The other day, I watched our president address Russian investors, trying to woo them to invest in our country. A great move in my opinion, though I couldn’t help but think that he ought to fix a few simple (and not so simple) things that make it difficult for us to do business in Kenya. In 2011, Transcentury Kenya’s first investment club gone big listed…
Read MoreWe will continue our discussion on housing and mortgages as promised, but I would like to close on this series of posts sponsored by Barclays Kenya by giving a bit more detail on their fixed rate mortgage product. Definition A fixed rate mortgage is a mortgage where the interest rate is guaranteed to remain at an agreed upon level for a set period of time,…
Read MoreIn the last post, we looked at the math behind renting and taking a mortgage, and ended with the note that until you pay off your mortgage you are either a money renter or a home renter, not a home owner. Today we evaluate the common arguments in favour of taking a mortgage. These posts are designed to educate you as you make your home ownership plan,…
Read MoreFor most people, owning a home is the ultimate financial goal. There are various credible reasons why people like to own houses. The most compelling for me is security for my family. If I died today, my child wouldn’t have a place to live (I live in a rented house), but if I bought or built a house, then at least they’re assured of a…
Read MoreOne of my young but brilliant friends sent me this text early on a Saturday morning: “Do you think I should take a mortgage now?” He’s about 24 years, he has done really well career wise, and his pay slip could support a mortgage if he sacrificed a few luxuries well-to-do 24 year olds typically enjoy. Personal finance advisers sit on two extremes when it…
Read MoreIf you have read up on the history of the stock market and finance, one thing that comes through quite clearly is that the past tends to repeat itself quite often. There’s nothing new under the sun. The first stock market crash happened in 1720: the Mississippi Bubble in France, and the circumstances around it were not too different from the crashes we have witnessed in recent…
Read MoreEver wondered how the Diners Card got it’s name? Or how the first person thought of the concept of using a card to make a payment? Yesterday I was conversing with a friend about the payments systems, and it got me wondering how cards came to be. The card you, and 2 billion other people across the globe use to make payments today has an…
Read MoreEveryone wants to own a home some day, and here in Kenya, we seem to have a particular attachment to land and buildings, even when it doesn’t make economic sense to own either. To make matters worse, we have experienced a house market boom that has seen real estate prices quadruple or even more in less than 5 years, making housing a great investment (or…
Read MoreThis is a continuing series how to use fundamental analysis to pick stocks to invest in. The aim of this blog is not only give information, but to educate, that way we are able to make independent saving and investment decisions. If you are reading this for the first time, read the introduction to fundamental analysis here and the second post on qualitative analysis here. Today, we’re…
Read MoreIn this post, we looked at the concept of fundamental analyis, which in a nutshell is a technique that uses the information provided about a company, both qualitative and quantitative, to calculate the value of their shares, and determine whether they are under valued by the market or not. Today, we delve deeper into qualitative analysis. Qualitative analysis looks at factors about and around the company…
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