For most people, following a strict budget often fails, leaving us with feelings of guilt and fatigue that reinforce our bad spending habits. We share the story of a 24-year-old who earns ₦1.3M monthly but refuses to follow traditional budgeting rules and explore why his ‘anti-budget’ style works.
Meet Ade
We will call him Ade. To be sure, it is not his real name.
Ade is 24 and works in growth for a fintech company in Lagos, pulling in between ₦1.1-1.3 million monthly. His job is to make “finance cool” by building and scaling fintech communities. But here’s the plot twist: despite working in finance, Ade doesn’t follow any traditional budgeting method.
“I’ve honestly never thought about it; I just do what works for me,” he told us. Coming from what he describes as an “upper middle class family with not so many privileges but hardly any area of lack,” Ade’s relationship with money is refreshingly uncomplicated. He calls it “carefree” and believes in “letting money flow.”
Living in Lagos, a place he described to us as “a scam” because of the huge costs of living, Ade spends around ₦368k on recurring monthly expenses while managing to save ₦200-300k monthly. Not bad for someone who claims he doesn’t budget, right?
The Problem With Strict Budgets
Before we dive into Ade’s approach, let’s address the elephant in the room: why traditional budgeting fails so spectacularly for most people, especially young professionals.
The truth is, strict budgeting is like going on a financial crash diet. Just as extreme diets lead to binge eating, extreme budgeting often leads to reckless spending when the pressure becomes too much. Research shows that restrictive financial planning causes “decision fatigue,” eventually making people abandon their budgets entirely.
Besides, budgeting is tedious and time-consuming. It requires a significant amount of mental effort to create one and superhuman discipline to follow through. Then, there’s the time that goes into tracking each expense. Think about it: how many budgeting apps have you downloaded with the best intentions, only to stop using them after two weeks? You’re not alone. Most budgets fail because they’re built on an unrealistic foundation, the assumption that you can control every financial variable in your life.
What’s worse, budget culture treats financial struggles as purely personal failures or the result of a lack of discipline on our part, ignoring bigger issues like, in Ade’s case, Lagos’s insane cost of living or Nigeria’s economic volatility. No amount of penny-pinching can fix systemic problems that lie beyond our control.
Enter the Anti-Budget, or the No-Budget Budget
Here’s where Ade’s approach gets interesting. Without knowing it, he’s been practicing what financial experts call “anti-budgeting,” a method that flips traditional budgeting on its head.
The anti-budget is beautifully simple: decide how much you want to save first, set that money aside immediately, then spend the rest however you want. That’s it. No complicated spreadsheets, no guilt-inducing expense tracking, no 47 different categories to manage.
Experts recommend setting aside 20-30% of your income though the amount you save can varying depending on your personal goals and financial circumstances. They also recommend, automating transfers to your savings or investment accounts as soon as you receive your salary. This way, you get to save without expending huge mental effort in creating or tracking your budget. The rest? You vibe on it till the next payday.
Talk about having one’s cake and eating it.
Ade demonstrates this perfectly: “I save based on what the month allows me to save, based on my expenses. I don’t save less than 200k monthly, except on really bad months.” He’s anchoring his financial decisions around savings goals rather than spending limits. This is nothing short of a psychological game-changer that allows him reach his goals with significantly small effort.
What Ade Gets Right
1. Flexible Saving Philosophy
Instead of stressing over exact amounts, Ade adapts his savings to life’s realities. When he bought a new phone, his savings dropped from ₦450k to ₦200k that month. No guilt, no broken budget, just adjustment.
2. Creative Saving Methods
“Sometimes, I save in the form of loans. Lending people money is a form of saving for me.” Last month, he loaned out ₦550k, which eventually returns to his savings account. It’s unconventional, but it works within his flow-based money philosophy.
3. Honest Self-Assessment
Ade knows his weak spots. He identifies fuel for his car and charity as his overspending areas, noting, “when I overspend, it’s usually more about the timing than about the amount of money I’m spending.”
4. Values-Based Spending
When asked what he does well with money, his answer is refreshingly human: “Taking care of myself, my friends and my family; looking after people and myself generally.” His spending aligns with his values rather than arbitrary budget categories.
Where Ade Can Level Up
Despite his success, there are areas where Ade could optimize his anti-budget approach:
1. Track the Fuel Situation:
“I don’t really know the exact amount I spend on [fuel] monthly,” he admits, estimating ₦80-120k. For someone spending potentially ₦1.4M annually on fuel, this deserves attention. Start screenshotting those fuel receipts, Ade.
2. Emergency Fund Structure
While Ade saves consistently, he paused his building project due to debt it was incurring. A clearer emergency fund separate from general savings could prevent future financial stress.
3. Seasonal Expense Planning
He mentions obligations that vary by season, like his grandmother’s passing or birthday months. Building a “life happens” fund specifically for these predictable-but-irregular expenses would strengthen his anti-budget system.
4. Investment Diversification
Beyond his Stanbic Money Market account, Ade could explore more investment vehicles to grow his substantial monthly savings.
Ade’s Optimized Anti-Budget
Here’s how Kemi could restructure his approach while maintaining his flow-based philosophy:
Step 1: Set Savings Goal First Target: ₦300k monthly (25% of average income)
- ₦150k → Emergency fund (until it reaches ₦500k)
- ₦100k → Investments (money market, stocks, bonds)
- ₦50k → “Life seasons” fund (funerals, birthdays, travel)
Step 2: Fixed Recurring Expenses (₦368k)
- DSTV: ₦30k
- Internet: ₦45k
- Electricity: ₦65k (budgeting for AC months)
- Groceries/Housekeeping: ₦65k
- Other subscriptions: ₦20k
- Fuel: ₦100k (start tracking to optimize)
- Miscellaneous: ₦43k
Step 3: Flexible Spending (₦530-730k) Everything else from gifts to spontaneous charity, eating out, shopping and helping friends. The beauty of the anti-budget is this money comes with zero guilt attached.
The Monthly Flow:
- Income hits account
- ₦300k automatically moves to savings/investments
- ₦368k covers essentials
- Remaining ₦430-630k is true “flow money”
The Real Magic in Using an Anti-Budget
This approach works because it aligns with how Ade’s mind already operates. He’s not fighting against his generous, flow-based nature, instead he’s channelling it effectively. The anti-budget respects his “carefree mindset” while ensuring his future self is taken care of. It acknowledges that some months you’ll spend more on fuel because you’re traveling, and other months you’ll lend friends money because that’s who you are.
Most importantly, it removes the psychological burden of tracking every naira while maintaining the financial discipline that’s already working for him. It also removes the guilt and fatigue that causes us to spiral when we break our budgets.
For young professionals earning good money but struggling with traditional budgets, Ade’s story offers hope: you don’t need to become a different person to manage money well. You just need a system that works with your personality, not against it. The anti-budget isn’t about restriction, it’s about intention. And sometimes, that’s all the budgeting you really need.
