Through my personal experience, I've undergone a mindset change

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I have lived in the city of Lagos state Nigeria for 8 years with my family. Lagos State is one of the biggest cities in Nigeria with a large population. It could take hours for one to visit a friend living in another part of Lagos and that's how big the state is. In my 3rd year of living in Lagos with my husband, I received news from him about securing an asset. I inquired about the type he wanted us to go for and he said it was land. After describing the location of the landed property, and his plan for us to build our house over there instead of renting, I wasn't so pleased with that due to the location. The place was still a bit underdeveloped but since he said he wasn't planning on building there immediately, it was fine by me. I couldn't imagine going to live in such an underdeveloped location after living in a developed place, I thought to myself.

I tried so much to convince my husband on reselling the land even without bothering to visit the property. My mind was just made up on not leaving the big town to a lesser location. I must confess that I wasn't so encouraging to my husband through my attitude. You can feel bitterness in my actions then. Securing a landed property in the main town cost millions of naira and I knew my husband could not afford such then but rather choose one of the 4 million naira that he could afford. I would have just exercised patience and supported his dream of becoming a landlord instead of giving him attitude even when I knew that he can't afford where my mind is. One good thing about Lagos state is that development is too fast. It doesn't take long for a particular community to develop once people start buying land there.

Fast forward to 3 years ago, the cost of rented apartments in the town was almost doubled. From #750,000 to 1.2 million. That was a huge increase by our landlord, there was also a general increase in house rents in Lagos state and then my husband decided of building his own house instead of paying such an amount on rent alone. At that time, I decided to visit the landed property for the first time, on getting there I discovered that the place wasn't underdeveloped as I thought. Many people are already living there, and I could see buildings and ongoing projects left and right, yet I wasn't still satisfied because it wasn't as developed as where we rented. It became another issue between my husband and me. He expected me to support him and was disappointed in me. He started the project in July 2019 and by January 2020, the house 🏠 was ready, yet I wasn't still happy. I went to the extent of asking him to rent the house out, so we can continue being a tenant in the main city of Lagos...my bad! He didn't listen to my rant but took his decision of relocating us to his new house.

After two months of living in the house, I took a long breath and calm down, I reflected on so many things, and I regretted my actions from the beginning. Many people that came to our house were so happy with us, they knew that becoming a landlord in Lagos is one of the biggest achievements one can make irrespective of the location but I failed to see that. I was only after living in the big city forgetting that the big city was once underdeveloped, forgetting that, one can step up the game when one achieves a certain level financially. It's been two years since I am living in our new house, the location is good enough, just 30 minutes without traffic to where we rented a house before. Everything I need for living is still around here, be it school, hospital, market, etc.

Imagine now that the inflation is hitting our world today, if I should have added house rent to the other cost of living and school fees, I might be going crazy by now but here I am, I have no business with any landlord, this was the future my husband saw earlier but I failed to reason with him. Honestly, there is now a big change in my mindset out of my experiences so far.