Let me explain why a Nigerian can receive a 50% salary increase and still become poorer.
Imagine you were earning N200,000 monthly two years ago.
Your employer increases your salary by 50%. You now earn N300,000.
You celebrate because you are earning an additional N100,000 every month.
But here is the mathematics.
If your monthly living expenses were N150,000 and those same expenses have increased by 100%, you now need N300,000 to maintain your previous lifestyle.
Before the salary increase, you had N50,000 left after expenses.
After the salary increase, you have N0 left.
Your salary increased by 50%, but your disposable income dropped by 100%.
And that is not even the most disturbing part.
You are now earning N3.6 million annually compared to N2.4 million previously, yet you have less financial breathing space.
This is how people become richer on paper and poorer in reality.
The real question is no longer whether your salary has increased.
It is whether your purchasing power has increased.
Because, you can get promoted, earn more money, and still experience a financial demotion.
These figures are illustrative, but the mathematics is real.
Let me show you the mathematics of poverty in Nigeria.
Imagine you earn N200,000 monthly.
Rent takes N50,000 when calculated monthly. Food takes N70,000. Transportation takes N30,000. Electricity, data, and other bills take another N25,000.
You have N25,000 left.
That is N833 per day in savings, assuming you spend nothing else.
Now imagine your child falls sick, your landlord increases rent, or your car develops a fault. Months of savings can disappear in one afternoon.
And here is the deeper problem.
You are not necessarily poor because you earn nothing. You are poor because your income has too little room to absorb life’s emergencies.
Financial freedom is not just about how much you earn. It is about how much remains after survival, and how quickly you can recover when life happens.
In Nigeria, many people are one serious emergency away from starting their financial journey all over again.
That is why we need to discuss not just salaries, but the cost of survival.
Because earning money and building wealth are two very different things.
One of the most expensive things in Nigeria today is being poor.
You buy food in small quantities, and it costs more per unit.
You live far from work because you cannot afford rent nearby, then spend more on transportation.
You cannot afford quality healthcare, so you wait until a small problem becomes an emergency.
You cannot afford a good school, so your children start life with fewer opportunities.
Even saving money is difficult because the cost of surviving keeps eating into whatever you earn.
Poverty is not just the absence of money. In Nigeria, poverty often means paying more to access less.
And that is the part of the economic conversation we need to have.
Nigeria has a strange system.
If you are poor, you are told to work harder.
If you are struggling, you are told to be patient.
If you complain, you are told to be grateful.
If you question the government, you are accused of being unpatriotic.
But when exactly are Nigerians allowed to be angry about the conditions they live in?
Must a citizen pretend everything is fine simply because he loves his country?
Patriotism is not the ability to endure suffering in silence. Sometimes, patriotism is the refusal to accept that things must remain this bad.
I counted N50k, handed it over to the woman, and she called one of the young guys working with her. She instructed the guy to carry 2 50kg bags of Thailand Rice and put them in my car boot, and she told another young lady sitting inside the shop to take another 25 litres of groundnut oil and put it in my boot.
When the woman gave me the receipt, I saw that a bag of rice was N20k and 25 liters of groundnut oil was N10k. I quickly brought out my phone to call my friends so that we could buy more quantity since we are entering the "ember" months, but their numbers weren't going through, so I tried to send sms to them, then I woke up.
Na dream. 😭😭😭
As a married man,
Even if you want to cheat, you should be seen with women that even your Co-cheaters will still respect you for.
Not hanging out with all those shepeteri girls.
So that even if your wife catches you, she'll be angry, but she'll consider herself lucky.
End.
Sometimes he go be like say man Dey zero worries 😔
And sometimes he go be like say man is scared of everything 🙃
But anyhow he hit man we sha believe say six 6️⃣ go show 🙃🙃🙃#quote#quotesmith55#wordsofwisdom#WordOnTheStreetTour
Singapore gained independence 5 years after Nigeria gained independence.
Singapore has one of the best passports in the world.
The average Singaporean lives significantly better than the average Nigerian across almost all economic, health, and infrastructure metrics.
The government of Singapore is now highly incentivizing its citizens to have more children because of its dwindling population.
The government of Nigeria (especially in the north) is sponsoring mass weddings for poor and uneducated people to continue to give birth to poorer people, beggars, criminals and terrorists.
Despite Singapore having far better economic benefits and quality of life, they are so educated that they do not have children indiscriminately.
Nigerians are giving birth like rabbits without any hopes of survival, no government incentives, poor security and dilapidated social amenities.
This, thereby, further plunges them into poverty.
And our politicians keep giving them crumbs to buy their votes.
And our religious leaders keep deceiving us to keep preying and fasting.
That our rewards are in heaven.
End.
I watch a lot of crime documentaries, and I wanted to take my time to share this one.
Don't die because of a woman. Don't throw your life away because of a woman.
BRO TO BRO:
Learn to cook. Learn to clean. Learn how to manage a home, not because someone told you to, but because a man who can’t take care of himself will always depend on someone else for his basic needs.
Independence is built through the little things.
A man who can feed himself, keep his space clean, handle his responsibilities, and run his life without needing to be managed is already ahead of most. ✌️
1. Do not rent a house close to a church, mosque, or school. You’ll regret it if you do.
2. The first red flag when you are house hunting is if the landlord/landlady lives in the compound. Abort mission.
3. The best time to house hunt is during the rainy season. It helps you avoid places that are prone to flooding and erosion.
4. The kind of people who live in the compound, street, or estate is very important. It is best to live among married or family people. This will save you from trouble. I’ll not explain further.
5. Check for proximity to a standard gym, supermarket, pharmacy, filling station, hospital/clinic, and police station.
6. Any house that is asking for two years’ rent upwards is a red flag. They’ll most likely serve you a quit notice after those two years so they can rent it out to someone who will pay two years’ rent and pay all the caution fees you paid.
7. Check how frequently they bring light in that area. Don’t ask the house agent or tenants. Ask those shop owners and children on that street. They’ll tell you the truth.
8. Always ask and check if the last occupant of the house is owing light bills. If you don’t, you’ll end up paying for light that you didn’t use.
9. Check for network. Do not rent a house where you have to go to your kitchen before you can have access to good network.
10. Take your time. If it is going to take you six months to find a house of your taste and budget, then wait and keep searching. Never pay for a house in a haste or out of desperation.
11. If it is not a new house, do your findings to know why the last tenant of the apartment you want to rent packed out.
12. Ask about their policies. Do they allow generators? Do they lock the gate too early? Do they rent out apartments to people with questionable characters, occupations, etc.? These are red flags that may land you in trouble if you ignore them.