Topic: My survival strategies in this harsh economic conditions - page 3. (Read 701 times)

Everyone, whether he has a family or lives alone or with his extended family, will try to make massive savings in anticipation of drastic economic changes. They don't want their lives ruined because they can't manage their income and will change whatever is needed. @OP provides a good example for us but we will have different ways from @OP but we have the same goal in this case, namely wanting to survive in difficult circumstances that can come at any time. I really agree not to make loans to other people, especially if we can't return it according to the time we agreed or we don't have other sources of income. That will make it even more difficult for us and instead of wanting to make savings, we will be chased by these debt collectors.

For the homeschooling aspect I was trying to decipher how both you and your wife manages the little time between other family needs as people with children and the home teaching at same time with your work time, isn't that going to be tiresome?  Homeschooling in hard times isn't a bad idea but one disadvantage I discover that could be on the side of the children is that they would lack or be denied the opportunity to be exposed socially with children like them from other backgrounds and this situation can affect their social interactions in a way when they go outside.

The economy of this country presently is so devastating. The cost of good and services is at its peak. An average man barely feed three times daily. The salary is the same but the cost of living is getting high on a daily basics. The strategy i used in surviving is not spending unnecessarily. For example, i use to hangout with friend a lot and spend money on things that are not important, i use to club a lot before as a bachelor but due to the economy i only go to club once in a month. As a bachelor, i eat at an espensive restaurant almost everyday. But due to the economy i now realised that cooking the food myself will reduce cost and i will also have morr to eat later on. The economy has really tought me how to to manage life.

Personally, everyone has different circumstances and situation which they have to deal with. People like us who are on the lower spectrum of wages on the economy but has ambitions and want to change their situations needed to think for more conventional ways to earn extra income. We could always hear or see people telling us everyday that investment will be the foundation to have a better life, but as I've said people like us firstly needed to find ways to have an extra income before doing such moves.

Some very good points shared!
But do you think homeschooling would be effective? That is correct it drains so much money and energy of parents and I really liked the idea of home school.

How could it not work when the purpose of looking for a side-job or other called it side-line is to increae the financial capability of a person?  I know others are having a hard time finding jobs or task that can give them extra money,  but still, it will be a great help if one can find one.


See in the scenario you are saying, it does not suffice even though a person has a side job, what more if he doesn't have it?  I don't think the importance of having an extra job or business as a source of extra money is debatable. In a situation where a family is lacking, it is one of the most important things aside from the strategies cited by @OP.  After all, the reason why @OP is doing those strategies is because of a shortage of finances, and having one or more sources of income will make the situation easier.  As I stated, investment is good but it takes time to profit, worst, when a person's budget is short, they might pull out the investment immaturely so having another source of funds to spend for the family is always better.

OP listed many factors to consider to live a debt free life, we must know our priorities to be able to manage and determine what is better in our lifestyle or living capacity. It’s good that OP knows how to invest and what areas he should be focus in like having home or cheaper rent as well having investments. Having multiple jobs can help too if there is time like online jobs that will not affect too much of his schedule and use the salary to make more investments for their future. During pandemic I really see the need of not having sidelines than focusing only in one job.

The simplest strategy is to save more money and invest. You don't have to starve yourself, but manage your spending on something you really need. No need to buy goods in bulk, it only makes inflation worse. Nothing too celebratory, just keep it as simple as possible. But think about the investment, it will give you a return that may be good in the long term.

I agree with some of the strategies at the OP, but about home schooling - it's just very different from person to person.

With all the due respect to your culture, that sounds rough. I would have not guessed unmarried people there got treated badly for such a personal decision.
Is there any expectation by Nigerian society on the number of children each couple is supposed to have or it is something the couple is not pressured about?

Do people there get mocked or treated as outcast if they decide to only have one child instead of two or three?

A little bit off-topic, but what are your personal thoughts on countries like Japan where population is steadily declining, to the point that their government has evaluated to pay couples to have children?

I know it is some kind of utopia but I feel that the world should become much more solidaric than it already is. It is to a certain degree, but it could be even more. It is not only harsh conditions like OP described, and that is already harsh enough because nobody should be doomed to carry unnecessary burdens, but we also have situations of war or earthquakes in Turkey, sudden events that need instant help without any hesitation whatsoever and still there is bureaucracy stopping help from getting where it should have been yesterday in a best case scenario.

Nigeria is quite low in the list of income per capita. As OP described there are logistical inefficiencies like countless middlemen driving prices up etc. Why don't the wealthy nations set up programs that provide money and expertise to exactly improve the problems that keep those countries from prospering? I guess now the answer is that there is too much corruption involved and money from other countries like grants or loans seep away in corruption. But what is the conclusion? That our species is just too evil to be good? There are too many situations that prove otherwise, but still there are so many shortcomings and so much poverty in the world.

@OP in your case it's quite obvious that you are a smart mind, well-educated and ambitious to take things into your own hands together with your wife (what I said to you applies to her as well). But there are so many people in your country that can't dig themselves out of their hole like you.

