Chachanomics Money Talks

  Debt Management: Effective Strategies of Overcoming the Trap and Shame of Debt With the proliferation of digital money lenders and introduction of "easy-to-get" e-loans, many people have fallen victim to bad debts leading to devastating consequences like suicide, separation or divorce, depression, family conflicts, decreased productivity at workplace and collapse of institutions. By the end of 2021, 4.6M Kenyans were listed in CRB (up from 3.2M in 2020 and 2.7 in 2019) save for the presidential directive on delisting those with less than Kshs.1M. This dire situation calls for the need to learn how to overcome the trap and shame of debts Five critical questions to think about 1. What does the term debt refer to? 2. What does it mean to be trapped by debts? 3. How do people become trapped by debts? 4. How can we overcome the trap of debts? 5. What are the dos and don'ts about debts? 1. Demystifying the concept of debts The concept of debts is best captur...

Christmas' Money Question Edition (Published by Saturday Nation on Christmas Day 2021)   Help! My name is Ford. I am a single career man aged 30. I have no debts which am looking to financial freedom. My monthly salary is Sh100,000. Out of this amount, i have budgeted as follows.   1. Rent: Sh22,000  2. Food: Sh 6,000   3. Vehicle fuel: Sh10,000  4. Entertainment: Sh 4,000  5. Electricity : Sh 2,000  6. Black tax : Sh 15,000  5. Loan payment : Sh 5,000  From this am left with Sh 36,000 to invest. I would like to stop working and have my money pay me through passive investments within the next five years. How do I do this with my current income? Where should I trim my budget? Which investment vehicles should I invest in? Thank you.  From your budget/spending plan and questions, I have observed the following:  1. It is highly commendable that as a single career man aged 30 you're not living a middle class lie charac...

A Step-by-step Guide on How to Invest in Government Securities Although government securities are some of the best ways of earning passive income, many Kenyans do not know how to invest in them. This is largely because of lack of knowledge on what government securities are and how to invest in them. What are government securities? They are low-risk investments with high returns, as they are supported by the taxing power of the government. It is one of the ways through which the government borrows money domestically from ordinary Kenyans or corporate institutions. This is done by placing or auctioning bids or offers in the form of treasury bills or treasury bonds. Interestingly, many people don't know that they can loan the government their money (in the form of buying securities like Treasury Bills and Bonds) and in return get profit (in the form of interest/coupon). Government Securities come in three forms: treasury bills, treasury bonds and commercial paper. 1. Treas...

Christmas' Money Question Edition (Published by Saturday Nation on Christmas Day 2021) Help! My name is Ford. I am a single career man aged 30. I have no debts which am looking to financial freedom. My monthly salary is Sh100,000. Out of this amount, i have budgeted as follows. 1. Rent: Sh22,000 2. Food: Sh 6,000 3. Vehicle fuel: Sh10,000 4. Entertainment: Sh 4,000 5. Electricity : Sh 2,000 6. Black tax : Sh 15,000 5. Loan payment : Sh 5,000 From this am left with Sh 36,000 to invest. I would like to stop working and have my money pay me through passive investments within the next five years. How do I do this with my current income? Where should I trim my budget? Which investment vehicles should I invest in? Thank you. From your budget/spending plan and questions, I have observed the following: 1. It is highly commendable that as a single career man aged 30 you're not living a middle class lie characterised by being trapped in the shame of debt as many youngsters and ...

Question of the Month (Published by Saturday Nation 29/01/22) I earn a gross salary of 46200, my net salary after deductions is 36000, I rented a 13000 1 Bedroom house, I have a spouse, no children. My monthly consumption of bus fare is 3500. Electricity is 500 monthly, water amounts to roughly 700, 200 for waste collection. My allocation for food is 4000 monthly. For the last 3 years I have been in employment, I don't have any savings. If I was to lose my job anytime, I cannot survive a month with what I have left with in Nairobi. My spouse is a recent graduate, she is jobless. I am stretched by family expectations, their insinuation that working for a brand like KQ, you earn a hefty salary. By every mid-month to end month, I turn to the jobless friends to borrow fare, Sometimes the last week of every month, I sleep at my workplace, pretending that I had a lot of workload so as to be left behind, so that I take a good nap at the office wall to wall carpeted floor. Please, help me...