Chachanomics Money Talks

  How to Survive on a Sh. 26,000 Salary as a Newly Employed TSC Teacher "Anthony is a newly employed teacher. He has a new job with the Teachers Service Commission. His starting salary is a basic of Sh. 26,000. This is his first job and his first formal salary. He has been posted in Eldoret. He is single and without a child. He wonders; how should he budget this salary? What amount should go to what budget allocation? What amount should he save? Between a Sh. 500,000 car and a Sh. 500,000 plot of land, which should he aim to acquire within two years? How much should he save for this? Where should he save?" First, congratulations on securing a job as a TSC teacher. Being young perhaps in 20s, employed, single and without a child is a plus in laying a firm foundation for a financially prosperous future. Second, one major challenge you are face as a newly employed youngster is lack of financial literacy skills* such as budgeting, debt management, saving and investing. That...

 Help! I Earn Sh.60,000 Monthly but Spend all the Money on Relatives and Girlfriend Hello! My name is Wafula. I graduated recently from KMTC and have a practice license from NCK. I am not formerly employed but been working for sometime on locum basis even before I had completed my education. I make up to Ksh.2000 daily but can’t save any money. I pay Kshs.11,200 house rent, Ksh.1500 DSTV, Ksh.3,000 cousins rent (university student), cousin’s fee Ksh.5,000 monthly (short course at ICS) and her transport and lunch upto Ksh.3000, Ksh.food 6500. My girlfriend moved in recently and so I support her sister who schools nearby with some food and personal effects Ksh.2500 monthly, house wifi Ksh.1,000, miscellaneous upto Ksh.6000. The family thinks I get too much money and so the financial requests keep inflating. I am forced to work day and night so as to meet the costs. I hardly save anything. I am struggling to do farming back at home at our disputed family land. Kindly assist becaus...

  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 ...