Latest / DidiLawren / Property Investment in Nigeria vs Buying a Rolex Watch

Transcript

Property Investment in Nigeria vs Buying a Rolex Watch · DidiLawren

• 0:09
  Hello, welcome back to another episode of Banter Laurentia.
• 0:12
  How are you ordering? Hope you're doing great.
• 0:14
  Now for today's episode we're going to be discussing
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  investment. Yes, investments in Nigeria or
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  or investments in Naira and investment in foreign currency.
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  Example, the dollar and the pounds, the euro, whichever one
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  you want to invest in. Now the reason why I'm talking
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  about this is because of the conversation going on between
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  Daddy Freeze and the very dark black man.
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  Now the conversation started when Daddy Freeze stated that
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  buying a Rolex watch is more profitable than buying a
• 0:51
  property in Nigeria. According to him.
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  He said his Rolex watch has appreciated more than his
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  property in Nigeria because of the Naira devaluation.
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  According to him, he bought his property 200,000 in I think 2012
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  or 2013. And then right now, because of
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  the Naira, his property has actually gone down while the
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  watches that he bought in dollars have appreciated or
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  doubled or whatever he was talking about.
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  Some people are not happy with this statement because they said
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  why would you advise the youths to buy a watch than actually buy
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  property that properties they are more durable or they are
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  more valuable than Rolex watches.
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  Now the very dark black man made a video kind of basically
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  telling that he frees off saying that he shouldn't have said such
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  things. He's a lot of people look up to
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  him, so why is he trying to mislead people that this is not
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  a good thing to talk about and all that.
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  So it has been going back and forth between the referees and
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  the very dark black man. Now before I go into my
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  policies, there was this conversation that the
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  differentiated online. There was a man who wrote to him
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  and said in 2013 he bought his house, you know, he was he had
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  liquid cash. Basically he lives abroad.
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  So he bought a house for $250,000.
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  He needed a about $10,000 to kind of you know get it up to
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  his standard and everything. And then he rented the house out
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  because he lives abroad. He's not in Nigeria.
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  So we're talking about $260,000 he invested in that house.
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  Now because of the Naira devaluation today he has lost
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  over half of that money. Like somebody spends 260
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  thousand to buy a house. Just imagine that even if you're
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  losing just 100,000, you can imagine losing £100,000 of
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  $100,000 or €100,000 you know, to something you saw as an
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  investment. Now the reason why people in
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  Nigeria are not understanding this whole thing is because of
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  the previous generation. Basically to those, the best way
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  to invest is property, you know, and you are not.
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  First of all, you have to buy especially both people.
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  You first of all to building your village.
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  Go, go, go. You have to for people to know.
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  How would they know that you have made money?
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  If you've not built a mansion in the village now it's about OK
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  just building 1 duplex or one bedroom wall.
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  Just be something convenient. No, they're going to say it just
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  be that that nonsense that he built.
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  No, you have to build a mansion and this has truncated so many
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  people's growth. You see a lot of people
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  travelling abroad and the first money they make, they send it
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  back home to build mansions or structures and to them that is
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  an investment. And remember when you were doing
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  all these things, they were younger.
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  They could work most of this work round the clock, send this
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  money home and just imagine. So people even get loans to be
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  able to do this because you know, building, you know
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  projects you can budgets any amount of money you're still
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  going to like because people are going to cheat you.
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  Even when his family members are running these things, they are
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  going to try to syphon money here and there.
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  So you're going to end up spending if not times 2 of what
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  you think you will spend on that project.
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  So a lot of people end up taking loans to complete those
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  projects. And once those projects are
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  completed, it is very difficult for them to now do anything
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  apart because you spent your youth trying to build a mansion
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  in the village to show people are past my neighbour.
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  I think that is just what I think about building houses in
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  the village because that is just what it is.
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  It's not an investment. OK, let's say you are even
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  buying houses in Lagos or you're buying house.
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  I don't have any problem with people investing in Nigeria.
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  Don't get me wrong, I think before I would start any
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  investment, the first investment I think anybody should do is
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  invest in yourself. Invest in yourself like is.
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  I'm not just talking about educationally.
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  Learn different skills, Make sure that you can do different
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  things. Plan for retirement on yourself
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  apart from investment. Then you go into investments.
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  Let's say you are living abroad because most of the people that
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  these affect are people living in diaspora.
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  You're earning in dollars and you're investing in naira.
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  How does that even make sense? It it does not.
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  The math is not matching. Recently I was told about a
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  friend, kind of a group friend, who built a mansion in the
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  village. Like a mansion.
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  Yeah, I saw the videos, I my mouth, my jaw dropped.
