From CorelDraw to Vaults & Crypto
How Maureen turned design gigs into ₦200m vaults and a crypto portfolio
Hey! you smell that?
That’s Sunday Rice with peppered turkey, and a side of quiet compound interest.
On Today’s Menu:
🍚 How a ₦500k/month creative stack scaled past ₦2m
🍚 The “save salary, live on gigs” system that hit ₦10m invested
🍚 The wild alternative: Ikoyi Vaults → ₦20m in → ₦200m+ out
🍚 This week’s market moves you should know about
🍚 Reader Q&A: “How much should I invest in myself vs. assets?”
Let’s eat…
Maureen Didn’t Stumble Into Money. She Designed It.
Literally.
She left Jos for Lagos in 2017, tripped into tech, first as a graphics designer, then as a digital marketer.
By 2019, she was pulling ₦350k/month. With side design gigs, she averaged around ₦500k/month.
Fast forward: today she earns over $3,000/month working remotely from Kigali as a web3 marketer.
But the money story she wants us to hear isn’t just about her income, it’s about what she did with it.
Design Paid the Bills. Marketing Paid the Investments.
While she kept doing design gigs for her survival income, Maureen saved and invested almost everything from her digital marketing pay. That disciplined saving compounded into ₦10 million before the big play.
She didn’t gamble that stash. She made a bet on physical real estate assets… a quiet, weirdly undervalued niche: vault units at Ikoyi Vault.
One Saturday, a friend dragged her to a burial service at Ikoyi Vault.
Somber day. But Maureen noticed something most people miss: scarcity.
When the vault marketer handed her a flyer, she wanted in.
Limited plots. High-status location. Increasing demand.
The math wasn’t emotional, it was supply and demand.
Four Vaults At ₦20M Is Now ₦200M+
Numbers are everything, so here’s Maureen’s math laid plain:
What she spent: ₦3M (vault 1) + ₦5M (vault 2) + ₦6M + ₦6M (vaults 3 & 4) = ₦20M total invested.
What they’re worth now: Over ₦200 market value.
“Not every investment must be pretty. It just needs to be profitable.
When I told my friends, they laughed. “You invested where?”
She shrugged. But today, she laughs…”
Crypto: Curiosity + Consistency
Maureen also started buying crypto during the pandemic in 2020.
She bought Bitcoin and ETH.
She kept adding BTC and ETH over time and later layered in ADA, XRP, KAS, SUI.
Her edge? Being a digital marketer helped: she reads trends fast, spots authentic network effects, and separates hype from real narrative. But the only sustainable edge she leans on is consistency — small buys, repeated over time.
Investing In Assets and Herself
Courses. Rooms. Dinners. Networks.
For Maureen, these weren’t “expenses.” They were part of her portfolio.
“Every new room upgrades my earning power.
Mentors cut my learning curve to half.”
Her conclusion? Highest IRR so far = self-investment.
Maureen’s Rules (Borrow Them)
Save first, flex later. Lifestyle lags capital.
Split streams. Survival gigs for expenses, salary for investments.
Buy what you understand. If you can’t explain its 5–10 yr value, skip.
Speculate like casino money. Treat memecoins like party shots, not pension plans.
Quarterly self-investment. One course. One room. One new network.
Receipts = resale. For physical assets, keep documentation tight.
The real game changer wasn’t a vault.
It was a habit.
What To Copy (5-Step Checklist)
✅ Automate savings → treat it like rent.
✅ Keep a survival gig (design, freelance) while you scale higher-paid work.
✅ Look for asymmetric bets (vaults = her 10x).
✅ Dollar-cost average into volatile assets. Habits beat emotions.
✅ Spend on growth — courses, networks, and events that raise your odds.
What She’d Do Differently
Buy earlier, smaller, more often.
Document every asset like I’m going to court. (receipts, contracts, photos)
Outsource admin sooner. Time is alpha.
