I Earn N500K/Month But Am Poorer Than 2019 When I Earn 150k/Month – Man Cries Out
| Before anybody calls me a liar or a complainer, sit down and read this first. Because I have numbers. And numbers don’t lie.In 2019, I was earning ₦150,000 per month. Junior staff. I was not rich at all. But I was comfortable. I could breathe.Today in 2026, I earn ₦500,000 per month. On paper that is more than 3x growth. I should be living large. I should have savings. I should be talking about investments by now.Instead I am broke before the 25th of every month.Let me show you exactly why. THE NAIRA ITSELF In 2019, one dollar was roughly ₦360. Today in 2026, one dollar is over ₦1,500.The naira has lost about 75% of its value against the dollar in 7 years. So anything imported, whether electronics, medicine, baby products or even some food, now costs 4 times what it used to.My ₦500k today equals roughly $333. My ₦150k in 2019 was worth roughly $416.Read that again.I earn more naira but fewer dollars. In real purchasing power I have gone backwards even though my salary tripled on paper. FOOD In 2019, I fed myself comfortably for around ₦30,000 per month. Decent food, market twice a week, occasionally a small restaurant.Today that same lifestyle costs me at least ₦120,000 and that is me managing carefully.| Item | 2019 | 2026 | |—|—|—| | Bag of rice (50kg) | ₦18,000 | ₦85,000+ | | Cooking gas (12.5kg) | ₦3,500 | ₦18,000+ | | Groundnut oil (4 litres) | ₦2,800 | ₦12,000+ | | Tomatoes (paint bucket) | ₦800 | ₦5,000+ | | Full chicken | ₦2,500 | ₦10,000+ | | Big loaf of bread | ₦350 | ₦1,500+ |My food budget went up by 400%. My salary went up by 233%. The food is winning. RENT In 2019, I paid ₦350,000 per year for a decent one bedroom in a Lagos suburb. That is about ₦29,000 per month if you break it down.Today that same apartment, same area, same size, same leaking ceiling, is ₦1.2 million per year. That is ₦100,000 per month equivalent.I now spend 20% of my gross salary on rent alone. And landlords still want one to two years upfront. So every renewal season I need to drop over ₦1 million at once like I am buying land. ELECTRICITY AND GENERATOR In 2019, NEPA was bad but manageable. Fuel was ₦145 per litre. My monthly gen fuel was around ₦8,000.Today petrol is close to ₦1,500 per litre. My monthly generator fuel alone is ₦45,000. And NEPA is still giving me the same 4 hours they gave me in 2019. Nothing changed on their side except the bills went up. TRANSPORT Bus from my estate to office in 2019 was ₦150 each way. That is ₦300 per day, about ₦6,600 per month.Same route today is ₦700 minimum each way. ₦1,400 per day. Nearly ₦31,000 per month.Ride hailing? Multiply that by three. I now spend between ₦30,000 and ₦50,000 every month just moving my body from home to work and back. SO WHERE DOES THE ₦500K GO? | Expense | Monthly | |—|—| | Rent (broken down monthly) | ₦100,000 | | Food and groceries | ₦120,000 | | Generator fuel | ₦45,000 | | Transport | ₦35,000 | | NEPA bill | ₦18,000 | | Airtime and data | ₦12,000 | | Toiletries and misc | ₦20,000 | | Tithe | ₦25,000 | | **Total** | **₦375,000+** |That leaves me ₦125,000 for savings, emergencies, hospital, clothes, sending money home, school fees if you have children, and anything unexpected.In 2019 on ₦150,000, my total expenses were under ₦90,000 and I had ₦60,000 left. That leftover was worth $167 at the time. My ₦125,000 leftover today is worth $83.I saved more real money when I earned less. That is not a feeling. That is arithmetic. THE PART NOBODY TALKS ABOUT Beyond the numbers, what has changed is how money feels.In 2019, seeing ₦100,000 in my account felt like safety. Like I had options. Like I could breathe easy.Today I see ₦500,000 land on payday and my first feeling is anxiety, not happiness. Because I immediately start calculating what is owed, what is running out, what will still not be enough. That shift from feeling okay to feeling like you are always one emergency away from trouble, even as your salary grows, is what this economy has quietly done to the Nigerian middle class.We are not imagining things. We are not lazy. We are not bad at managing money. We are just running on a treadmill that keeps speeding up. MY QUESTION TO EVERYONE: What was your salary in 2019 and what is it today? Are you genuinely better off or are you like me, earning more and living less?Drop your numbers in the comments. No judgement for anybody. Let us count together |
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