A marvelous lesson appeared for me just now as I was exiting the office. As I opened the  door, I startled at a butterfly, which, upon spreading it’s wings, displayed a bright red “tail” hidden by the motley brown wings. It flew immediately to its perceived escape, the circle-topped…

This question in the Kenyan context will generate no brainer answers such as, ‘so I’m no longer employed’, ‘to make a little cash on the side’ ‘well, my neighbour opened a clothes exhibition and he just bought a new car, he must be doing well, that’s where the…

My Grandpa is headed to 90 years, was trained as a teacher, joined the Mau Mau freedom fighters, quit teaching to be a farmer and investor. He has no formal finance training, he doesn’t understand stocks analysis, doesn’t know anything about pension plans, real estate bubbles, or the…

I am not a confessed football fanatic, though have been treated to some of the best and spectacular soccer action in the past week. This is not to say I am going to delve into the emotions, the disappointments and the controversies so far seen. My focus and…

Set Financial Goals for yourself. A city worker once asked to explain his purpose in life said ‘I dig the ditch to earn the money to buy the food to get the strength to dig the ditch’. Alas, no wonder then, the ditch gets deeper and deeper! Live on a…

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So the fishermen had to go further out to sea to catch their supply of fish, the fishing boats got bigger and bigger. The farther the fishermen went,…

The high inflation in the country which has prevailed for the better part of  the past few years has eroded the income of most Kenyans. With high inflation, purchasing power has waned which essentially means you get fewer commodities for the same amount of money than you did in 2007.

After a few posts on personal finances on my blog, one of my readers approached me on the side bar and accused me of being conventional, and as such, wasn’t helping him. I was giving information that we all knew, but I needed to break it down into…

Successful people have always had clear, focused goals that guide them to greatness. Noted author and self-worth teacher Eric Butterworth* says, “Poverty is a way of living and thinking, and not just a lack of money or things.” When you couple his philosophy with the Eastern mysticism of “what…

(This is the 4th article in the Money 101 Managing Your Money Series. We advise that you start from the the first article in the Series. Please click here to go to the Money 101 Managing Your Money introduction) Having figured out where you would like to be and want to go, you now need to take a look at where you are. Some schools of thought advocate that you should start with assessing your current situation before setting goals. The problem with that is, for most people, their goals setting tends to get limited to merely correcting the problems with the current situation, rather than trying to get to where they would really like to be.

By MWANGI MUIRURI (To receive The Money Academy's Daily Money Talk updates directly in your e-mail inbox, please subscribe) Martin Njoroge vividly remembers the financial scare that almost left him a beggar in 2006. He was an employee of a Nairobi based firm, his terms of service being contractual. Raring to join the ranks of small-scale investors, he approached a local bank and secured a loan of Sh120,000 which he intended to invest in a plot in Nairobi’s Ruai area.  His security for the

(This is the 3rd article in the Money 101 Managing Your Money Series. We advise that you start from the the first article in the Series. Please click here to go to the Money 101 Managing Your Money introduction) One of the hardest things about “managing your finances” is actually getting started down the path. During high school and college, and even after college for most people, finances are mysterious and maddening. There is never enough money!

(This is the 2nd article in the Money 101 Managing Your Money Series. We advise that you start from the the first article in the Series. Please click here to go to the Money 101 Managing Your Money introduction) a. What, exactly, is personal finance mangement? Personal finance management is the handling and control of your money. It is the taking into consideration your income, seeking to maximize that income and balancing its spread over lifestyle expenditure, saving, accumulation and investment.

Welcome to the Money Academy's 'Money 101: Managing YOUR Money' article series. This is a succession of articles that will take you through different topics that revolve around you, your money, how to make more, and how make what you earn help you achieve your goals . The series is divided into lessons, each covering a different aspect of personal finance planning, and these lessons are:

Most people associate a budget with a restricted lifestyle, no fun, and generally figures which most people have an aversion for. Sadly though, for your personal finances to make sense, you’ve got to have a plan of how you will spend your money once it’s earned.