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BN Contributor, The Smart Money Woman – Arese Ugwu Releases Her New Book | Read an Exclusive Excerpt HERE on BN
Smart Money Woman, Arese Ugwu adds another notch to her belt with the release of her new book! As a BellaNaija Contributor, Arese made her mark with her brilliant and insightful articles {Catch up here, if you’re just joining the Arese Fan club.}
This year, she expanded the scope of her influence by co-hosting NdaniTV‘s new show – Analyse This.
Arese is determined to use her knowledge to help more women break through the ceiling of established social and financial limitations. So, it is with immense pleasure that we’re sharing an excerpt of her new book, titled: The Smart Money Woman – An African Girl’s Journey to Financial Freedom.
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Chapter I – Broke
I can’t believe this is happening to me! Zuri panicked as she shook her head and stared at her account balance. It was the middle of the month and she had a little over eighty thousand left in her bank. To be fair, this would seem like a lot to some, but her expenses told a different story. This balance would barely make a dent in the bills she had piled up, and she wasn’t expecting any new funds till the end of the month. Even then, she wouldn’t be able to cover the bills that had just arrived.
She stared hopelessly at the papers in front of her. A bill from her mechanic for what she thought were minor repairs had ballooned to two hundred thousand. Her car was now stuck at his workshop until she was able to make payment. There was a letter from her landlord pointing out her service charge bills for the last three months—four hundred and thirty thousand naira in total—were unpaid, and he was threatening to cut her off if payment wasn’t made by the end of the month. She had just visited her gynaecologist for a routine check-up, only to discover that she had fibroids. The procedure Dr. Emeka had told her she might need would cost nine hundred and fifty thousand, and her HMO had just written to inform her that her plan did not cover it. Dr. Emeka was the best, and sometimes the best cost a lot.
She did the math and it didn’t add up. She earned six hundred thousand a month after taxes from her job as a senior manager at Richmond Developments, a real estate firm. Until this moment, she had considered herself very lucky. She had a great job that paid well. She lived in an upmarket part of Lagos in Lekki Phase I, in a two-bedroom serviced apartment that overlooked the water. She drove a second-hand Mercedes ML 500, and it was awesome—until the engine started acting up. She could take one or two trips abroad a year to destinations like Dubai, New York or London. To her, that was the ideal life of a single, übersuccessful twenty-eight-year-old African woman.
So how could she explain to anyone that she was flat broke?
She still couldn’t understand it herself. She wasn’t overly extravagant. Yes, she liked the good life, but she wouldn’t consider herself one of those people living beyond their means. In fact, she hated that term. She could just hear Aunty Iyabo’s voice in her head saying, ‘You young people of nowadays, your eyes are too big!’ She always rolled her eyes when she heard that. The fact is, old people didn’t understand. If you worked hard, you deserved to play hard. YOLO! You only live once, abi? As long as you were smart enough to earn a living and keep making more money, being poor was not your portion, IJN.
Except now, Zuri could see that some savings would have come in handy to take care of the financial black hole laid out in front of her. She worked hard so she could one day enjoy the lifestyle she had always desired—living comfortably in the best part of town, never having to worry about bills, a designer wardrobe that would rival fashion icon Toke Makinwa, shopping trips to Paris and month-long summers in the South of France. To her, that was the ideal life.
It wasn’t like she expected to own a home or anything at this point in her life; that, was the responsibility of her future husband. Still, she had no land, no stock portfolio, or anything else that had real value to speak of. There were no assets she could sell to keep her head above water.
What about my bags? Zuri thought. She knew there were some excellent pieces in there, which she had collected over time… Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Céline, and Louis Vuitton bags she didn’t even carry anymore. Chai! How exactly will I sell them? She wasn’t sure there was even a market for used designer bags in Lagos. Everyone was too proud, and if she started asking friends and acquaintances to buy them from her, it would certainly be an indication that something was seriously wrong—then the rumours and gossip would start. There had to be another way.
Her doorbell rang. Tami! She was supposed to have lunch with her at Casper & Gambini’s. She had seriously been craving one of their famous burgers all week but her new circumstances were cramping her style. She had to re-evaluate her spending. But before she tackled that problem, first she had to figure out how she was going to explain this to Tami.
She went to open the door. Tami stood there, arms folded across her chest. Zuri forced a smile. “Hey! Babe, sorry oh, I completely forgot about our lunch plans!”
Tami rolled her eyes. “Forgot, ke?”
“Trust me! The gbese I’m trying to sort out right now is doing my head in.”
She could say this to Tami; they had been best friends for years and spoke freely with each other. Anyone else in Lagos, it was best to keep your mouth shut and pretend everything was great… before dem carry your matter.
“Well, I’m coming in because I’m starving,” Tami said. Zuri stepped back and let her friend head straight to the kitchen.
They’d met just before they started secondary school in Benin City. They had seen each other through common entrance exams, boy drama, dramatic weight gains and the battle to lose it all, but they were the complete opposite of each other so it was a wonder their friendship had lasted so long.
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Watch her interview where she talks about the inspiration for the book here:
Find out more about the book HERE
