#NairaLife: He’s Hit Most of His Financial Goals but Is Still Unhappy

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 grew up in a rural town, and when I was around 6 or 7, I sold “ngwo ngwo” (bush meat pepper soup). My older siblings hunted the animals and cooked pepper soup with the meat. When this was done, the little kids hawked the bowls of soup in the neighbourhood.

I sold a bowl of pepper soup for between ₦100 – ₦200, and my cut for the whole thing was ₦5. This was around 2000, so ₦5 was a big deal. I’d take my money to school and buy akara and something we called kankara, a type of sweetened ice block. I felt like I’d arrived.

Haha. What was the financial situation at home?

My dad had four wives and 19 children on his little farming income. We didn’t have money, but I didn’t notice. I lived in the village, and everyone walked 10 – 15 kilometres to the local school. 

I didn’t think about money until I left the village after completing primary school. I was ill, so my parents sent me to my uncle’s in the city for proper treatment. I stayed back after I recovered and attended secondary school there. 

In secondary school, I realised what having money looked like. In my village, you were rich if your parents had a bicycle. But I saw people driving cars in the city. 

I also made actual money for the first time in SS 1. 

How did that happen?

My uncle was a building engineer. From him, I learned there’s something called sandfilling when building new houses. It’s basically a process to level the floor in preparation for tiling or any other floor finishing. 

So, my uncle asked me to do the sand filling for one of his building projects. It took me a week because I worked in the evenings after school. I was paid ₦6k for the work, and it was so exciting to hold money I earned.

The next time I worked for money was in 2016, during my fourth year at university. Before then, I survived on the ₦10k/month allowance my older brother sent. 

The chance to make money came during my six-month internship at an Internet Service Provider (ISP). I worked as a support engineer, visiting customers’ houses to fix their internet.

Was it a paid internship?

Yes. The company paid IT students ₦15k/month, but I often made double that amount from tips. 

The tips came because the ISP delayed sending support staff to customers’ homes to fix their internet. So, the customers preferred to give support staff like me tips so they could call me directly next time. Other times, they just gave me money to appreciate my help.

I made a lot of money during my IT. My transportation expenses and a few personal needs were my only responsibilities, so I mostly saved my salary. At the end of the IT period, I’d saved enough to spend ₦65k on a laptop.

After my final exams in 2017, I returned to the company I interned at while I waited for NYSC. They paid ₦20k/month this time, but tips took my earnings to ₦50k. I planned to stay for a few months, but I failed two courses and had to rewrite them. I eventually spent two years at the ISP before I got called up for NYSC, but my salary never changed. I still feel like I wasted my time at that company.

Why?

I could’ve used that time to learn a tech skill. Instead, I was just there, doing the same work every day and relying on tips. By the time I left in 2019, it had begun to feel monotonous.

My NYSC Place of Primary Assignment was an IT solutions firm. My role was similar to what I did at the ISP: Technical support engineer, but they paid ₦40k/month. NYSC also paid the ₦19800 monthly stipend (which increased to ₦33k towards the end of service year). I felt like I was in a really good place with my finances. Even better, I didn’t have to spend much on transportation because I had access to another company’s staff bus — both companies were in the same office building. I saved the full ₦40k from my employer and lived comfortably on ₦19800.

Unfortunately, that only lasted about six months. COVID happened. The company stopped paying corps members and asked us to stop coming to work. I used my free time to take a couple of free cloud computing courses on Udemy and Coursera to upskill. It paid off; I got a technical support role with a cloud service provider just after I completed NYSC in August 2020.

Nice. How much did it pay?

₦93k/month. It was a decent jump from ₦40k, but I wish I was able to negotiate more. My employer knew I was fresh out of NYSC and didn’t have much choice. They asked how much I earned during NYSC and just slapped ₦30k on it.

I was there for almost three years, and they only increased my salary to ₦128k in the last year. I still didn’t have many responsibilities, but the salary wasn’t enough. My office was in an affluent area, and I constantly watched people living their best lives from a distance. I wasn’t happy at all.

I decided I was going to find a remote job with an international organisation. My job at the cloud service provider had opened my eyes to the reality that I could earn more working remotely, so that became my new goal. 

I applied to over 200 jobs in 2022, and the rejections came in just as frequently. I often got as many as 10 rejection emails in one day. One time, I used three days to complete a job application, only to get a rejection within three hours of submitting it.

Yikes. That must’ve been tough

It was frustrating. The few interviews I landed said they didn’t hire people from my “region” but would be happy to continue if I moved to the US. With which money?

I finally got a break in May 2023 through Upwork. My employer saw my LinkedIn profile and reached out. I did the interview and landed the role of technical support engineer. I work with the same client on the platform today.

My pay depends on the particular task or project I work on, and it isn’t fixed. Some tasks pay more than others. When I first got the job, I completed a three-day task and made about $160 — ₦135k after conversion. That was more than I made for a whole month at my 9-5 job, so I was happy to quit the job and focus on freelancing. 

What’s your income like these days?

On average, I’m sure of at least $1100/month — which is about ₦1.8m now. Sometimes, it fluctuates between $700 and $1900, depending on the nature of tasks I work on. 

Your income has grown so much over the years. How does that make you feel?

I’m financially happy, but I thought I’d be happier once I started making money. With each pay increase, I’ve noticed a difference between financial and life happiness. I don’t know if that makes sense.

I probably need to talk to a therapist. I think I’ve always tied happiness to hitting a particular goal. When I was in uni, I thought I’d be happy once I sorted my spillover courses. Later, I thought I’d be happy when I got a job. For the longest time, I thought the final boss of happiness was making enough money to meet my needs. 

But I’m here now, and something is still missing. I now know it’s possible to have money and still be unhappy. I’m looking for what happiness truly feels like beyond money. I hope to find it soon.

Fingers crossed. What kind of life does your salary afford you?

I’m not a high-standard person, so it’s easy to live below my means. I still live with my brother, and he buys all the food.

One good thing about having money is I no longer have to do so many calculations to make one decision. Before, if I visited a supermarket, I’d have a calculator out to do the math for every item I picked. I also hardly visited my friends because I didn’t have transport money. Now, I can pick items without looking at prices and visiting anyone I want. I’m not struggling.

I have a challenge with financial management, though. I spend a lot on black tax, and it’s not because anyone is billing me. I just want to make my family’s lives easier. I’m always giving or loaning money to one nephew, cousin or sibling, and I don’t ask for the money back. 

Can you break down what your typical monthly expenses look like?

I don’t give my parents so much because my older siblings give them money. I also send them airtime randomly.

What does your portfolio look like right now?

I have $12k in savings. It should be more, but I got a piece of land in my hometown for ₦4m in 2024. The land has an uncompleted building on it, so I plan to complete it and put it out for rent. It’ll cost me about ₦10m to finish the building project, so I’ll just do it gradually.

I also want to try investments this year. I plan to learn more about mutual funds and cryptocurrency and invest about half of my savings there. I’ll also explore leaving the rest of my savings with a fintech instead of a regular bank so I can at least gain interest.

Is there an ideal amount you think you should be earning?

At least $2k/month. I’m on the right track to hit that number, but I’m also learning product management to open up a potential side income source and build a skill I could use to relocate. I know freelance roles aren’t permanent, so I’m also on the lookout for remote 9-5 roles with international companies.

Is there anything you want right now but can’t afford?

Nothing really. I’d have said a car, but it’s not a need because I don’t go out. So, yeah, I can afford everything I need.

That’s such a flex. How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

8. It’d have been a 9 if my job was a full-time, permanent one and my income was fixed.

Find all the past Naira Life stories here.