Naira Life Vol 189

Good Morning, 🌞

The Naira Life Conference is the platform where ambitious Nigerians across age groups and financial stages converge to talk about money, work, and how to move a step closer to the lives they want.

If you're a brand looking to connect an audience that's locked in on managing and building wealth together, this is the room to be in.

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Now, let's get into today's stories. 👇🏾

In this letter:

• #NairaLife: The 25-Year-Old Business Owner Who’s Trying to Recover From Past Financial Mistakes
• 8 Nigerian Men Share Their Most Financially Demanding Relationships
• 6 Nigerian Creatives Share What It Really Costs to Live Off Their Craft
• Ask Aunty M: "My sister is terrible at making money. I want to help her fix it"
• Where The Money At?!

The 25-year-old in this #NairaLife has been trapped in a vicious ₦1.2m debt cycle, but she doesn’t consider that her biggest financial mistake.

Rather, it’s not taking her business and money seriously at university. Now, she’s starting over and hoping to somehow hit ₦5m in savings by year-end.

There is a window of time between seeing a massive opportunity and watching it pass you by. Usually, it’s not because you weren't ready. It’s just that the timing didn't cooperate with your cash flow.

But life moves too fast to wait for perfect alignment.

Carbon gives you up to ₦2 million instantly, with no paperwork parades or long talk. Because the only thing worse than a missed opportunity is knowing you had the play right, but let money get in the way.

Love may not cost a thing, but dating certainly does.

From the girlfriends who treated their partners’ salaries like joint accounts to those who brought endless financial emergencies, these eight Nigerian men share the most financially demanding relationships they’ve ever been in, and the expensive lessons they learned from them. Read the full story here

The Naira Life Conference is returning on August 22, 2026, in Lagos! Show up ready to learn from finance experts, business owners and industry leaders, and partake in unfiltered conversations about building wealth sustainably.

Real stories, expert advice you can actually use, and a community ready to build wealth together.

Use code 20NAIRA at checkout for an extra 10% off early-bird tickets.

More young Nigerians than ever are trying to make a living from what they love. Some are making it work. Most are somewhere in the middle, earning enough to keep going but not enough to stop worrying. All of them are doing it inside an economy that makes everything harder than it should be.

We spoke to six Nigerian creatives about what it actually costs to do what they love in Nigeria right now.

I’m writing to ask for ideas I could share with my 35-year-old sister. She's been working as a make-up artist for too long with nothing to show for it. I'm tired of trying to push her business with loans that she can't even pay back. I want to encourage her to try a different career path but I don't even know where to begin. I feel like she's too old to have zero savings and rely on handouts from our parents and me. What do you suggest? - Bisi, 32

Hi Bisi, it’s so sweet that you’re thinking of your sister in this way. It sounds like you care for her and it’s great that you aren’t being malicious about it.

Let’s get the facts straight: she’s 35 and a make-up artist. Might the issue be in how she’s running the business? Does she have a proper client base, business structure, and does she have other services she offers, asides doing make up? Does she teach make-up classes, share tutorials online, have a product line or do other forms of make-up like make-up for film /TV?

For trying a different career path, what are the things she enjoys doing aside from make-up? She’s already in the beauty care industry, how about skincare? Perhaps an esthetician.

Have a discussion with her, get to know what she likes and what you can do. This will help propose solutions. But be sure not to let your frustration come through when you’re talking with her.

Xoxo, Mo

• If you're here, you probably have a money or work dilemma. Ask your question and we'll figure out an actionable solution for you.