Most people spend years dreaming about what they’d do if they suddenly came into a lot of money, but making money and keeping it are two very different skills.
These Nigerians once found themselves sitting on more money than they’d ever had before. Unfortunately, a mix of bad decisions, misplaced confidence, and bad luck meant the money didn’t last. They share how they made it, how they lost it, and the lessons they learned the hard way.
I received a severance of ₦15M when I retired in 2019. I decided to invest it in stocks. I didn’t trust that a broker wouldn’t abscond with my money, so I read a few books on investing and began building a portfolio myself. At first, almost every stock I bought went up, and my profits grew to ₦20M.
Instead of taking profits, I convinced myself I was an investing expert and doubled down on riskier stocks. When the stocks started to tank, I kept telling myself prices would recover, but they kept falling. By the time I sold, I’d lost all my gains and ₦6M of my capital. I took the rest of the money out and started a small poultry farm instead. I learned that I shouldn’t be overconfident in a field I’m not familiar with.
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I was a chronic gambler until one moment in 2022 changed my life. By sheer luck, I turned ₦20k into almost ₦12m from a string of bets in one weekend. I didn’t tell anyone about it.
Instead of withdrawing and investing, I became convinced I had cracked the system. I started placing bigger bets. Within three months, I only had ₦500k left. It was the major reason I left gambling.
I felt so stupid and depressed. I should have just bought a car or something else. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth each time I remember it.
In 2018, the biggest amount of money I’d ever seen landed in my account after I got paid for a contract job. ₦3 million.
I told myself I’d enjoy it before becoming responsible with the rest of it. I wanted people to see I was doing well. I lived lavishly, bought myself some new devices and ate out a lot. Six months later, I checked my account balance and realised I had almost nothing left to show for the ₦3M. No investments. No savings. I was basically back where I started. That was when I started taking financial responsibility seriously. If you blink, you can lose it all.
When my grandmother died in 2012, I inherited ₦5 million. I decided to start a supermarket business. I didn’t have any experience, but I thought I would figure it out as I went. It didn’t go as planned.
I trusted the wrong people to manage it. There was constant theft, bad record-keeping, and costly losses. Within two years, the business had collapsed, and most of the money was gone. It pained me that I didn’t just keep the money in a bank.
When I first started working as a mobile phone videographer in 2023, I made ₦3.2M in just three months. I thought that was how money would be coming in, so I moved out of my parents’ house and bought a new phone with ₦2.2M total. I had ₦1M left over and thought that would hold me until more came.
Unfortunately, I ran into a long dry spell after that and only made small amounts like ₦150k/gig for the rest of the year. Each month, I watched the money dwindle until I had to admit to myself that I couldn’t afford to renew my rent. I moved in with my older sister instead. The biggest lesson I learned is that if you can’t buy it twice, you probably can’t afford it long-term.
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