Practice dry-run exits once a year (who, where, timeline, price bands).
Maureen’s Portfolio
📍 Ikoyi Vaults — 4 units, ₦20m cost → ₦200m+ value
📍 Crypto — BTC, ETH, ADA, XRP, KAS, SUI
📍 Fixed Income — ₦20m+ in Treasury Bills
Reader Reflection of the Week
@Chidi from Abuja asks:
“How much should I invest in myself vs. assets?”
Simple Rule of Thumb:
Early career → 30–40% into skills/career assets.
Mid-career → 15–25% self, rest assets.
Senior → 10–15% self, rest into diversification.
If ₦200k course unlocks ₦100k/month raise and breakeven in 2 months. That’s a better IRR than most “hot picks.”
Got a question? Drop it here or just reply to this email.
Market Moves This Week
🌏 GLOBAL
Powell's Jackson Hole speech signals dovish shift → Market expectations for a rate cut at the Fed's upcoming September 16-17 meeting surged.
Bitcoin retreats below $115,000 → Profit-taking and futures liquidations shake rally; traders eye Jackson Hole clues.
CNBC survey signals Trump may choose economic advisor Kevin Hassett as next Federal Reserve Chair → Raising market focus on future monetary policy..
European equities hit six-month highs → Driven by Ukraine peace hopes and softer UK inflation.
Canada's partial tariff removal on U.S. goods → Reduces some trade tensions, though key tariffs on steel and aluminum remain in place.
Gold steadies near $3,300/oz → Safe-haven demand holds firm; dovish Fed tone offsets hot inflation data.
🌍 AFRICA
Zenith Bank leads trading value on NGX. → The stock topped trading value as the All-Share Index rose, with mid-cap stocks also shining.
Absa posts double-digit profit growth. → The bank’s half-year earnings jumped 17%, with an interim dividend boosting investor sentiment.
Exxaro delivers stronger results. → Headline earnings rose 13%, and management hinted at richer payouts after a manganese acquisition.
South Africa's Rand climbs to nine-month high → After Fed hints at September rate cut, as weaker dollar and stronger gold prices boost South Africa’s currency.
FCMB Group plans capital raise. → The bank announced intentions to raise equity capital to fund its business expansion strategy.
FCCPC's new rule rattles digital lenders in Nigeria. → A new regulation on interest rates and loan app fees created uncertainty among digital lenders.
Market Moves
Monday, August 25 → Nigeria DMO Bond Auction → ₦200bn FGN bonds on offer, reopening 2030 and 2032 tenors, with settlement on August 27.
Monday, August 25 → US New Home Sales (July) release, Fed officials (Dallas, New York) deliver remarks, markets watch housing demand and policy tone.
Tuesday, August 26 → U.S. Durable Goods Orders → Report indicates business investment trends, influencing sentiment on the U.S. economic outlook.
Tuesday, August 26 → Ghana’s cedi weakens as corporate dollar demand rises → Thin supply prompts Bank of Ghana intervention talks.
Wednesday, August 27 → Fed officials deliver speeches, regional US data releases → Markets position around short-end yields and inflation expectations.
Thursday, August 28 → Investors reposition ahead of Friday’s US Core PCE release → Light data calendar, liquidity thins into month-end.
Friday, August 29 → US Personal Income & Outlays (July) and Core PCE inflation release → Fed’s preferred gauge, major market-moving event.
Grab Your Free Tickets...
Final Scoop
Maureen’s story isn’t “get-rich-quick.”
It’s steady hustle + disciplined saving + huge bets + self-investment = real generational moves.
While people post bank screenshots, she posts keys and receipts.
Why? Because she bought things that hold value.
That’s your Sunday Rice.
Stay active.
By all means.
-
Lucky Mark
@ActiveMeans
🚨Disclaimer: Informational only, not financial advice. Don’t invest in anything you can’t explain to your grandmother.
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