I am an average university educated guy earning a decent salary in Nairobi and living alone.
Although i have been in formal employment for close to to 9 years, i have only recently given serious thought to my finances. All through my twenties, i struggled to earn enough to pay rent, buy some food and party. In between the living from paycheck to paycheck i gave some thought to upgrading my standard of living by basically furnishing my house and buying the man toys that i felt i so richly deserved. In between, i changed jobs a few times, increasing my earnings as i went but basically having no financial philosophy at all. To me, i saw nothing wrong in how i spent my money all through my twenties and i guess what i described is the path that any average Kenyan takes after getting employed.
It is only when i looked back at how little i had accumulated over the years that could be counted as wealth that i realized that it was very easy to go through life buying “Stuff” and paying bills and having fun and yet be as broke as you were 10, 20 or 30 years ago when you first got a job. That, and the fact that i found myself unable to raise Ksh. 100,000 when i so badly needed it yet i had what most would describe as a stable well-paying job (whatever that means).
So i got seriously thinking about what i wanted out of life (in the financial sense of it) and how my relationship with money should be. I had all along been one of those fiercely independent people that do not believe in depending on others for money (not even my own parents) BUT the thing was, i was not doing anything AT ALL to ensure that i never had to depend on others for money. So in essence, it wasnt really that i decided i needed financial independence, it was really that i decided i needed to DO something about it.
So from a situation where i had zero savings one year ago, i have been able to take control of my finances through saving, investing, planning and all the other “little” things that sets apart those who will end up financially independent from those who will one day look back at their life and wonder whatever the hell happened. My plan is still very much in its infancy but am happy that i have taken the first baby steps along this path. So if you are just starting out on your own journey or are thinking about starting, we are pretty much in the same boat. And i hope, through this blog, to share with you my journey so that you can hopefull learn from me and I from you.
My Road To Wealth 