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Avoiding the Nigerian Naira at all costs

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Karina
@young-boss-karin
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At the time of writing this, the US Dollar to Nigerian Naira is currently valued at N575 or in other words, N1 is about $0.0017. This, as I always say, is absurd. It keeps getting worse every day and there's no measure in place to make it better.

Over the last 6 months, I've done all I can to avoid holding Naira as much as I can. This has been easy because I barely have responsibilities that warrant me changing my crypto as often as others would.

I've found myself in conversations where a large amount is mentioned and immediately these individuals start converting it to Naira and they talk about how large that sum is. I'm learning not to be deceived.

Although I can't ignore the fact that by default my mind does the calculation to the possible nearest figure equivalent in Naira, sometimes. However, depending on how large the amount of money being discussed is, I decide to just leave it in Dollars and calculate it accordingly.

For instance, calculating the value of $700,000. I would never put myself through the stress of calculating this in naira. This is because I will not come across this sum and spend it in Naira.

My mind automatically translates into the life I desire in a foreign land spending foreign currencies and not converting that to Naira to live a lavish life here.

The goal is to live comfortably with a lot of Dollars, not Naira.

An instance of wealth conversion

When I was 13 years old, my mother and I travelled to the UK to pay a visit to my older sister. At that time, the value of the GBP to Naira was about N150 or in terms of Naira to GBP, E0.0066. This was still pretty bad but not half as bad as it is now. It was a manageable situation.

At the time, I was able to calculate my older sister's income in the UK to Naira and she was seemingly wealthy at the time. Her pay was a little over E13,500 per year. Converted to Naira, she earned over N2 million yearly. At the time, that was huge. I don't think my parents individually earned up to that amount.

However, in the UK, she wasn't exactly wealthy. She was barely getting by. She more or less just survived. Her rent ate up nearly all her monthly income and the rest was meant to buy random things she'd send home or just things to keep her comfortable.

That experience taught me a lot at a young age. I think this has translated into my current mental decision to just avoid considering a life in terms of Naira conversions.

It's always going to be a lot. Yet we all know that the things we can buy with a certain amount keep reducing every day. It's no use seeming wealthy in terms of an amount that is useless in every case.

I calculate my goals in Dollars, make my plans in Dollars and live in terms of Dollar equivalents. This helps me stay sane in these very trying and uncertain times in this country. *

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