writing
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Investing with little money
The Man with the One-Way Ticket Desmond believed small money had a strange talent for disappearing. Give him ₦10,000, and before the weekend it would have become data, shawarma, transport, two unnecessary online purchases and a mysterious bank charge called “service fee,” which he was convinced existed solely to insult poor people. So whenever anyone…
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Crypto basics
The Coin in His Phone Desmond nearly dropped his phone into a bowl of pepper soup when the screen flashed red. “Minus twelve percent?” he shouted. The man sitting opposite him at the restaurant looked up from his newspaper. “Young man, did your wife leave you?” “I don’t have a wife.” “Then your crypto has…
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Mutual funds vs ETFs
The Boy Who Never Came First Williams was sitting at the back of the lecture hall when his name appeared on the screen. The room went silent for exactly two seconds before someone shouted, “Ah! See him! Financial adviser has finally entered the results list!” Laughter rolled across the hall. Williams looked up at the…
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Stocks, bonds, real estate
The Three Keys Ebuka nearly dropped his phone into the soup when Chike shouted, “I have found it!” Eze looked up from the restaurant table. “If it is another online course on how to become a billionaire before Christmas, please keep your discovery to yourself.” “It is not a course,” Chike said, sliding into the…
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Risk vs Reward
The Shop He Bought When Nobody Was Buying The first time Banjo said he wanted to buy the empty shop beside his uncle’s pharmacy, his wife laughed so hard she dropped her phone into a bowl of garri. “Buy what?” “The shop.” “During a pandemic?” Banjo pointed at the phone screen, which was now covered…
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Why start early
Chinenye’s late realization. The first time Chinenye tried to sell something to a stranger, she stood in front of the woman for almost three minutes and said absolutely nothing. The woman was buying tomatoes. Chinenye was selling bags. At least, she was supposed to be selling bags. “Are you selling it or admiring it?” the…
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What is investing?
The Man Who Kept His Money in a Wardrobe Ebeano, was fifty-nine years old man, and has a clothing shop inside onitsha main-market. He owned three large wardrobes, and trusted none of them equally. The first contained clothes he wore. The second contained clothes he hoped to wear again when his stomach finally agreed to…
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The Best Time To Start
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Examples of income streams
The Things Nobody Wanted The first time Daniel made ₦180,000 in one afternoon, he was standing beside a mountain of rubbish while his former classmates were posting pictures from a rooftop restaurant. He took a photograph of the money on his phone, then immediately deleted it. Not because he was ashamed of the money. He…
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Why one income is risky
The Second Door At twenty-seven, Daniel had already stopped worrying about losing his job. Not because his company was particularly stable. In fact, his manager had once joked that the only thing permanent about the company was the uncertainty. Daniel simply believed he had solved the problem. “I have diversified my income,” he announced one…
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Building a career plan
The Boy Who Had to Choose a Future At seventeen, Emeka had already learned not to ask his mother for money unless the request was urgent enough to survive the silence that usually followed. So when his school announced that final-year students needed to pay for their examination registration, he did what he had become…
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Negotiating salary
The Number She Was Afraid to Say “₦180,000.” Mira stared at the number on her phone as if it had personally insulted her. It was the salary figure the recruiter had just mentioned over the phone, and for three full seconds she forgot how to breathe. “Is that okay for you?” the recruiter asked. Mira…