True, that Facebook friend is always bragging about her thriving business, your cousin just got a huge raise at work and your neighbor is building a mansion in Karen which they won’t stop talking about but most of the population is still living paycheck to paycheck.

Say you fall in the latter category and there is just too little left to buy land or put up those blocks of apartments that haunt you at night. What then? Here are a few tricks to help you stretch your money.

Are you one of those people who get paid on the fifth and is already calling friends to ‘rushia me a K’ by the 10th? Do you know where every shilling you withdraw at the ATM goes? You should. 

Start tracking your expenses and you will be mind-blown at how some of those small buys like the mahindi choma you have in the evenings and the runs to the movie shop every other day dent your pockets. You can only know what to cut back on if you know where the bulk of it is going. Makes sense, right?

Being Kenyan is synonymous with having a mobile app loan. Stretch your hand in the street and you will touch someone who owes Tala or Brach a few thousand shillings. The more economy tightens its belt on our tummies, the more we borrow. Who can blame us?

Say you owe a few thousand and that deal for a hundred thousand you have been pushing comes through, what will be your first instinct? To postpone the loan payment so that you can do something new with the money. Don’t. If you have debt, it’s not going anywhere. If you will have any chance at investing, you will need to tackle your debt head-on.

If you have cut down on all expenses that you can from your budget, it’s now time to start that side hustle. I know, I know, you live paycheck to paycheck so you don’t have all that money to start a business. You don’t need to.

Starting a business doing something with your hands is a perfect example of ways that you can do this. Or provide a service. 

You have cut back on your expenses and began a side hustle that is making you extra cash. You are in a good place. Well done. To make these good decisions work for you, you need to fill in your financial literacy gaps.

Relax, you don’t need to go back to class. There are plenty of online forums, podcasts, and books you can read that will help adequately bridge this knowledge gap.

You already know what and what you need to do for the month. Whether it is house shopping, paying bills or a debt. Make a budget that you have to stick with by starting with the things you first need to prioritize. This will help you manage your money and even help you save some that will come in handy when investing. 

And finally and perhaps most importantly, start with what you have. Don’t wait until you’ve got a million in the bank to start investing.


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