#NairaLife: This Banker Spent Years in a Cycle of Bad Money Decisions. Now, She’s Starting Over

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.

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What’s your earliest memory of money?

Up until 2011, money was just a thing that existed to buy whatever we wanted. My siblings and I grew up sheltered. Nobody counted the spoons of milk in your tea. We took family trips; our first international trip was in 2009, followed by another in 2011. Even when we didn’t travel, my parents would buy things from the US and the UK and bring them down.

My dad bought two brand-new cars around that period, one for my mum and a bigger one for the family. We moved from a two-bedroom flat to our own three-bedroom bungalow with a compound.

Then, around 2011 or 2012, everything started going downhill.

What happened?

I was 13 and in secondary school. Suddenly, I noticed our school fees started being delayed. I went from never knowing people could be sent out of school for fees to almost missing the final grace periods before midterms.

My dad knew the principal, so he’d tell my siblings and me to “Go and meet the principal, I’ve already spoken to him.” I remember the principal used to have this exasperated expression on his face like, “These people have come again.”

When I graduated from secondary school in 2014 at 16, my dad had to pull my two younger sisters out of the school and put them in a more affordable one. That was when I realised we seemed to be having a problem with money in the family.

Did you ever find out what caused the sudden shift?

As I got older, I learned that my dad was a civil servant in a paramilitary agency. Around 2009, he had been posted to a state where the governor was really into what they were doing, so they were getting grants and funding from international organisations. Money was flowing. In fact, my mum said he used to leave ₦10k in his pockets and send the clothes to the dry cleaner. Imagine ₦10k in 2009.

My mum begged him to invest in a particular piece of property back then, but he felt like, “God has favoured us, the money will keep coming in.” Then, around 2011, he was framed at work and put under investigation.

He was at home for two years while that process was going on. My mum tried her hand at several small businesses during this period. By the time my dad was cleared and resumed work, he had accumulated so much debt that our family never recovered.

How did that experience shape your view on money?

I developed this thing where I did not like talking about money. Even to this day, I do not like hearing about financial troubles. I don’t like that statement, “I don’t have money.”

Going from getting things I didn’t even ask for to asking for things I actually need, only to hear “no money,” did something to my head. I’d rather not ask for anything if I know there’s a chance you won’t give to me.

It also gave me this philosophy: at some point in every person’s life, they will “touch money.” For somebody, it might be ₦20 million; for another, it’s ₦200 million. What you do at that moment determines your financial future forever.

When was the first time you earned your own money?

In university. I got into a federal university in November 2015 after waiting a year because my parents couldn’t afford the private university I was initially admitted to. Throughout my four years, my monthly allowance was ₦15k. For the life of me, I don’t know how I managed to survive on that.

I did not like calling home for money because I didn’t know what I would hear. So I just made do. I wasn’t an extravagant person. I wore old clothes, walked everywhere, and managed until the next allowance came in.

However, by late 2019, in my final year, the ₦15k allowance was now too little for my final-year expenses. I had been writing and editing for free for my school’s press association and department blogs, and a friend pointed out that I could actually earn from that.

She connected me with a guy who outsourced content writing gigs he got on Upwork and Fiverr. I wrote about 20 articles over three months; random things like recipes for cooking an octopus. In January 2020, he paid me a lump sum of ₦100k.

How did that feel?

I was so happy. The only money hitting my account before then was ₦15k, or maybe ₦5k if I asked my cousins. The only other time a high amount hit my account was when my dad sent money for school fees. Seeing ₦100k that was my own was such a good feeling. I put it straight into Piggyvest.

Throughout 2020, during COVID, I was at home writing and getting paid ₦30k, ₦40k here and there. My mum was so proud seeing me make money online instead of just scrolling on my phone.

By the time I had to go for the NYSC orientation camp in 2021, I had over ₦200k in my savings. That helped me not to worry too much when my dad gave me only ₦10k for camp. Also, I met someone in camp who regularly bought me food and other things I needed.

But by the last week of camp, I started doing Father Christmas. I randomly bought things for people and only realised after we left that I had spent about ₦70k in one week. I felt bad about that, so I decided to lock ₦120k in an agro-partnership investment that someone advertised on WhatsApp. I was supposed to get back ₦200k (a ₦80k profit) in a year.

That “supposed to” sounds ominous

I didn’t get my money o. I was supposed to get it in February or March 2022, and I kept counting down to when I’d receive it. The day came, and I waited. Nothing came. I went online and started hearing that the company had gone down.

