The Nigerian economy recorded a negative growth consecutively this year. In the second quarter of 2020, there was a 6.10 contraction while a depreciation of 3.62 percent was witnessed in the third quarter. This trend seems unending in the long run as the persistent fall in crude oil prices, border closure, and acute depreciation of the local currency portends crude realities.




Prices of goods have already been on the high, while basic services are now becoming out of grasp for the common man. Reasuring it's citizenry, the government has however said the country would bounce back from recess in a short while, stressing that businesses which were closed down due to lockdowns occassioned by the coronavirus pandemic are now back up and running. How better the economy would be is left much to doubt.







Nevertheless, you could take advantage of the situation to rejig yourself.

In the face of adversities, many do suffer the brunt of such circumstances, and many do get the benefits off it. It's a matter of mindset and getting yourself ready to do taskful work besides exercising frugal money-keeping practice.


Growing your income could be attained in the following ways:

Invest in yourself - Develop potentials

What have you gotten yourself into doing this pandemic year? Have you retired yourself to fate because all seems to be on lockdown?

Sometimes, because some ventures haven't paired-up to give a favourable result doesn't mean others aren't. The ones which works might require you to be foremostly skilled in them. Getting to discern them demands you attempt questions like: what are my successful friends doing that i haven't?


Even after coming into knowledge about the paying ventures, the skills you attempt learning should be one which you're passionate about. This is to guard against those times you might feel tired-out and depressed to continue with it. If such skill-moulding venture was driven by your passion, you would hardly lose enthusiasm towards it.








Most of the skills you would learn in today's world needs to be paid for it. A good example is a professional certification obtained in formal institutions. The skills and subsequent certification given to you attracts a fee which are mostly exorbitant. If you opt for the other ones — informal certification — it attracts some convenient amount of fee aswell. Be a step better by learning one or some of the important high-paying skills which is readily obtainable.



Investing in yourself isn't only about learning paying-skills but also about improving your financial intelligence and judiciousness. That gets us into a new heading.

Be judicious with your finances

This is one aspect of finance management which you couldn't shy away from if you intend getting a positive financial status in the new year.


Being judicious with finances demands you:

• Differentiate between wants and needs: Needs are elementary requirement necessary for a living. They are those indispensable requirements you couldn't do without as a human. Example is the need to consume food when hungry; the need to clothe your body; and the need to maintain your health in order to stand a survival.
  
  
  
  The needs shares similarity with wants with some subtle differences. Wants are those things you require but are necessarily much more of needs. Objectively, wants are considered an added luxury to needs, with some wants definitely not a need. For some, the purchase of a five-rated smartphone is a need, but however considered as a want to many. The need and want is then said to be perculiar to each class of people — a want to some is a need to others, and vice versa. In all, it is reasonable to cater for the needs before attempting at settling your wants.
  
  
  
  
  Put up a scale of preference on the wants:  Haven differentiated the wants from the needs, make a scale of preference for all your wants. Keeping the immediate wants side-by-side, handpick the odd ones off the list, and finally make sure that they are all under the dictate of your budget.
  
  
  
  Make it a culture by being consistent in outlining and including prioritised wants regularly in your budget.
  
  
  Cultivate the characteristics of admiring what you have: An informed financial decision like differentiating between wants and needs helps one in admitting that he/she is a satisfied individual.
  
  
  
  Admitting to the fact that what you've achieved over a period of time is admirable is all possible because of an inteligent financial decision and goal. Looking over at how fortunate you are with your buys due to an effective planning should easily make you admire all what you have. Admire your little efforts aswell.

Investment with the naira would be more dicey, be watchful

The naira is one of the worst performing currencies not just in Africa but in the world. This implies that investment in the Nigerian currency is a dicey one.








With the effect of FX deficits surmounting the currency to extreme lows, any investor would likely run into losses than gains while investing. Looking at the positive aspect, the currency fluctuations could nevertheless be of advantage to an investor if he regularly detects the fluctuation trends and act on it.



But despite the advantages, one is very much at an edge of losing, most especially when the investment demands importation and regular foreign currency exchanges. Be wary of this in the new year!

Build a budget; aim at a goal

 Budgeting and goal setting are congenial. The habit of setting benchmarks, expectations and possible shortfalls of monetary flows makes for an intelligent financial management. Good budgets aren't just made out of the blue or followed upon other's, but made to be peculiar to the person we are.



The following principles should be adhered to for an effective budget to be made:

• Identify your income pattern:  Are you a worker paid a monthly wage, one who gets paid after completing a task, or both? On a budget should be included the different income digits and estimate of it.
  
  
  
   Identify your goals: Get yourself a goal or what your budget would be targetted on. If your goal is one which could not be achievable within the period which the budget is spanned, split the goals across several budgets.
  
  
  
  That is, the split budgets would be achievable when spread across different budget periods. A goal split through budgets of different months would be more achievable than boring oneself with a hefty task of completing a goal under a one-off budget.
  
  
  
  Create a label for miscellaneous expenses: Plan for uncertainties by creating a budget category for those impromtu needs which couldn't be accounted under the budget. Take note also of these recurring expenses and they should be promoted onto a category in the following budget.
  
  
  
  The budget needs to be dynamic:  Your budget shouldn't be similar for all the months. Diversify it's content to capture all your needs for a particular budgeted period knowing fully well that every period is different from another.
  
  
  Include savings to your budget: It is good practice to always put off part of an income as savings. You could stick to the 50-30-20 budgeting rule, one popularized by Elizabeth Warren in her book, All your worth: the ultimate money plan.
  
  
  According to her, while 50% of your income should be expended on needs, 30% should be on wants and the remaining 20% stacked away as savings. Savings could later become an emergency lifeline in a recession.

You need multiple income mediums

Beating a recession might just need you to engage yourself in many business activities. If you can, don't limit yourself to one job or business as doing such would leave you more susceptible to losing that particular venture. You don't put all eggs into one basket, do you?


You could make a living off Youtube or access the plethora of alternative income mediums.

Taking a loan should be the last alternative

Obtaining a business or personal loan when an economy is recessing is no good a decision. However, there are situations which one couldn't help but to tow that lane.






Before accessing a loan, be sure there are no other options left in your quest for an emergency funding. Try to foremostly obtain funds from family and friends if situations worsens as paying off loans leads to no financial growth, worst still under a recessing economy struck deep in pandemic.


If you choose to go ahead with a loan procurement, calculate the terms instituted in the loan aswell as your total payable fees — there might be hidden clauses! Be sure you could repay them on time to head off from it towards targeting your financial growth.




That's all about growing financially even while inside a recessing economy. The phenomenon of financial growth is ordinarily an act of living within your means and a condition where your income is more than your expenditure. The year 2020 was termed a difficult year, one which many saw no good of. Nevertheless very many persons made millions from situations which the year came occasioned with and they swung such to their favours. The year made my friends millionaires and business owners with visible achievements recorded to that effect. You could do just that!