What to do with your first salary

The first salary is the easiest one to plan, because nothing is competing for it yet. The general approach is on how to make your salary last; this page is about using salary one to set up the months after it.

Why the first salary matters more than its size

The first order becomes the default. Research on workplace savings in the US found that when employees were enrolled automatically, far more of them took part, and many kept the default settings.^[1] Defaults stick. The way your first salary is split can become your default too.

Deciding before the money arrives is easier. Letting people decide in advance to send part of future pay to savings helped them act on saving plans they already had.^[2] Before payday, you're thinking about the plan. After payday, you're looking at a balance.

Family matters, and so does your rent. For many Nigerians, the first salary includes a thank-you: a gift for parents, something for the people who helped you get here. Requests often follow. That's normal, and planning for it helps. In Côte d'Ivoire, workers who could keep part of their earnings in private accounts earned more, and still sent as much to others as before.^[3] Giving from a plan doesn't mean giving less.

The first payslip can surprise you. If you started in the middle of a month, your first salary may be smaller than your offer letter suggests. Plan around the amount that actually lands.

An example first salary

An illustration, using a ₦180,000 salary.

Purpose	Amount	How it's held
Thank-you gift	₦30,000	Decided before payday
Rent (towards next year's)	₦45,000	Put where spending can't reach it
Transport to work	₦25,000	Released weekly
Emergency fund	₦15,000	Kept aside, grows every month
Data and airtime	₦5,000	One monthly top-up
Everyday spending	₦60,000	₦15,000 a week
Total	₦180,000

Month two looks the same, minus the gift. Now the ₦30,000 can go towards the emergency fund, or towards the thing you've been waiting to buy.

What works, with or without Delight

1. Write the plan before payday. List the gift, rent, transport, data, an emergency fund and everyday spending, with amounts.
2. Give the thank-you a fixed amount. Generous, decided in advance, and paid from its own budget.
3. Start an emergency fund with salary one. 62% of Nigerian adults say emergency money would be very difficult to raise.^[4] Starting now, while your costs are low, is the easiest time.
4. Release spending money weekly. A weekly allowance stops the first week from taking the whole month's share.
5. Hold new commitments for a month or two. See what the salary really covers before signing up for bigger rent or regular payments.

Set it up in Delight

1. Receive your salary into Delight. Give your employer your Delight account number, or transfer your salary in on payday. Check your tier: Tier 1 holds up to ₦300,000, and Tier 2 up to ₦500,000.
2. Create a group called "Monthly" with sub-budgets for Rent, Transport, Data, Emergency and Everyday, plus a one-time budget called Thank-you gift for the first month.
3. Set the order. Check that Auto-fund is enabled on each budget, then open a budget's menu, tap Funding priority, and put Thank-you gift and Rent at the top and Everyday last.
4. Put drip mode on Everyday. Choose Weekly and ₦15,000; it resets every Monday, and only the Available Drip can be spent.
5. Turn Emergency into a Stack. In the Grow tab, create a Stack on the Emergency budget with a target, such as two months of essentials. Each time the budget is funded, your chosen share moves into the Stack. Choose Yes, but a limited amount, so you can take out up to a set amount in a real emergency. Stacks don't pay interest; they keep the money for its purpose.
6. Send the gift on the day. Set up a one-off bank transfer from the Thank-you gift budget, or pay it yourself when you're ready. Bank transfers carry the standard bank charge.
7. Look back after month one. Early next month, the Monthly Recap shows where the first salary went. Adjust the amounts for month two.