5 things I learnt in 5 days at NYSC Camp: Obubra, Cross-River 2019

1. Life’s what you make it!

To be honest I had fun at camp. It was the push outside my comfort zone I knew I needed. I said hi to strangers, asked for help. Danced to weird but wonderful music, got a thousand and one mosquito bites but I tried not to complain and so now I have fond memories

2. Take the high road often!

Like Tems, I kept asking ‘ why you wanna try me’ and saying ‘ they want to challenge me’ I’m really soft-spoken and it leads to people taking the piss. Man I wanted to fight so many times but I learnt that I have a restraint I apparently only reserve for strangers lol anyways taking the high road it a great idea, you leave the other person feeling silly and you feel yourself literally growing into the bigger person people always ask you to be.

3. To blend in I would have to speak either fluent pidgin English or fluent Yoruba and this was not the case. Alas I didn’t get too many weary looks

4. Privacy is apparently overrated. With communal showers and toilets that had no doors and sharing a living space with almost 60 people. There was no time and space to be ‘alone with your thoughts’ and honestly, sometimes that’s a good thing. It forces you to live in the moment and not think about yesterday or tomorrow. Helps you slow down

5. Choices are kind of exhausting. The freedom that came with wearing the same thing every day, my options were a white T-shirt and white shorts or a white T-shirt and white shorts! It was wonderful, being an indecisive person it really made my mornings and evenings less stressful.

I wish I could have stayed longer but life happens.

I will do an NYSC Camp Starter Pack!

Enjoy my Nollywood style photoshoot, courtesy of an on-site photographer.

Get Your Coins Sis!

When I hosted my first vision board party one thing everyone had on their board was dollars & pounds lol!

We all agreed that going forward we wanted to make more money and get better at saving and investing, the goal is to earn more & grow that money.

I think a lot of us know we should be saving and investing but if you’re anything like me then it’s just a chore, a pain and it gets buried in procrastination.

Shout out to the ones actually doing the work though!

To be fair I did start saving & investing this year, just a tiny bit but it was something. To try and improve I’ve been doing lots of research on how to be better with money and just generally improve my spending & saving habits so when I start earning all the cash moniessss I know what to do and how to handle it.

Some Online Things:

1. Tomie Balogun on Instagram

2. JR Kanu on Instagram

3. Smartmoneyafrica.org

4. Money Matters with Nimi

5. Toni Tone on Twitter sells a Budget Template for a very small fee

6. The Money Africa

These online tools generally give you more knowledge on the topic, for more practical resources see below:

Tools:

1. PiggyVest :

This is my favourite app right now, it allows me set daily, weekly or monthly direct debits from my main account to my piggyvest account . It gives investment opportunities and you earn interest on the money you save. It sets specific withdrawal days to encourage you to keep your savings, if you want to withdraw outside of the set days you are charged a small percentage! It’s all round amazing.

FBNQuest

This is another great way to grow your money, First Banks Money Market fund invests your money in a diversified portfolio and you can start with as little as N5,000

Books:

1. The Smart Money Woman- Arese Ugwu

I loved reading this, there’s so many useful tips and she explains boring principals in a really interesting and useful way.

2. Money Brain- JR Kanu

This is a really good one, its more well rounded and literally talks about all the things that will help you develop a money brain, not just how to grow your money.

Please add more useful websites, Twitter handles, books, or any other resources in the comments!

Here’s to getting our coins in 2020!

– Fike

It’s not just me, Is it?

Hello everyone! Its been ages since I posted on here, I am the very definition of ‘life got in the way’

Anyways, I’ve decided to find my way back as my Queen Mother- Beyonce once said.

Today I want to talk about how I am feeling. It’s a weird time, I have completed a degree, as well as a  post-graduate degree. Now I am faced with the task of figuring out my next move. What doesn’t help is  that everywhere I turn older adults are saying ‘ so what’s next?’

It has made me start to wonder about, what people have against living in the moment. If they mean well why not just ask what are you doing with your time now ? ‘what next?’ is a nosey question that can leave the person answering feeling a bit anxious at the end.

I am certain a huge group of us are tired of this question and even just this space but alas, it is part of the journey.

This is just to say if you’re in this place where you’re not quite sure what to do or if you even want to be doing the thing you’ve decided to do, then we are all truly in this together.

Here’s to hoping we figure it out and not being too hard on ourselves even if it takes a little longer than we anticipate!

-Ari’