Money mistakes to avoid in your 20s

If there’s one thing I wish I had been taught as a teenager in school, it’s financial literacy. From conversations I’ve had with my friends and even random people online, it’s obvious that most of us youngins in our 20s lack a clear understanding of money management. Even worse, knowing and thriving on that concept as a young professional navigating the concrete jungle of Lagos, and even Nigeria, seems harder. I learnt this the hard way.

Fresh out of university two years ago, I landed my dream job at a tech startup in Lekki that paid ridiculously well, and from my very first paycheck, I felt invincible. I entered the workforce unprepared for the financial responsibilities in adulthood and was just living on vibes and the temporary high that came with having a healthy bank account. If you know you know. Thinking about all the things I could get with all that money made my eyes often sparkle with excitement. From the latest gadgets to the trendiest sneakers, I was always excited and ready to splurge. Lost in the euphoria of the moment, without considering savings, I started overspending, and social media made this even worse.

While scrolling through my Instagram feed, I couldn’t help but admire the glamorous vacations and luxurious lifestyles of people I admired and perhaps ‘looked up to’. This fueled my fear of missing out (FOMO), driving me to spend beyond my means to keep up with the Lagos big boys and girls. I even went on a solo trip to Beruit last year just because everyone was going, and I didn’t want to be the odd one out. As my salary increased, so did my appetite for spending on my fantasies. Saving was merely an afterthought and I couldn’t be bothered about budgeting or having emergency funds because I didn’t understand what they were or their importance, and honestly,  I cared less. I saw them as boring, and I believed that being young was synonymous with not caring too much about money. There’s a whole life ahead of me to make plenty of money, I would say.

But suddenly, I found myself confronted with the harsh reality of bills mounting rapidly, and my account balance was red in ways I had never seen before. Suddenly, I didn’t feel so young anymore. It became clear to me that whatever I was doing with my finances right now would certainly have ripple effects. I needed to regain control of my finances ASAP!

To do better and create a path to financial freedom, I went back to my first love, reading, to uncover money management hacks. It all kind of boiled down to having a sense of intentionality and being accountable for my financial choices. I had to stop impulse buying like my dad was Otedola, start thinking of my future and start saving like my life depended on it – because it did. Along the way, I also came across a mobile banking app called gomoney, thanks to the algorithm snooping on my browsing history. At first, I thought it was another annoying Nigerian fintech but this one is designed for seamless banking experiences and helping with financial literacy.

Using the gomoney app, I was able to improve my finances by tracking expenses effortlessly, setting savings targets, and gaining valuable insights into my spending habits and patterns. What used to feel overwhelming in reality became simple and manageable with the user-friendly features of the digital banking app.

It’s been about seven months now, I am proud to say I have transformed my money moves from a chaotic zone to a flexible control zone. As a 2-year-old, I finally feel like a responsible human being who knows the value of money and how to make it work for myself.  Cheers to smarter money moves!