Finance Lens

Stepping out one realizes that Kenya has lots of opportunities, what pains most is the government is not willing to enable its own to cease them.....

Something that every Young Professional needs to do, to manage their money wisely.
Reserve your spot:
https://forms.gle/NxyRy3mT1PFEf8Eh9
By 22 February 2022

GETTING STUCK
Picking up from last week’s article, we highlighted the need of turning a resolution to a clear target.

A story is told of good friends who had a dream to own a house within 3 years. Their first step in actualizing this amazing project was getting an architect who could put what they had in mind on paper-at least, they did not engage Soldier the known fundi kwa mtaa to give them drawings-and they soon had the spectacular architectural drawings with 3D presentation.

Friends, this is not your kawaida massionate; I am sure some of you have visited those houses somewhere I will spare you the name, that have tiny staircase that if you have a public opinion, you have to climb up the staircase sideways. Just know this was not one of those. It was a great posh palatial house, standard za Runda na Karen. Kwa wasee wa mtaaa its Not Runda view, but Runda katikati!!! And the excitement of these friends was understandable.

The next step for them if they desired to pursue the professional/expert way; was to get a qualified QS to give them a BQ. Sadly, this was not something they intended to spend on; they decided to ask a few experienced friends for an estimated figure of what the house could cost them. The recommendation to get a BQ was dismissed and the project began. Three years on, the house was less than 60% complete. They had used all the money they had. They got a loan facility from a bank based on their ability to pay, but the amount could still not get the house beyond roofing….its five years on and they are stuck. Still paying rent and visiting their stalled dream house building every weekend with no hope for progress until they clear the current loan. They are still talking about the MJENGO five years down the line.

Last week, we mentioned that a target is having the end in mind. The intended dream. For these friends, the dream was not complete because they did not have the clear financial expectation to meet their target. The big question is how do you ensure you achieve your intended dream? A plan is necessary. A plan is the determinant of whether the dream will be achieved or will get stuck. But for our friends, the plan was based on non-expert advise, no wonder they are still stuck and frustrated, blaming all their advisers. But who is really to blame hear?

The common saying “Failing to plan, is planning to fail”, is not far from the truth. If your plan does not consider the start to the end, with realistic measures, you are most likely not to achieve your dream.
Are there projects you started and got stuck? If you were to look back, what would you have done differently?

RESOLUTIONS TO TARGETS

The New Year feeling is slowly and somewhat quickly fading away... Soon the greeting will no longer be “happy new year” as we slowly sink back to the normal Kenyan lingo… “hii mwaka inakimbia ikienda wapi?”.

But I am reminded of where most of us commonly find ourselves at the beginning of the New Year…with RESOLUTIONS made on 31st/1st. But as the days unfold, the reality of the resolutions dawns on us. We then realize by mid-January half of the list has not been acted upon and even the ones we have put some little effort on, the willpower to consistently follow through quickly dwindles.

I wish to return us to the 31stDec/1st Jan, and ask this question, what led you to making the resolutions that you hoped to achieve? Was it so important that you wanted to work on a specific area that concerns your life? Where are you at with some of the resolutions that you made?

The reason why most resolutions never see the light of day, is because we do not put the end picture to it, called the TARGET. We do not start with the end or the envisioned future in mind. Having the end in mind, is the dream that will keep that resolution alive until it is achieved.
Unfortunately, our resolutions are mostly short-lived due to a quick desire wished to be fulfilled. Big question: What can you do to change this narrative? Simple, start with the end in mind. Picture a time when the resolution is fulfilled and it’s at its best.

It’s like having that dream figure in your bank account. Let the picture of the dream accomplished be your motivation. But the next thing to do is to come up with a PLAN towards accomplishing that dream. Take this example; may be your dream is to have saved Ksh.200,000 by end of year. What do you need for this dream to come true? You need to save around # # amount weekly/monthly. How do you raise this amount? And how do you ensure you don’t touch what you put aside?

Welcome to this page! We aim to interact and enlighten one another on Money; Personal Financial management, Finding Financial freedom and building Financial independence.
We will share a different topic every Monday, to lead our weekly discussions.