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  A very massive house. And in the UK, here that person
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  is living in a room, you know, rented a room in house,
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  basically. There's nothing wrong with that.
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  There's nothing wrong with, you know, renting a room.
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  That is the way you want to live, no problem.
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  But building the living in A room.
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  I'm building a mansion in Nigeria.
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  A mansion that you're not going to stay up to two weeks.
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  There is no way. You're just going to stay in
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  that village for a month. You're going to move around.
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  You're going to want to go to Lagos.
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  You're going to want to go to Abuja.
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  You want to go to Buzzacott. You want to you want to go where
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  your friends are. You want to see things, you want
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  to know. OK, what?
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  You're not just going to stay in that village.
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  So that's for me is is stupid investments.
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  I'm sorry, but that does not make any sense.
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  If I was in that, what I would do is that money.
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  First of all, what I will do is sort out my accommodation in
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  your primary residence before you start buying crypto, before
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  you start buying shares, before you start buying, sort out your
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  primary residence. Make sure that OK let's you.
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  You may not buy 100% that payments puts the 100% money,
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  but you can go on a mortgage that rents that you're going to
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  be paying in that one room. You can use that same brand and
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  pay as a mortgage if you know what you're doing.
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  I understand that you know you have parents that will tell you
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  who you should come and build your father's house.
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  Is is no longer OK. You have to come and build so
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  that people will know, so that you know, see, parents can push
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  you. You want to show their own
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  people or their peers. That's OK My son travelled or my
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  daughter travelled and they've made all this money.
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  They are not thinking finer. See if you if our parents
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  actually have financial literacy, Nigeria will not be
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  the way it is today. That is one thing I want
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  everybody to get and I am not saying don't listen to your
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  parents, but put look at it this way.
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  You make money. The first money you make, you
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  use it to build a mansion in Nigeria to whether to satisfy
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  your ego, to satisfy your parents, to prepare your
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  neighbour to do our past. My neighbour whatever that is,
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  you built that house, let's say you could easily calculate how
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  much you've spent because that is why I transfer you were
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  transferring that money to Nigeria.
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  Just sit down, open the spreadsheet, calculate that
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  money that you've sent, that money is enough for a down
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  payment of a house, if not half of that house that you want to
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  buy. Now I'm not saying no, go to New
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  York City to buy a house. Or you can start somewhere you
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  can go to, you know, neighbouring towns that are not
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  that expensive. Just get on the property ladder
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  and then you can easily build your way up.
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  If you get on the property like that, you're still making money.
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  You you are still making money. You can now use that as a
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  building structure. So if you want to build in
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  Nigeria but most times what happens is that the first money
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  that people make, even those that in Nigeria, they want to
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  build house in the village. They go and build house in the
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  village, bury their sometimes they even bury their capital in
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  that village. Once they finish building the
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  house, they realised that OK, I have spent much more than I
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  bargained for and right now I don't even have any other money
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  to to run my business. That is where you now start
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  hearing 01 village woman. He went to one that old man's
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  house. The old man give him something
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  to drink or he saw this man and shook his hand.
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  Since then yeah his business has fallen or he was going hell he
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  just like they will now start blaming village people while old
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  man 1 old woman not knowing it's a financial decision is those
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  financial decision that you have made some people say and since
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  they came back ohh they had stroke.
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  They had this where I would, you know, have stroke.
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  When you realise that you buried all your capital in the village
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  and distressing alone will give you stroke.
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  This trust alone will give you high blood pressure.
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  These stress alone is going to you.
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  What is it of us to learn from these things?
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  It's easier to pass that blame than to actually sit down, look
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  at yourself and say I made a bad financial decision.
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  We have to start looking at investments.
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  Anybody living in diaspora, the I think that you've not invested
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  anything in diaspora and you think the first thing you need
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  to do is to invest in Nigeria or your for you or your for you
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  because you are pegging the dollar to the naira you are
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  sending dollar. It might look like a lot you
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  know you're sending $1000 one million.
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  So you're like a hey, when I first got to the UK there was
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  this Ghanaian chicken shop, chicken and chip shop.
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  They sell other things, but I just love their chicken and
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  chips because of the pepper. Like the chicken is grilled with
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  Pepe. So when I'm whenever I'm coming
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  back from school, I always go there to, you know, once in a
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  while, maybe 2-3 times a week, you know, a new person now.
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  Chicken nachos then was about £2.50, you know, And so I would
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  just go there like a full lap chicken hair with chips.
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  So there was this old lady was only sitting down there looking
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  at me. I always greet her, you know,
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  you know, this kind of nosy old women that will, that will stare
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  at you until you greet them. So she was that type.
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  So I always greet her before I go into the shop.
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  So that day I just got the chicken, you know, was going
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  outside and she called me and said because there are seats
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  outside she should sit there. I sat down.
