I have always opined that with money, it's not how much one has, it's not about how much that is being earned, but basically, it's about how well the money earned is being utilized.
I have also held the opinion that the value of money is in the things it can purchase otherwise, it's just paper or metal.
I still hold on tightly to these opinions but with the recent turn of events in my country, it's almost impossible to state emphatically how much one will need to live comfortably. With the income inequality gap further widening, the classes of people in Nigeria are almost grouped in two categories now, the rich and the poor with the middle class almost going extinct.
It's no news that the income level and purchasing power of most Nigerians have been affected drastically, so much so that we now have some classes of the rich falling back to the middle class. Thus, preserving the middle class from going extinct.
It should be worthy to note that in Nigeria currently, it's all about survival and no one is spared.... Well, unless of course you are in the political class, where all of your expenses are being catered for with public funds.
In the past, the current categories of people preserving the middle class now, were once considered rich, driving and alternating between different cars. Today, we see many of them sitting with us in public transport because they can no longer afford the cost of petrol.
For me, coping in this current harsh economic situation, like before, I have since learned to invest my money on basic necessities. Draw up a scale of preference and follow it up diligently.
On an average, I spend over three hundred thousand Naira monthly for feeding, transportation, utility bills and other miscellaneous necessities.
How much is my monthly salary and earnings? Way less than what I spend monthly, which is why I believe my mom whenever she says the fact that we spend more than we earn is a miracle.
Truly, if I sit to calculate my monthly expenses, I often wonder how I pull it off. Sometimes, I might raise an alarm that I have misplaced my money or I have been cheated on some of my purchas. This usually happens when the money I had budgeted for a certain period gets exhausted quicker than expected.
After throwing tantrums, I will then settle for my mommy's advice, which is to calculate my expenditures. Only for me to realise that no money was misplaced and I haven't been cheated because I spent them all.
One time, a friend abroad asked me how I'm able to navigate savings and then effectively take care of expenditures... My response was always laughter because like we say in Nigeria, "na who dey alive dey save" meaning, life is all about survival and savings is secondary.
Then like the Inleo prompt for day 15, he asked me how much will be enough to cater for my expenses and still get something reasonable out of the sum for savings.
Kindly note that it was January this year that he made the above inquiry from me and that's like 9 months ago, when things were not this messed up for the nation financially. At the time, I had told him a hundred and fifty thousand Naira but today, I would be needing at least half a million Naira monthly to sort all that out.
You see the drastic change in income in just a space of 8 months? Here is a country that I would always take pride in bragging right that life in Nigeria was cheap and we have one of the lowest standards of living... Sadly, it's no longer so.
It's even more annoying now when inflation continues to bite harder and the level of income remains the same, no salary increment and no incentives. So you see? Our survival like my mom said, is indeed a miracle.
All said and done, earning money is not an easy task. Sometimes, one gets to have sleepless nights, no rest, always on the lookout for new innovative solutions, trying to create value which in the end transcends to money. But once we earn these sums, something that took us months, days or several hours to earn, gets expended in minutes.
Currently, just one source of income is no longer sufficient for a family household. Thus, in order to meet up and balance the harsh economic effect on survival, one needs to have another income stream.
Above is my response to the Inleo prompt day 15. You can participate HERE.
PS
Yesterday was LPUD and I powered up 50leos. For now I do not have a set goal but let's see how far I can go. At the moment I currently have 173leos.
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