Money, 2024

Income

For the first half of the year, my only source of income was from my salary. In between, I figured that if I could get a side gig to cover my fixed expenses, that wouldn’t be a bad idea so I picked up a side gig for the second half of the year but resigned in December because the demands of the role was way more than I was being paid and I knew they can’t match my desired income.

Expenses

Rent

In 2024, I changed my apartment and I now pay 4.35X of my previous rent. Kind of high but the value was totally worth it: stable electricity, easy access to most places where I need to visit and infact I projected that the new location will save me about 500,000NGN in transportation despite the fact that I go out just 3times in a week.

Gadgets

In Q1, I got an M3 Macbook Pro to replace my 3year old M1 which is no longer able to serve and meet my daily needs. This was an expensive purchase but totally worth it. I also project that this should be able to serve me for the next 3 years at the very least as well.

As a thank you to myself for all the hard work that I do; I got myself an iPhone 15 Pro Max — I think this is the first time I will be making an expensive purchase because I think I deserve it.

I finally learnt to ride a bicycle in 2024 and I had to get one — this was fully funded from money I made from cryptocurrency.

PS: I make all my purchases from CDcare because of the flexibility of being able to split payment and they are the only ones I trust to handle this much money plus they always deliver to my door steps

Electricity

For the entire year, I spent just 60,000NGN on electricity — considering how stable electricity is in this area; that’s super affordable. This could also be attributed to the fact I do not have a lot of home appliances.

Home Appliances

Somehow, Mary was able to convince me to buy a blender and non-stick pots in order to make cooking more convenient — this is money well spent.

In March, I purchased a table and a chair so I can stop eating on my work desk. It costs 95,000NGN including delivery fee.

Food

My feeding this year was split between home made meals — mostly by Mary and ordering/eating out whenever she is not around. Overall, my monthly feeding expenses is around 300,000NGN (plus or minus) and this includes groceries as well.

Tithe and Offering

Sometime in Q1, a student association of my church approached me towards making donation to an upcoming program they had so I gave them a part of my offering as a donation and since then I put my offering directly into what I see as the more pressing needs of the church or its affiliates instead of giving it to the church directly. My tithe however still goes to the church.

Internet

Tariff prices are now on the high; my usual 1TB for 100,000NGN which usually serves me for more than half of the year couldn’t even take me past Q2 so I ended up doing the subscription about 3times and subscribing to lesser plans in an instance or two.

Investments

BeamRight

My first investment in 2024 was a lighting company run Victor and Luke Ojo. I have worked with Victor since 2019 and I trust him — that’s the major reason I offered to make the investment coupled with Luke’s experience in the industry; plus, the fact that they started generating revenue from day one.

Crypto Currency

• I started buying QDX sometime in 2021 when I first joined Quidax. I wake up one morning in Q1, 2024 and price of QDX had gone up by 300%. I withdraw some which went towards the purchase of my laptop. The price of QDX is now up by at least 500%
• I bought more crypto currencies during the year but the most notable one was XYO whose profit I used in purchasing my bicycle
• I most likely will still continue to toe-dip into the crypto space as the market is quite volatile and it’s a long game

Self Development

• I am currently taking a Software Architecture which costs about 2,000 USD but allows me to spread the payment — this is the most expensive course I have paid for this programming career and it’s been worth it so far
• I also bought a bunch of courses on Udemy to either brush my skills or learn new skill in 2024
• Sometime in Q1, I was also feeling stuck about not understanding certain programming principles or how to grow so I bought a collection of julia evans — Wizard zines for 40.5USD. Original price is 135 USD but I got a 70% discount because I am in Nigeria.

All of these self development expenses could actually be covered by learning budget at work but I was just too lazy to go through the entire process of applying. Something that has to change this year — also I thought my career is in my hands; whether I worked here or not, I still need to grow

Loans

I gave out a significant amount of loan this year — more than 2X than I did last year and every single person paid back. This is 100% success rate compared to last year.

Conclusion/2025 in View

Overall, my goal this year is to continue to heavily invest in myself; while seeking ways to diversify my investments.