wake up to — words of affirmation. That’s her love language.
Aww. How did you go from friends to dating?
We had our graduation party at a hotel in December 2022. A group of us had gone to the beach from the event, and when we returned to the hotel, we decided to take a stroll. That was when she kissed me. We started dating in January 2023.
How did you celebrate Valentine’s Day 2023?
She had work that day, so we didn’t see till the following weekend when we went to the beach.
What about gifts?
She made me a playlist. We make playlists for each other depending on the other person’s mood and what we’re trying to say. I also got her a necklace and earrings that cost less than ₦3k, but she liked them.
How often do you go out?
She’s more social, so she’s always trying to drag me outside to meet people and network. I’m more reserved, so most of our outings are to the beach, alone or with our friends.
How much does this cost?
Anything from ₦10k – ₦20k, and either of us pays at different times. Sometimes, one person pays for transport while the other pays for tickets. We don’t really pay attention to these things. We almost had to fight before she finally sent me her account number because I wanted to repay her for the money she’d spent on one of our outings.
What’s the most you’ve spent on an outing?
I spent about ₦60k during a staycation one time. The plan was to stay at the hotel for two days, but we ended up staying for five. The room cost between ₦8k – ₦9k, but we spent a lot of money on The Place food. There were days when we spent ₦10k on food, but she chipped in sometimes.
Do you have conversations about money?
Yes, we do. We’re in the same industry, so sometimes, I help revise her marketing plan. She also helps me ensures I charge enough. She’s given me a target to start charging in dollars by the end of 2023.
Wawu. Do you know how much she earns though?
Not really. I have an idea, but I never bother to ask because I don’t think it’s important. I’m okay if she earns more than me because I know she’ll flex me with the money.
What do you mean?
She knows I like eating, so she’s always surprising me with food. I know she’s planning something for my birthday because she recently tweeted how a perfume she wanted to get was over ₦100k. I’ve told her she doesn’t have to do anything but she’s stubborn. That’s how she convinced me to start posting on TikTok. I started my fitness business towards the end of 2022, but I didn’t start creating content around it for TikTok until we started dating and she convinced me to. Now, I use it to redirect more people to my Instagram page where most of my business comes from.
Do you have a financial safety net?
Not right now. I’m currently using my savings to rent a self-con on the mainland, which costs ₦250k per year.
Not bad. If you see ₦400k now, how would you spend it?
I’d buy food so I can see road well. Then, I’d send my mother ₦50k, keep ₦100k for flex, give ₦50k to my babe and save ₦200k. I’m actually good at saving, but when you don’t make enough money, you have to save your life first.
FR
I’m currently searching for job at a record label that’d guarantee regular income.
What’s your ideal financial future as a couple?
I want to be one of the top PR professionals in the music industry, start my own brand, own a gym, maybe even try out song writing. But I can’t put a price to any of that.
What of Kelly?
She just launched her entertainment business recently. She’d want it to be one of the best in the world.
Does this mean you’d be competitors?
Not at all. If anything, we’d be partners. She’d get the clients, and I’d work on the PR plan for them, or I’d refer talents to her team.
Interested in talking about how money moves in your relationship? If yes, click here
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You may have heard there’s money in writing, and of course, you want to know if there’s any truth to it. Let me start by saying, yes, it’s true!
So, how do you start? How do you monetise your writing skill? What are the best sites for beginners? These are the question this article will answer.
If you’re a beginner, look online
For someone just starting out as a freelance writer, you may not have a steady network of jobs and opportunities, so your best bet is to take advantage of legitimate sites that allow you to offer your service in exchange for a fee.
Which freelance websites are great for beginners?
1. Writing gig websites
When many people think of freelance writing, they automatically think of short writing gigs in exchange for money. Many sites allow writers to offer this service, and some of them require a paid subscription to access the opportunities.
But what if you’re not ready to drop coins when you’ve not even started earning?
Here are some free sites where you can secure writing gigs:
iWriter
This is a great site for beginners. To start, you’ll have to fill out a form and complete two 250-word writer prompts. Your results will determine your level and the writing jobs you can choose from. The higher you go as a writer, the more money you’ll make.
Upwork
This is arguably the most popular site for freelancers that has an excellent market for writers. It’s set up to allow bids for both short-term and long-term jobs. Another great thing about Upwork is that the site keeps a record of all work done by freelancers, which helps build your reputation.
BloggingPro
This site regularly offers blogging and freelance writing gigs. It’s basically a job board where freelancers can search for gigs. You may need some writing samples to prove you know your onions.
Freelance writers also have the opportunity to submit stories, articles and write-ups to certain websites and get paid. Usually, all the freelancer needs to do is study the submission guidelines carefully, pitch articles, and then, wait for feedback. If the pitch is accepted, they submit their writings and get paid.
Most freelance websites offer varying rates for writing jobs depending on the nature of the article requested, the writer’s skill, negotiation ability and the party seeking the service.
Ultimately, consistency is critical for a beginner hoping to cash out through freelance writing. Not only will it build your reputation, but the more jobs you do, the better you get at it. Of course, the money wouldn’t hurt as well. Cha-ching!
Note: While these are trusted sites for freelance writers, prospective users are advised to do due diligence when interacting with clients and other users on the sites.