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  I was like, hey this is my so she said are you a student?
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  I said yes. She said why you lose buying?
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  Can you cook? I said yes.
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  She said why you lose buying chicken and chips.
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  I said just like the Pepe. She said, well you can you can
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  actually do that, that she's just trying to advise me you
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  that she was once a student when she came here she was doing all
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  these things. This woman you know I had to now
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  sit down there said eating my because he was getting cold.
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  I had to sit down there and she was telling me her stories.
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  She said she got here as a student was spending her money.
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  She did not invest. She said everything she was
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  making, she was sending back to Nigeria that today we are
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  talking about 2009 in the UK economy was still OK, OK, no, we
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  were coming out from the 2008 financial crisis, but even at
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  that it was not as bad as it is today.
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  So they just got out of that financial crisis.
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  Everything was at that time just bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.
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  So she was telling me that that she would advise me a lot of
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  people. Then she said some of our
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  friends bought houses. They are the only ones that are
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  actually just relaxing now because most of them don't have
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  house, you know, rents to pay and all that.
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  She sent all her money into Nigeria and then relied on
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  governments aid that today. How much are they giving her?
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  She. Yes dishes.
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  But the kind of life she's living today, she look at her
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  friends that they are just living.
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  They are living and she's just existing.
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  And that was the last day I bought you.
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  That was the last day I bought chicken and chips in that shop.
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  Not that I stopped eating chicken and chips, but I just
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  stopped going to that shop because I he just freaked me out
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  like you know how I was young. So I I just, this old woman just
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  dumped this whole story on me and I didn't know how to process
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  it. But looking back today, it was
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  like a time travel because God said I just felt that God sent
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  had to meet to warn me about you know the future.
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  So today I talk about investments.
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  Today I talk about retirement not because of Oh my God, I'm
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  afraid of that, but because of what I have seen.
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  I work in project management and most times you work with people
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  in their 50s, sixties, especially in 80 projects.
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  In the middle management level you really get younger people
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  and get developers who are younger, but in the mid
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  management you really get younger people.
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  So it's like 50 from 50 and above.
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  So I have spoken to a lot of people who are closer to
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  retirement and one thing they will tell you is they wish they
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  had done this, done that. My point is we should start
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  looking into what we actually put our money into.
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  I am not saying don't be the houses in Nigeria.
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  I am not saying don't build mansions in your village, but
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  ensure that you have a primary residence that you're going to
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  stay in. Ensure life.
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  You lose your job today because if I have £160,000 to to one
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  building mansion in the village Amal pay my mortgage.
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  I am not even supporting that. The freeze to buy a Rolex watch.
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  If you're in Nigeria, a Rolex watch makes more sense of an
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  investment to him because he may not be able to buy property in
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  the UK, he may not be able to buy property in diaspora.
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  So to him, Rolex makes more sense.
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  But we have a lot of diasporans who don't even have owning
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  property or investments. Then they have mansions in the
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  village, or they have a crypto wallet or they have a that you
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  see people putting money in places where if that money crash
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  your primary residence, you're still paying for that and that
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  is going to eat a chunk of your income.
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  And then you now lost the income.
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  What do you do at that point? You cannot go and cash out your
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  mansion in the village. You want to cash out your
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  Bitcoin. Maybe at that point it is low.
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  You maybe you've lost. I know somebody who lost like
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  they invested 50,000. According to them, who is this
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  lie? A lot.
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  They lost about 50,000. So listen, do whatever you're
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  comfortable with, you know, life is all about looking at
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  yourself, looking at your situation or your circumstances
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  and making decision based on the resources that you have.
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  What I'm saying, if you're in that spora, there are things
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  that you can put in place to ensure that at the downtime or
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  at the later age of your life you are able to still manage
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  yourself. Well now all I have to say is do
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  what works for you, do what you can live with.
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  Because if you sit down in your one room in Diaspora and think
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  about your mansion in the village and that gives you
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  satisfaction, that is very OK. If you can sit in one room and
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  think about you, have a mansion, rented mansion in Lagos,
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  wherever, and that gives you satisfaction, by all means do it
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  now. That is your choice.
• 18:11
  That is your prerogative. Do whatever you like Anyway.
• 18:15
  Today's episode is once again sponsored by the deputies wigs.
• 18:20
  This is a 22 inch yaki start like this.
• 18:25
  Love the bounce. Love the bounce.
• 18:27
  So we sell. We'll sell and retail.
• 18:29
  Get in touch with us and we'll get you sorted.
• 18:32
  Thank you very much for watching today's episode.
• 18:34
  Please like, like, like and share.
• 18:35
  Thank you very much. Bye.
• 18:37
  Bye.