I hate writing lists, and I don’t particularly enjoy shopping. Not all women do apparently. Because I’m a disorganized shopper, I find myself in the supermarket more often than I wish, and it just aggravates my hatred for supermarkets. Three days ago for example, I went to do my monthly house shopping. While I actually had a full cart at the end of my shopping…
Read MoreI’m a member of an investment club (a chama), with 9 other ladies, much older than me. In fact, this is my Mom’s club, she invited me to join after my original investment club went burst. I don’t socialize much with the other members, but this week something interesting happened. One of the members asked me to co-sign for her on a loan she was…
Read More“An Investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis promises safety return of principal (amount invested), and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative” – Benjamin Graham. The Intelligent Investor An investor’s focus should be learning and implementing strategies that ensure security of the capital, and an adequate return. Anything that is not focused on these two objectives is considered speculation…
Read MoreMost of us tend to overspend on furniture, and in most cases end up regretting because it doesn’t last as long as it should. We’ve all heard (or experienced) horror stories where someone buys a fantastic looking table/bed/sofa, and within a year, they have to replace it because it’s broken or no longer works. As Team Frugality, we want to spend as little as is…
Read MoreOn the last post, we introduced the first rule for financial success, and I promised to write about basic ways we can adhere to this rule. Spending less than you earn often means that you need to reduce the money you spend (it’s not rocket science really). To start with, this doesn’t have to be anything drastic, extreme money saving tips should come after you…
Read MoreWhat is the first and most important rule if you want to succeed financially? Spend less than you earn. Sounds simple, like something we all do, but really is it? If we all spent less than we earned, then Barclays credit card agents wouldn’t be so busy calling people to tell them about their exciting new products. I got the second call from them on…
Read MoreQuick: If I gave you Kshs 200,000 today, what would you do with it? Every so often, or at least once in a lifetime, we receive money we didn’t expect. It may be from a lottery winning (very rarely), your employer could feel generous and decide to reward you, or you could close a business deal and get more profits than anticipated. Windfalls may be…
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My monthly budgeting model is such that instead of planning for every single item I intend to buy, I set aside the following (in order of importance): Savings and Giving Rent Debts (if any) Other bills (fuel, electricity etc) House shopping Whatever remains after that is my “Float” or spending money. When it runs out, I stop spending. For that reason, I rarely track the…
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