{UAH} HOW TO SAVE MONEY IN UGANDA
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9:12 AM |
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By Edris Kiggundu
A female colleague at work once told me she has at least 100 pairs of shoes. So I asked her whether she puts on a different pair of shoes for at least three months. "No, she replied. I mostly wear four pairs because they are my favourite." So what happens to the 96? I asked. "They are there on the shoe rack. I just look at them."
I remembered this conversation after I listened to a talk from Richard Byarugaba of NSSF about the importance of controlling our spending habits if we want to avoid debt and achieve financial security.
Byarugaba said if you are financially secure like Sudhir Ruparelia and you own 2,000 pairs of shoes, that will not be a problem because their cost is a tiny fraction of your wealth.
Yet many of us who tend to engage in this kind of spending spree are in most cases still trying to find our financial bearings. When we get some ka money, we go on a spending spree and buy things for fun, buy things to try to keep up or impress our peers or we spend simply out of impulse.
In many corporate offices in town, you can tell when salaries have just been paid. Food packs of JAVAS, KFC litter the bins. Two weeks later, someone who could afford Javas of 40,000 can't afford Kikamando of Shs 2000. This is a sorry state of affairs!
Yet even Omar Mandela, the owner of Cafe Javas can't regularly buy this food for his family even when he can afford to.
I once asked a young man why he wanted to borrow 200,000 to spend on one outing yet he earns less than 1 million a month. He said he wanted to impress his new girlfriend. I told him that sooner rather than later, that girlfriend will find out that his financial prowess is built on a foundation of sand.
"Be honest and tell her you don't have money or spend sparingly. If she decides to walk out on you because of this, that would be good riddance," I told him.
I mean, even if you owned 1000 pairs of shoes but you are still financially insecure, you still borrow money to meet the basics of life, struggle to pay school fees and you still live from hand to mouth, you are far worse off than someone who has four pairs of shoes but is financially secure.
Even some of the people you try to impress with your shoes or nice perfume only to ask them to loan you 10K, 20K or even 50K, will see through this mirage.
Being financially secure does not mean that you have to be a millionaire like Patrick Bitature. It means you are relatively in a comfortable position to meet all your basics, your luxuries and even save some money.
It means you can go to Dubai for holiday with your family in December and not worry about where the fees for first term will come from or how you are going to pass through January (Jan-worry, for some).
Like countries have cash reserves to last them a year, have some cash reserves to last you one year in case of eventualities.
If your total monthly expenditure is Shs 2 million, it means at any given time, have at least Shs 24 million stored some where.
For the employed like us, it means that even if you lost that precious job or you are incapacitated due to injury, you can at the very minimum meet the basics (fuel for the car, pay bills at home, school fees, medical etc) thanks to other investments, income generating streams or savings.
Financial security does not happen by accident. It is planned and takes years and years to perfect. For some, they never achieve it in the lifetime because even in death, people have to raise money to meet their burial expenses. (Always put aside some money to prepare for eventualities like death such that you lessen the burden on those who will bury you-Open a "Death Account" and save 100K per month or take out the life assurance policy).
Personally, I am far from achieving financial security even if I have worked for 15 years. But I embarked on this journey.
Today, my friend Innocent Nahabwe will officially launch his book, Treating Small Businesses at Kingdom Kampala (former Shimoni) starting 6PM. I have not read the entire book but judging from excerpts I have read elsewhere, it must be an absorbing read. Many people who admire Innocent Nahabwe from a distance have claimed that he is already there (One of them told me you can't own a radio station, prime real estate, a betting firm, a prominent bar, a nice house and other thriving businesses and you say you have not arrived). Yet having interacted with the Vet himself, I know that he personally believes he is "not yet there" and still has more to accomplish. I urge those who want to get first hand tips on how to survive in our challenging business environment to be there. I WILL BE THERE!
Nice Friday!
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