“No wonder Nairobi people do not invest much. There are too many things for you to spend money on” This is my mother’s favorite remark, whenever she visits for an extended time and gets to see the things we spend money on. In this particular instance, I had just paid entry fees for a play park, for her granddaughter to have some fun. I was…
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On rare occasions, I do speculate on the market. But as a rule, not with more than 20% of my portfolio. My speculation will be based on some expected market irrationality or a developing trend out of which I expect an unusual gain in the short-term (within a year), then I walk out of the position. Why I keep this at no more than 20%…
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Have you called a call centre recently? The most annoying part of all call centre calls is usually the authentication process, where they try to figure out if it is really you on the phone, or it is a fraudster. In my experience, most call centres will ask for my phone number (I always wonder why they haven’t embraced caller ID), my ID number, email…
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Whenever I hold a personal finance planning session and we get to discussing investment strategies, the issue of personality type always comes up. People will say they’re not risk takers, and therefore they prefer investments that are not risky. Others will say that they are risk takers and prefer investments that have high returns and involve a bit of adventure. I must admit I do…
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2017 was not the easiest of years for Safaricom. First, the company got caught in the middle in a post-election political fight which saw a section of the opposition ask their supporters to boycott the company. There was no way whether the supporters did boycott and the effect of this on the company financially, but this was a position no business would want to find…
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I will tell this Kenya Airways (KQ) shares story in two parts. In the first part, I will explain what happened to our dear KQ shares during the recent restructuring that culminated in the resumption of trading on 29th November 2017. In the second part, I will illustrate the impact and in the spirit of sharing personal experiences – both follies and ‘wisdoms’ –…
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The NSE has some 66 odd listed companies. Unless analyzing companies is your day job or someone else is paying for it, it is impractical to obtain and analyze usable information on every single one. My strategy as shared in an earlier post is to keep my radar up and when something comes up at a high-level, it registers on my radar screen for further…
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As you know, this blog is pro-entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs who are doing great things in the continent are exciting to us and we use every opportunity to support them. This is one such opportunity. Papu Haroon, the founder of Kilifi Moringa is a finalist of the Chivas Venture Challenge. This is a competition by Chivas Regal (the whiskey brand), that aims to reward social entrepreneurs with…
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In April 2016, Chase Bank, a bank that was beloved of many Kenyan entrepreneurs and young people went into receivership after a scandal that threatened that reverberated across the banking sector, affecting many of the mid-tier and smaller Kenyan banks. It was alleged that the directors had misappropriated depositors funds, investing them in private real estate, and giving themselves and their buddies loans that were…
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There is a reason I do 100% of my stocks investment in Kenya, except for the deliberate adventure trip I took to Zambia some years back. It is because I believe in the philosophy of Investment By Walking Around (IBWA, not as cool as MBWA but hey!). Before I get to the technical analysis of a stock, something that appeals to common sense must first…
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