Later, they sent an email saying they suffered crop loss. I was devastated. I sent an email asking them to forget about the capital and just give me my capital back, but I didn’t hear back from them.

Anyway, back to my service year. I was posted to a medical lab for my Primary Place of Assignment (PPA). NYSC paid ₦33k/month, and my PPA paid ₦16k. I served in my home state, so I lived with my parents and commuted to work. Transport to my PPA was just about ₦700 daily.

The writing gigs dried up around this time because the guy stopped writing and became a tech content creator reviewing phone gadgets. But I did a few small gigs on the side. By the time I finished NYSC in 2022, I had saved ₦160k. I used about ₦120k of it to buy a laptop so I could practice data analysis.

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How did data analysis enter the picture?

Someone had organised a 3-week youth empowerment training in my CDS group during NYSC, where I learned data analysis.

After NYSC, I spent about six months sending applications for anything and everything while living on a ₦10k-a-month data stipend from dad. I didn’t like having to depend on my dad for data. I would have been in a better financial state if not for the failed investment, but there I was, asking for data money.

Thankfully, in September 2022, I finally got a job with a bank. The job was in Lagos, so I had to relocate and live with a family friend there.

What was the pay like?

I was on a ₦60k/month intern salary for the first three months, then it got bumped to ₦100k. Around this period, I entered into a different kind of financial trouble with loan sharks.

How did that happen?

Funny story. I needed to buy work clothes since I worked in a bank and had to dress the part. I had a budget of ₦15k, and the family friend I lived with offered to take me to Yaba Market. However, instead of taking me to the roadside vendors, she took me inside the plaza. People started throwing clothes at me to try on. Before I knew it, the bill was ₦45k.

I was too shy to say I couldn’t afford it or that my budget was ₦15k, because she had taken time out of her day to bring me there. So I kept quiet. She paid the ₦45k, I gave her my ₦15k, and promised to send the remaining ₦30k at the end of the month. This happened when I was still earning ₦60k/month.

Meaning you owed half your salary

Exactly. When the salary came, I sent her ₦30k. Because I had sent half of my salary, I was now consistently in a half-salary deficit. My other expenses, like transportation and buying food at the office, were high. So, to survive on the remaining half salary, I took a ₦30k loan from a loan app.

When my next ₦60k salary came, I paid back about ₦36k with interest. Obviously, the remaining money wasn’t enough, so I took another loan. Even when my salary increased to ₦100k, I was still stuck in the cycle. I eventually had to borrow ₦60k from a friend to pay off the loan in full, then repaid my friend ₦20k per month for three months. It took seven solid months to clean up a mistake that started with ₦30k worth of clothes.

That was a wild ride

It was. In May 2023, the bank made me a full staff member, and my salary increased to ₦236k/month.

By this time, the family friend I was staying with was already asking when I was leaving. I had already spent nine months there, instead of the agreed six. I had to start house hunting. I really had no financial intelligence or literacy because tell me why I screamed whenever agents showed me apartments costing ₦350k – ₦400k/year. That price point was perfectly fine for my income since it was even less than my three-month salary, but I didn’t know that.

My dad eventually mentioned my housing stress to a friend, and the man got me an apartment in Lekki Phase 1 for ₦850k/year and paid the rent. That was my second biggest money mistake after the loan issue.

Why do you say so?

Lekki Phase 1 increased my cost of living. There were no small kiosks, and I had to buy from supermarkets all the time. Even though I earned ₦236k, I couldn’t save. I’d put ₦100k in Piggyvest, and before the month ended, I’d take it out again.

After staying just one year, I had an issue with my landlady and had to pack out with no notice in April 2024.

Where did you move to?

I found another apartment in Lekki for ₦1.4 million. I only had ₦500k saved, so I borrowed ₦400k from my mum and the remaining ₦500k from friends.

Around this time, my salary was increased slightly to ₦265k/month, but I spent the first four months paying off my friends. The only person I couldn’t pay off was my mother. Just as I finished paying my friends back by January 2025, my company stopped a salary deduction policy they used to take from entry-level staff. Suddenly, my salary went from ₦265k to ₦460k/month.

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Finally, some room to breathe!

You’d think so, right? But instead of saving, I went on a massive spending spree.

I realised I had been wearing worn-out, torn shoes and the same old clothes for years because I didn’t have money. I must have spent a little over ₦1.2 million on clothes and shoes in the first half of 2025 alone. Buying those things was my way of cheering myself up for all the stress I’d endured in Lagos.

