Hey Sis, Where Does All Your Money Go?
Have you ever wondered where all your money goes before payday? You are not alone in the struggle. Tracking your expenses is an important first step in financial literacy. Zikoko, a culture and entertainment digital magazine based in Lagos, Nigeria, asked a sample of women how they spent the bulk of their income in the past month of the interview. Here are some of the ways women responded. Can you relate? I spend a lot on Uber rides I don’t have a car and I hate moving around with public transport, so all my coins go to Ubers. Thankfully I can afford it. It’s hard to calculate how much of what I earn goes to Ubers because I have a 9-5 and a pretty great side gig. But I’d say 20% of the income I get from my 9-5. I’m aware that it’s a little ridiculous to spend so much money on just transport. But my life’s motto is comfort first. Plus Ubers saves a lot of my time, and I hear time is money. Weaves. Weaves. Weaves. I have a government job so my salary is a joke. But I have an online business that does quite well. The average cost of my wigs or weaves is about 150k (~$400). My 9 -5 pays about 80k (~$210) a month. So I guess I spend like two-months salary on hair. I’m not ashamed of it. It’s not like I buy weaves all the time. I can still afford to put food on my table and pay my rent thanks to my business. My rent is expensive The first year I moved out to live on my own, I had a flatmate. She left the country the year after, and I got stuck paying the full rent. I paid it in hopes of getting another flatmate, but I’ve had no luck yet. I’d say the bulk of my money goes to rent. I earn 300k ($810) a month and my rent is 1.2 million (~$3,260) a year. This means 100k (~$270) of my monthly income goes to saving for my rent. I really like my apartment and have no plans to move out. So for now, I have to keep paying the rent. Want to track your expenses? Sign up for our FREE report on the best personal finance apps. 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SIGN UP We’ve got you sis! Click here for your report! http://bit.ly/SLAAppReport Internet is so expensive I don’t have a job so my ‘income’ comes from an allowance from my parents which usually adds up to about 50k (~$135) monthly. I spend about 15k (~$40) on data every month. So data costs make up most of my expenses. Food, I don’t like to cook I don’t like to cook, so feeding can get a little expensive for me. I’ve never sat down to do the math but between groceries, eating out and buying food every day I must be spending about 40 to 50% of my income on food. My struggle skin won’t let me live I have very problematic skin. I decided to start paying more attention to it about 2 years ago because a girl must SLAY. The only problem is good skincare products are expensive. Don’t let those people telling you that black soap is all you need, lead you astray. They just have good genes. I don’t buy skincare products every single month thankfully. On months where I run out of everything at once, I can spend almost 50k (~$130) on products. My monthly salary is 220k (~$590). Makeup is expensive I’ve always loved makeup and buying it wasn’t always so costly. But with the way the economy is set up, everything I love is now so expensive. I just started a business as a make-up artist so I think most of what I make goes into buying new products. I spend like 80% of what I make on that. I have way too many friends In the past year, I’ve spent a ton of money on Aso Ebi. I’m at an age where all of my friends are getting married all at once and I’ve come to the realization that I might have too many friends. I’m currently in between jobs so I can’t say how much I spend exactly. But based on my last salary, I’d say last month I must have spent 40% of my old income on just Aso Ebi. That’s ridiculous! Zikoko amplifies African youth culture by curating and creating smart and joyful content for young Africans and the world. Learn more about Zikoko here.
