Living in Lagos could be one the best tin that could ever happen to you and also one of your most dreaded parts of your life? In this post on how to successfully live in Lagos, we will b talking about your earnings, location, distance from your place of work, lifestyle and so on. The general perception people have about Lagos is diverse. Some ‘ve repeatedly without mincing words, said that they would never live in Lagos, y? Reason being that they cannot cope with the harsh lifestyle, traffic, the menace of struggling to jump into the bus while its still in motion and of course no driver would patiently wait for a passenger to highlight from the bus, LOL! It’s actually a funny sight to behold! To other schools of thought, for them to successful in life, they have to live in Lagos, they are of the opinion that if you can make it In Lasgidi (Lagos) then you can make it anywhere in the World, therefore would do anything to live in Lagos. I want to make it clear about what I mean when I say “how to successfully live in Lagos” I’m not necessarily talking about riches or just about being wealthy, am talking about how to live a hassle free life in Lagos, that is, being able to manage yourself by living conveniently within your budget. On this post on how to live successfully in Lagos, I am not going to bore you with too much talks, I ‘ll take it a step at a time and make this article more interactive as no one is an encyclopaedia of knowledge. Let’s rub minds your thoughts that would be published in our comment bar for visitors, as this could be of immense value to other people. In this post, I will be harping on students and workers.
Below are some of the tips on how to successfully live in Lagos.
Where You Live: Rent as we all know takes the biggest part of our earnings or salary in the case of workers, you can imagine earning less than 50,000 which is the average salary of workers in Nigeria. Try as much as possible to throw pride aside and get a house in a humble environment, sure you have them all around the main land and a few on the island.
It is advisable that your rent for the year should not be more than your basic salary or income as it concerns business men or women for 3months, that is, your entire salary for 3 months be equal to your rent, that’s how to know if you are living above your means in Lagos. A case where you virtually struggle to save for the whole year just to pay for your house rent can be really frustrating and painful at the same time; it literally means you are working for your landlord. Some live in places above their means because they want connection and quality people around them, I agree with them to an extent but truth be told, what is the fraction of those that actually got connected via these means, the result is insignificant, remember these places are more or less the “MIND YOUR BUSINESS” kind of environment, you almost might ‘ve little or no knowledge of your next door neighbour. So the advice is to cut your housing budget and use the savings from it for other projects like furthering your education or join an ESUSU savings.
Ability To Adapt: The first thing you’ll notice, as a new comer in Lagos is the noise. Car horns blasting all the time from every corner. People speaking loudly at somebody so close to them in terms of distance. Noise pollution is high in Lagos.
Traffic is heavy and chaotic. Cars nudge their way through traffic. Some of my Nigerian colleagues spend close to 3 hours on the road getting to work in the morning. My driver wakes up at 4.30 in the morning, leaves the house by 5 am.
This is Lagos, no body is smiling, eyes dey shine! LOL! Bus conductors would tell you to shine ya eyes well well, you need to be really smart and sharp, quite funny, being smart in Lagos doesn’t really have to do with your books, I am talking about environmental and economic smartness (hustler). Living in Lagos can be quite interesting and cumbersome at the same time but when you are made, living in Lagos would be the best thing that would ever happen to you.
Lifestyle: You must keep a modest lifestyle for you to be able live successfully in Lagos, keep a low profile as much as possible, hang out but be sure to keep it on the low and try as much as possible to disassociate itself from people that wont add values to your life. Its not hard to discern them.
Boldness: Your being able to live successfully in Lagos also lies in your boldness, some people would say, they are introverts therefore not bold talking to people while some would say they are naturally shy people but the truth is you need to personally and consciously make efforts to put up that boldness. Boldness brings connections where money wouldn’t, boldness
Cost of Living: Cut your coat according to your size, they say, hang your coat where you can comfortably bring it down without the use of ladder. No one is saying you should not be daring, trust me, if the ladder isn’t there, it means that day is gone. Cut frivolous expenses, try as much as possible to stay close to your place of business transactions, this would cut down cut to the barest minimum, if this isn’t possible, then look for a colleague or friend that you could hang on with through the week then go home on Friday. If you could cut down transportation cost, that would go a long way in saving for other projects.
Savings For Personal Projects: This is a culture you have to cultivate, in the above tips, i have been harping on savings! Yes you need to save for rainy days, and this can only come to pass if you learn to live with the above principles listed. This is Lagos, opportunities are everywhere, and of course you need money to execute them.
These listed above are not all, you could add your comments and I will publicly publish it as part of your contribution and give credence to you on the updated article on how to successfully live in Lagos.