Then, around June 2025, another problem came. We heard that our building was in court and that we were illegal occupants who needed to evacuate. Apparently, the caretaker had gotten the notice since March/April and hadn’t said anything. For the third time, I had to move out again hurriedly.

Again?!

I was devastated. I kept wondering if someone had decided somewhere that I had to be giving all my money to landlords and agents every single year.

My rent was due in August 2025, and I only had ₦700k saved. All the apartments I saw were charging around ₦2 million. I made another questionable decision. I took out a ₦1 million employee loan from the bank so I’d have at least ₦1.7 million.

Eventually, through a friend’s church group chat, I luckily found a self-contained apartment for a little over ₦1 million without going through agents. If I had known I’d get a place for that price, I wouldn’t have taken the loan. I could have waited for my August salary, and my savings would have hit ₦900k. I would have only needed about ₦100k more.

So, what did you do with the extra cash?

I put ₦700k back into the loan immediately, but I still had to pay the interest, which was accruing daily. In October and November, when work paid appraisal bonuses and 13th month, I borrowed ₦100k each from three colleagues interest-free, cleared the bank loan, and then paid my colleagues back over two months. By December 2025, I had finished paying everybody and was completely debt-free.

I entered January 2026 with ₦300k cash in my account; the first time in four years I entered a new year without debt.

Love it for you. What does your monthly income look like these days?

I got promoted in March 2026, and my salary is now ₦747k/month.

Also, back in November 2024 — after a frustrating role change at work where my manager moved me out of my preferred data analysis track — I decided to enrol in an MSc Master’s programme at a federal university. I paid the ₦30k application fee with money borrowed from my sister, paid my ₦2m worth of tuition and other expenses in instalments, and, as we speak, my postgraduate fees are 100% paid. I’m finishing the degree later this year.

What kind of life does your income afford you?

I’m comfortable. I’ve actually never really been a big spender; I’ve just not been a good manager of money.

My biggest expense is food because I can order it on a whim. It is usually my most impulsive expense, and then occasionally clothes and stuff like that. Temu had me in a chokehold for a while, but I’ve cured my Temu addiction. I don’t do that anymore.

Let’s break down these expenses for a typical month

Beyond the black tax budget, my dad still calls for one-off requests, and he never calls for small money. It is usually around ₦100k. At the end of July, he asked for ₦180k, and I gave it to him.

What does your savings portfolio look like right now?

It’s about ₦1.3 million in Piggyvest, but most of it will go toward my ₦750k rent renewal due in September. I also have ₦200k locked in stocks.

It feels embarrassing compared to my current income, but I remind myself that I paid for an entire Master’s degree, bought a laptop, survived loan sharks, and moved houses three times entirely on my own.

How would you describe your relationship with money?

I’ve stopped letting other people’s choices dictate my finances. No one can make money decisions for me anymore. I’ve been down that road — taking ₦45k worth of clothes out of shyness and moving to Lekki because someone else paid the rent. I was making decisions based on other people, but I was the one paying the price.

Recently, I saw a mini-flat in my preferred area with a total package of ₦3.2 million (₦2.4 million rent). Old me would have collected a ₦2 million loan to take it. But I had a long back-and-forth with ChatGPT asking if it was a good financial decision. I eventually decided it was better to stay where I can afford.

My father made financial mistakes, but he already had children, school fees, and rent to pay, so he couldn’t bounce back. I made my mistakes early in my career, literally my first three years. I’ve paid the price, I’ve learned, and it’s only going to get better from here.

Is there an ideal amount of money that you think you should be earning right now?

I don’t have a specific amount in mind, but I’d like to have more than one source of income. Because I’m still building my safety net, if anything were to happen to my job today, I would be in serious soup. I have no safety net at home.

So I want to have more diversified sources of income. That’s my next goal. After this degree, I plan to focus on building more income streams. I also want to become more disciplined in how I manage my money. I’m good at creating budgets; I want to become as good at sticking to them and having multiple income streams, so I won’t fear losing my job and going under like my dad.

How would you rate your financial happiness on a scale of 1-10?

6.5. I have been through financial ups and downs, mostly caused by myself, and I have somehow been able to survive. Each month is better than the one before. I’m still carrying the wounds of previous bad decisions, but I’m getting better. If those first three years of my career were the price I needed to pay to have a better 20-something years ahead, then so be it.

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