There was a year that many of us quietly circled in our minds.
A year we thought we’d “have it together.”
A year, the money would finally make sense.
A year life would look like the version we imagined when we were younger.
For some, it was 25. For others, 30, 35, 40, or a milestone age where we had pictured ourselves in a different tax bracket, a different home, a different life. Maybe we imagined being debt-free. Maybe we imagined travelling without checking our bank account first. Maybe we imagined that calm, effortless security successful people seem to have.
But then that year arrived.
And most of us weren’t rich.
At least not in the way we’d imagined.
Instead, there were bills. Responsibilities. Detours. Life events that didn’t fit neatly into the timeline we created in our heads. Some of us were starting over. Some were carrying others. Some were still trying to understand what “enough” even meant.
What’s rarely talked about is the quiet anxiety behind unmet financial milestones.
The feeling of falling behind an invisible clock.
The comparison trap when scrolling through other people’s wins.
The silent question: “What did I do wrong?”
But often, the problem isn’t our effort or ambition.
It’s the timeline itself.
We grew up on oversimplified success stories, millionaires at 25, overnight founders, passive income at 30. These stories made wealth feel fast, clean, and guaranteed.
Real life is messier.
We change careers.
We go back to school.
We build something that fails before it works.
We support families.
We heal from things no financial plan could have predicted.
And yet, that is still progress, even if no one taught us how to recognise it.
Most people don’t get rich young. They get wise first.
They get resilient. They get disciplined. They learn how money really works, not just how it looks online.
And maybe the real milestone isn’t the year you became rich.
Maybe it’s the year you stopped panicking for not being rich yet.
The year you stopped chasing someone else’s timeline and started building your own.
You might not be as rich as you want (yet), but you can start building the right habits through saving. And when you save ₦100,000 and above on Ladda, you get access to financial resources on MoneyAfrica, plus advisory support on how to start investing smarter.
Small steps. Better habits. Smarter guidance.
That’s how real wealth is built.
You’re not behind.
You’re becoming.