Bisi (not real name) was 25 year old when she built her first house. Bisi is a banker who earns less than N80,000 per month. She works in Lagos where cost of living is very high, yet she was able to build a house within 4 years.
A change in Bisi’s savings attitude and a complete overhaul of how Bisi spends her money helped her to achieve this feat.
What did Bisi do to build a house within a short time?
Bisi devised some personal finance strategies for her to be able to change her status as a tenant to a landlord. Some of the tactics she used will be explained below:
Savings
Bisi opened a savings account and saved 15-25% of her income every month. There was never a month that this young lady did not save a part of her income.
Her 2-year savings was used to buy the land she built her house on. She bought the land in Ofada, Ogun State. Ofada is near to Lagos. A lot of people who work in Lagos live in Ogun state.
Taking food to her work place
Spending money to eat at your workplace can be very costly. For those working in upscale areas of Lagos like Ikoyi and Lekki, it is not uncommon for them to spend up to N1,000 for lunch. For a worker earning N80,000 per month, this could be killing.
Bisi knew the project in from of her so she decided to be taking home cooked food to work. This saved her a lot of money. Bisi said she saved up to N15,000 every month by taking home cooked food to work.
Stopped paying tithes and other donations to her church
Bisi reasoned that the pastors in her church were buying new cars and building mansions while the members of the church were getting poorer.
She stopped paying tithes and any donations to her church. This helped her to save more money every month.
Please note that this is Bisi’s decision not that of the author of this article.
Bought food items from village market
This young lady also stopped buying the groceries and food items she needs for cooking from expensive markets and shops in Lagos. She started visiting village markets to buy food items at market days. Bisi saved money using this tactics.
Food items like grains and vegetables are cheaper in village and farmers’ market than markets in urban areas.
Healthy Living
Eating healthy foods can save you money. This is what some people do not know. Expensive processed foods are not healthy, besides they can be very expensive.
Mere buying fresh foods from local markets in Nigeria can save you money you ought to spend on unhealthy processed foods. Besides, your health will also improve. When you eat good food, your immunity increases and you are likely to get less visits to your doctor because of good health.
Bisi used this strategy to save some funds. She bought more of fresh foods instead of expensive processed foods.
Better interpersonal relationship skill
Bisi works as a frontline staff in a bank branch. Bisi’s outgoing attitude made customers like her. Her good interpersonal skill enabled her to earn monetary tips from happy customers. In some months, Bisi earns up to 50% of her salary as tips.
Stopped buying Aso-Ebi
Bisi like most young Nigerian ladies loves fashion and partying. She had to temporarily stop this habit because she wanted to build a house. Bisi who likes buying Aso-Ebi almost every week stopped buying any Aso-Ebi. As a matter of fact, she reduced her party going trips.
She was able to save a bit of money using this strategy.
Car pooling
Bisi could have been spending up to N15,000 monthly on transportation to her work place. She was lucky to see people pooling their cars together for cheaper transportation to Lagos. Bisi was told not to pay for transportation because they saw her as a junior banker.
Second hand clothing
Though a lot of people do not like buying second hand clothing called Akube or bend down select in Nigeria. This type of clothing can be very cheap.
Second hand clothings are mostly imported from rich countries like the United Kingdom and the United States. Some of the second hand clothings are brand new.
Bisi bought more of second hand clothing in order to save money.
After about 4 years, Bisi was able to build a 3-bedroom apartment in Ogun State. Bisi is now a landlady who does not need to pay house rent again. Aside this, she is also a proud owner of a real estate investment.
You too can build a house if you start saving money now.
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