Dr Yabome Gilpin-Jackson: My work is about developing our human capacity to be, think and do things differently and better
Dr. Yabome Gilpin-Jackson was born in Germany, grew up in Sierra Leone, and completed her studies in Canada and the USA. She is a social scientist, organization consultant, academic and writer. Dr Yabome Gilpin- Jackson considers herself to be a global African, dreamer and storyteller – a curator of African identity and leadership stories. She’s been named International African Woman of the Year and Emerging Organization Development Practitioner 2017. The author of Identities: A short story collection, and initiator and co-editor of We Will Lead Africa, Volume 1. Best known for: Her laugh. Yabome, who is married and the mother of 3 children, has also published several journal articles and book chapters and continues to research, write and speak. Most recently at Princeton University – on the importance of holding global mindsets and honouring diversity and social inclusion in our locally global world. What is We Will Lead Africa? We Will Lead Africa is a platform for inspiring continued change and transformation on the African continent, in two ways: First, we collect, curate and share the stories of everyday African leaders who are making a real impact on the progress of the continent. Second, we encourage networks of everyday leaders to gather in their communities to share, learn and inspire each other to continue taking actions that make a difference. At our root, our work is about sharing inspiration and action, through the power of storytelling. We know that the personal narratives of ordinary everyday leaders are in fact extraordinary. Our first volume shows this powerfully. It reminds us everyday that Africans are taking charge of their destinies and futures, despite popular opinions. [bctt tweet=”Africans are taking charge of their destinies and futures, despite popular opinions” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What inspired you to create We Will Lead Africa? My inspiration came from a deep desire to be part of the movement of Africans reclaiming our own narratives. When you live in the West/Diaspora, you are bombarded by news, images, and everyday negative stereotypes, that imprint the challenges and deficits of the continent on entire populations that don’t know any different. As this is perpetuated, Africans ourselves become hooked into a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, even when we know that the dominant view is an incomplete one. We do not hear about all that is going well, the innovations occurring, the industries emerging and expanding, the people and groups who are no longer waiting for our political leaders and foreign aid to fix all our problems. As we lose hope, our conversations become like the very dominant Western narratives we are subsumed in. For example, I received a call for submissions to the Kwame Nkrumah International conference a few years ago and the list sparked a deep desire for change in me. The list was focused on all the historical issues that have led us to the political leadership challenges we face on the continent. Then, I thought what about leadership NOW and into the FUTURE? What does that look like? That was what sparked the idea for We Will Lead Africa. When I met my co-founders and co-editors, Sarah and Judith, they shared similar thoughts and sentiments and off we went. It’s important to say also that we are not interested in a one-sided view or only the positives…we want to know and be inspired by the fullness of stories of everyday leaders. How do they navigate and overcome the challenges they face everyday, to solve complex problems on the African continent? [bctt tweet=”My inspiration came from a deep desire to be part of the movement of Africans reclaiming our own narratives” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”] What one story had the most impact on you? This volume is so full of inspiration and examples of courage! I was impacted by all of them in different ways. But, the one that I keep remembering though is, Chris Mulenga’s story about starting a program to help get street children recognized for their resilience and innovative capacities and reunited with their families. Chris describes how he has done this work that has a 90% success rate. He describes himself as poor when he started and says he is still poor. Yet at the time of writing the book he had helped over 6,500 children and has been recognized with international humanitarian awards. He attributes his inspiration to the value of being hospitable-which he learned as a child- whereby his family would share what they had no matter how little; and to the orientation of service to the poor that comes from his Catholic faith. I just keep thinking about the resources available to so many of us, and yet, we are stopped by the myth that we do not have enough to make a meaningful difference to the lives of others. What if we just tried? What if we just started now, with whatever we have? What are the 3 main steps you’d advise for an aspiring author ? 1. Get clear what story you are passionate about telling and why 2. Get clear who you want to tell it to 3. Be focused and determined…and just start writing. There really is no magic to it – it’s 90% determination and the willingness to make time to do the work needed. Growing WWLA brand… Our priorities are growing We Will Lead Africa networks and encouraging other African leaders to take on editing volumes as well. The three of us have identified a volume we will work on next, and we are documenting our process, which we will make available to others interested in editing a volume as well. For now, stay tuned in the next 18months to 2 years for the following volumes: We Will Lead Africa: Technology; We Will Lead Africa: Women; and We Will Lead Africa: Governance. Our priority is in growing our impact in inspiring everyday Africans to take action for the change and transformation of the continent. We are in this for the long haul and are choosing to go