Speaking with Abass* (30, Ghanaian), you get a sense that he is confident, streetwise, and has a wry sense of humour. After a few conversations, you learn about his Accounting and Law degrees, his conflict on whether or not to further them, and his interesting family dynamics. Abass has been an internal auditor at an oil marketing company since 2019, and in simple terms, one could refer to him as an FBI agent for a corporate organisation. This job has helped him grow to 10x his salary in six years. He also gets paid bi-weekly and receives yearly bonuses, but is financing a loan that will take him 42% of his monthly salary and another three years, to complete.
How is Abass navigating his promising career and this huge financial decision?
Tell me more about your job
I am an internal auditor at a company in Ghana. My job is to review financial data to assess fraudulent activities at our company. We do a lot of investigations into these people’s actions and prepare documents for legal proceedings. It is more complex than this, of course, but essentially, I make sure that criminals don’t get away.
You do a really important and high-risk job. How do you manage it?
Nobody has been murdered yet, thankfully. We take safety precautions and well, it is something I have come to really enjoy. I do the work, I get paid, it feels good.
Sounds cool. What and when do you get paid?
I earn about 14,000 GHS and I receive my salary in two instalments, every two weeks. What I like about this arrangement is how some months have five weeks, like August, and I can be paid thrice because salary comes every two weeks, no matter what. I don’t have access to health insurance or other employee allowances but I get paid a huge bonus at the end of the year.
Do you have any other job?
Well, I help my girlfriend manage her business but I don’t get paid. What we share is a greater reward, I am sure.
Haha. What is family like?
We are a family of 8, but not particularly close to each other. I have a pretty formal relationship with my dad for instance, I call him Sir, Lol. I think it has to do with the fact that we come from a long line of patriarchs, but we have reached a sort of understanding and we are cool. Also, I live with one of my sisters so I don’t get to pay rent, but we don’t converse often. We did not grow up together so that affected our relationship, along with all my siblings.
I see. Let’s break down your expenses in a typical month
Loan repayment – 5902 GHS
Savings – 1500 GHS
Nightlife – 1500 GHS
Black Tax (Mum, dad, and 1 sibling) – 1200 GHS
Food (eating out) – 2500 GHS
Groceries – 500 GHS
Dog food – 500 GHS
Miscellaneous – 498 GHS
You have a dog?
Forced on me by my girlfriend but I have grown to love the handsome creature.
Good for you! Tell me a little about this loan you are repaying
I took a loan from the bank to buy land because I want to build my family house there. Living in Accra is expensive so I thought, why wait until I can afford the complete money for the land, which will definitely be more expensive by the time I can afford it? I plan to marry my girlfriend and build a life where I don’t have to call one place home. We will have kids, our family house, and be able to travel anywhere in the world.
I hope this works out for you. How else are you working to achieve this dream?
Thank you. For one, I work really hard and asides nightlife, I don’t hang out at any fun spots. Maybe when I “blow”, I will travel to Togo by bus.
Would you say you are financially prudent?
For someone that works in finance, I am not disciplined, I just don’t think I have enough to spare at the moment. Besides, I don’t think it is realistic to save long-term in this economy, and I don’t usually keep track of my finances, asides this loan I am repaying. Most of my get-rich ideas are tied around making more money.
I see. What else do you do for entertainment?
I like TV shows like The Office, adult cartoons like Archer. I shed a few tears when Michael left the show after proposing to Holly in The Office.
Ugh. Spoiler alert
It still won’t ruin it for you, I promise.
If you say so. What is your greatest money hack?
I have an abundance mindset and oddly enough, this comes from growing up in a poor background that came into some money later. I just think that money will always be available to me, one way or the other. Because of this, I am not afraid to ask for a salary raise at work. All I need to do is put in an insane amount of work over a period to validate by request for more money.
Amazing. If you could have any job in the world with any salary, which would you choose?
I would be a government consultant warning these government officials not to make some of the moves that they do. I would be earning about USD 5 million on six-month contract jobs that afford me the freedom to travel anywhere in the world.
