I saw the Netflix miniseries first and I really loved it, I had to read the book. The Series is one of my favorite Nigerian Netflix series ever: Educative, Informative, Engaging, and Funny. Author Arese Ugwu describes the money issues most millennials can relate to – consumerism, retail therapy, fear and misconception about money, societal pressures, and the roles they play in success and failure. 

The book presents the basic concepts of earning, budgeting, spending, borrowing, saving, investing as well as the behavioural and emotional aspects of money in a practical way that makes it easy to personalise.

Although Arese wrote the book with women as her primary audience, I found the lessons in the book to be very helpful for all gender. Each chapter in the book and episode in the Netflix series ends with a financial principle/nugget called Smart Money Lessons. The book shares the story of a typical Nigerian millennial that is very relatable, the roller coaster of being a Nigerian or African, black tax, lifestyle decisions that eventually affect our financial future.

The Smart Money Woman revolves around five young women and how they take control of their finances and assets, the series focuses on spending culture of women and how it ultimately affects their finances on the long run, the series also talks about how friendship, peer pressure and societal influence can affect how we spend money, It also features and teaches how women should learn to invest in their themselves amidst romantic and financial losses. ¹

Arese is the Founder of smartmoneyafrica.org a personal finance platform for the African millennial. As a contributor to the Guardian newspaper, the host on Guardian TV’s new personal finance show “Your Life Your Money”, and a co-host for “Analyse This” on Ndani TV, she has helped shape the new narrative on personal finance in the media.

Rating – 9/10 (Loved the Book)