12/08/2025
Sensitivity to Financial Seasons
The Christina Story
Christina is 38. Confident. Sharp. A respected name in her industry.
She works with one of the biggest oil & gas firms in Nigeria — a place where salaries aren’t just payments; they’re declarations of status.
Her annual salary package is ₦28 million. Add to that the jaw-dropping perks:
* A gleaming company SUV replaced every three years
* An annual international vacation allowance
* Comprehensive health insurance for herself and her parents
* A clothing allowance that makes her wardrobe look like a designer’s showroom
* Business-class flight tickets for any official travel
Christina is proud of her job. Her eyes are set on the Executive Director seat in a few years. Life feels like a runway, and she’s strutting in her best heels.
And she lives large — very large.
Friday nights? She and her friends dine at the most exclusive restaurants in Lagos, where a single dinner could cost more than a junior staff’s monthly salary.
Vacations? She jets off to Dubai, Santorini, or the Maldives without thinking twice.
Shopping? She has a soft spot for high-end brands — Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton.
Her monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in upscale Ikoyi could buy a small plot of land in Lekki every single year.
She changes her phones as soon as a new model drops.
She pays for club memberships she hardly uses — “just in case.”
Christina has no husband, no children, and no significant financial dependents.
She also has no tangible assets — no land, no house, no long-term investments, no business.
Everything she earns flows in like the tide and flows out just as fast.
Christina is living her “best life,”
but she’s also a financial disaster waiting to happen.
If anything happens to her job — a company restructuring, a global oil price crash, or a health emergency — she’s done for. No safety net. No backup plan.
Understanding Financial Seasons
Life operates in seasons, and finances are no exception.
A financial season is simply the economic phase you find yourself in — a period where your financial reality follows a certain pattern.
There’s the Season of Plenty:
This is when everything seems to work for you.
You’re closing deals, hitting career milestones, and your income is at its peak. The phone rings with opportunities. Money flows in steadily. The world feels like it’s at your beck and call.
Then there’s the Season of Constraints:
Nothing seems to work no matter how hard you try. Deals fall through. Salaries are delayed or reduced. Expenses multiply. Opportunities dry up.
The danger is when we mistake one season for the other — especially when we believe the season of plenty will last forever. It never does.
Every farmer knows:
You don’t eat all the harvest in the summer.
You store some for the winter.
Christina’s biggest blind spot is that she’s living like summer will never end. But seasons always change. And if you don’t prepare for the lean times during the fat times, you will learn the hard way.
The Rules of Engagement for Financial Seasons
To thrive through life’s inevitable shifts, you must learn and respect the rules for each season.
Here are three practical, real-life strategies to become sensitive to seasons and act accordingly:
1. Build Your Winter Storehouse During Summer
When money flows freely, the temptation is to live as though it will never stop.
Instead, take a disciplined portion of your income — at least 30–40% during peak years — and put it into safe, income-generating assets:
* Real estate in strategic locations
* Diversified investment portfolios
* Businesses that can operate without your daily involvement
This is not “saving for a rainy day”; it’s building a roof before the rain comes.
2. Track Your Season Indicators
Just like weather forecasters track shifts in temperature, you must watch for early signs of change in your financial climate:
* Is your industry slowing down?
* Are layoffs increasing in your sector?
* Has your client base or demand reduced?
Don’t wait until you’re in the storm to buy an umbrella. Adjust your spending, tighten your budgets, and increase your reserves at the first sign of seasonal change.
3. Diversify Your Streams Before the Dry Spell
In the season of plenty, your primary income is strong — but don’t let it be your only income.
Develop other income streams while you still have the bandwidth.
This could be:
* Consulting in your field
* Acquiring rental properties
* Creating digital products or courses
* Investing in dividend-paying stocks
When one stream dries up, the others keep the river flowing.
Final Thoughts – Your Season Won’t Last Forever
Christina’s story is not rare. It’s happening every day — in different forms, to different people, in different industries. Some of us are living in the season of plenty, but behaving like it will never end. Others are in the season of constraints, but failing to position themselves for the inevitable upswing.
The seasons will change — they always do.
The question is: When they change, will you be ready?
Remember this:
In the season of plenty, you prepare for the lean season.
In the season of constraints, you prepare for the bounce-back.
Only those sensitive to the seasons will have the wisdom — and the wealth — to survive and thrive in both.
Benjamin Aduroja
Global Wealth Strategist
© 2025 Benjamin Aduroja. All rights reserved.
