Category Archives: Personal Finance

About 11 months ago, I wrote about the Envelope Method, an easy way to keep track of your spending where you deposit specific amounts as per your budget into specific physical envelopes, and you only spend money off the envelopes for the intended purpose. I had promised to try the Envelope Method then write about my experience on here, but I totally forgot. Thanks @NotMutant for…

I am no expert at child care, and being a last born who was born with an old soul, I had very little interaction with children growing up, and this is where I need your input. Read my ideas below, and let me know if you think they would work on young children.  Do you have additional ideas on fun ways to teach kids about…

First, apologies for the silence. I have no reason for not posting (I have so many drafts in my notes), just plain old laziness. Today I got a shiny fast computer, hopefully it will keep me motivated to write. I have two e-book projects I am working on (watch this space, one will be free!) and I am learning how to write from Zen Habits by…

When we are focused on saving and investing, it is easy to view personal care as an unnecessary luxury. We may view things like gym, medical check up, food supplements, facial, massages, manicures and pedicures as wasteful and unnecessary. As much as we can do without it, personal care is important and contributes to our overall well being. After sitting in the office all week,…

Debt is a fact of life for many people of late, especially when it comes to car loans, mortgages and credit cards. The fact that these have become the norm doesn’t mean that your life has to be ruled by debt repayments. Today we look at simple things you can do to manage your debt, and eventually live a debt free life (which I believe…

On this post (Financial mistakes I have made in the last 7 years) Beth suggested that people in their 20s could embrace house sharing, as a way of cutting rental expenses and still have a bit of space. An excellent and very sensible suggestion. However, I have observed that other than a few exceptions, we (Kenyans) don’t like sharing houses. A lot of my expatriate…

I’m generally not a fan of resolutions,I favour longer- range, more deliberate kind of life planning, as opposed to believing that there’s something magical that happens on the 1st of January, that makes you different from who you were on the 31st of December. That said, the beginning of a new year is a new slate of sorts, that allows you to make certain changes…

Have you ever made money mistakes so dumb that looking back you wonder what was wrong with you? In the final post on this series, I look at two excesses that have been costly for me.  Read Part 1 here and part 2 here.  As you read my mistakes, share your insights, experiences and lessons we could draw from them in the comments section. We are all…

Have you ever made money mistakes so dumb that looking back you wonder what was wrong with you? In Part 2 of this series, we look at two particularly silly mistakes I made earlier on. Read Part 1 here.  Read mine, and share yours in the comments section. Also, feel free to share additional lessons from my mistakes. We are all learning after all! In…

As we approach Christmas, I thought it prudent to remind us that the world doesn’t end in December, no matter what the Mayans say. Most of us receive our December salaries just before the Christmas break, and the deceitfully high bank balances seduce us to party over the holidays, only to suffer in January. As you prepare to party, please do me a favour and…