I hope the best for you and I think your ability to sharply analyze your situation and adapt accordingly, especially investing time and effort into your children which I find particularly commendable in times of pressing scarcity, will pay off one day.   

Let me finish with some pseudo-egoistic wish for you - I hope that your crypto holdings go to the moon soon, so my do, too!

Agree, and this is what I've been running for the past few years. Poor economic conditions and government management encourage people to be more creative and look for sources of income outside the country. Especially working online with the skills you have. This is indeed quite worrying because the potential or skills possessed cannot be considered by the government, they don't seem to care. Many in my place such as application developers, designers, and digital-based skills are valued more abroad than at home.

Firstly, OP, I want to thank you for such a detailed description of your life. I very often read posts from Nigerian society; for me, this is a revelation of how different people's lives can be in different countries. But I have a very respectful attitude towards all of you, because your country may not have all the charms that other, more developed countries have, but I see a great desire among people to improve the lives of their families. The attitude towards marriage is very surprising and worthy of an example for other countries.
I think you, OP, are very wise. I don't know your age, but everything you have planned looks very reasonable and mature. I say this because I have a comparison where it would seem that adults do not want to think about anything but entertainment; they have neither goals nor the desire to create a future for their children.
Your strategy and awareness will work for many people. In fact, it's hard to call it survival; I think you live a full, real life, and your children will receive many more good examples than even children who can study in private schools, but they have very few parents in their lives.
My respect.

Similar strategy with mine,but I don't give my kids homeschooling.I send them to school but a missionary school which is cheaper than a private school and have adequate learning facilities,so that they can compete with their classmates to bring out the best in them.

Another thing I did was to set up a business for my wife that she sells in front of the house because the house is located in a commercial environment so that she can make daily profit since she don't need to pay for shop rent which use to be challenge for traders down here in my country.

We could add this but it wont work on us all meaning other people tend have hard time finding side jobs even if they want too like they don't posses those skills need or just they cant find one as most of those employers wants fulltime. Also even though you have side jobs but still not enough then you need to follow those strategy by OP provided to save some money and that is the possibility that youll invest into something.

I think having a children is definitely one of the reasons why it is economically difficult to survive considering children cost a lot of money. But at the same time do not imagine that people or even couples live a frugal life when they do not have children.

As I lived, I learned that, people spend as much as they make until a point, of course if you are Elon Musk maybe not so much, but if you are a regular person, 500 bucks a month and 5k a month doesn't really make that much change, and that means if you do not spend your money on your children, then you will end up spending that money on something else, so it is not really a way to save money to not have a kid.

I would agree with a lot of stuff here, especially growing your own food. I've been learning how to plant veggies and how to take care of them sustainably for a while now and it's been one of the best things I have done to myself both mentally and physically. Less pesticides mean less poison my body deals with, plus it's so therapeutic too, at least for me. It gets a little expensive, especially when you're just starting and you don't know jack about planting crops but as soon as you find your groove and you grow a green thumb, it gets cheaper and more sustainable.

You forget to add/ or have you considered doing side jobs for extra income.  Investment is a good thing but it will take some time to yield profit, a regular one takes years so what would we do to meet our daily needs if our main job is enough for bills and basic needs.  Finding a side job plays an important role to meet our plans and ease out the situation especially if we plan to have savings for investment.

It all depends on the location but we can actually invest in agricultural land so we can have it as a source of passive income and food at the same time. Growing crops was just my hobby when the pandemic happened but since I'm now reaping what I have sowed I realized its importance during this market situation. I am now able to save more because I won't be needing crops and some vegetables which is getting more expensive in markets nowadays. Gardening is fun and it could also be our source of income.

For now our homeschool is for just primary or basic education. When our children gets to the certificate class we will register them for the exams in a private or government school. It is legal for homeschooled children to sit for external or standardized exams in any registered school in the country.

Your culture is different from ours in Africa. Immediately you get to the age of 25 as a lady, your parents would start mounting pressure on you to get married. Infact unmarried women suffer a lot of discrimination and mockery. As a matured man, once you get a job, the society expects you to get married. People even take loans to get married and start a family.

Many marriages have dissolved because of childlessness A lot of divorce cases in Nigeria is because of inability to conceive and bear children. Nigeria has one of the fastest growing market of In vitro fertilisation (IVF), surrogate mothers and other child bearing techniques because of the importance placed on children. If you decide not to get married or have children, you might be treated like an outcast.

I do live on a city but if i do have the opportunity on having or purchasing some agricultural lands then i would definitely be doing that on which i would really be mainly be trying out to grow some rice crops

even though it would be still needing to have some expense but eventually you could really that able to sustain up yourself since you could really be able to bag out and save it out.
but since the place on where i do live is already that having no space nor having no for sale lands then its impossible for it to be happening.

Economic conditions could really put us up on a hard situation on which survival is something that we should really be minding of.