Pursuing financial independence is not about hating your job & not wanting to work.
It’s about understanding the value of your time & wanting to spend it doing things that fulfill you.
The ability to design your life the way you want without worrying about having to make money.
Your current job has the potential to set you free from the intricacies linked to it - waking up on alarm, suffocating corporate culture & longer working hours.
Use your financial literacy skills to build an impenetrable wealth creation machine from the many salaries you earn.
Assuming one spends Sh 100K monthly to meet family basics & leisure expenses. Such a person needs Sh 1.2M annually to attain financial independence.
Investing Ksh 10M in a long term infrastructure bond achieves this. But this person will not have attained financial freedom. Why?
In case of a real life emergency situation, he cannot address it since his cash flows are only enough to meet his monthly expenses, not unplanned for expenses. He cannot interrupt his cash flow machine to address the emergency situation. Doing so jeopardizes his future income.
To attain financial freedom, he needs much more than Sh 100K monthly cash flow. Probably Sh 150K or more. He can build a freedom fund from the monthly surpluses of Sh 50K.
The size of the freedom fund depends on how much is not only kept but invested after meeting needs & wants.
Many investors consider equity funds, balanced funds & money market funds as boring. They don't see "some action" on their portfolio apart from the monthly reflection of value or crediting of interests. When you don't see the moving parts of a system, you don't understand...
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...how it works. These funds are considered as "mattress" accounts for their relatively low return. What investors fail to appreciate is the transfer of RISK. You cannot have your cake & eat it.
Unlike direct stock investment where things tend to get a bit more exciting...
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...when you construct a portfolio made up of the parts themselves and you can see how they move around and their impact on your overall portfolio, the underlying movement of risk factors on your equity/balanced/money market fund are "shielded" from you.
"What matters is what you keep, not what you earn" 🧵
We look at two cases.
1️⃣ John earns 300K per month.
2️⃣ Mary earns 50K a month.
John spends as follows: Mortgage & Car Loan: 150K. He saves 50K monthly in an FD earning 8% interest annually.
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Mary spends up to 30K & is able to save 20K monthly.
Is John saving more compared to Mary? NO!
He only saves 16% while Mary saves 40%
John is a busy professional (an insurance executive) & has no time to actively manage his money. He leaves it to a fund manager.
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Mary pools her 20K with other 10 people in her group (chama). They raise 200K for 12 months (Ksh 2.4M) & invest in an events management company where they hire out tents, chairs & sound systems. They have bought their own truck.
If you ever doubted the importance of saving, the #Covid19 pandemic made it clear just how necessary a financial cushion can be. Many people had trouble paying their bills since the pandemic began & couldn't build emergency...
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...savings by mid this year. That’s why we should get serious about saving - even if you think you are already in a comfortable financial position.
@TheAbojani often encourages people to follow a 50-30-20 rule when dividing up their take-home pay, with 50% of your income...
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...going towards living expenses like rent and groceries, 30% for recreation or entertainment, and 20% going into savings.
But for people who are just starting to save, jumping from zero to 20 can be a daunting task & sometimes an impossible fete.
Most investors do not factor in the cost of investing – commission fees, management fees, taxes etc.
A return of say, 8% on a money market fund or bank fixed deposit accounts easily reduces to 7% when you throw in the costs.
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A major cost that's incurred but hardly acknowledged is depositing via Lipa na MPESA to company paybill numbers. Frequent transactions lower the returns significantly. The cost of depositing, say 5K is 85/- on average.
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If done monthly, you'd be losing money or growing it at a much slower pace since you only earn 32/- in a month on every 5K deposit.
The compounded return, month to month, hides this "backward motion" progress.
NET WORTH is a measure of the TIME it would take you to maintain your lifestyle without working.
Formula:
Assets (What you OWN)
LESS
Liabilities (What you OWE)
For many working Kenyans, net worth is largely hidden in immovable fixed assets like land & buildings.
The queer Kenyan habit of accumulating pieces of land here & there has made many have little cash or cash equivalents thus being called "asset rich but cash poor ."
The disadvantage of being "asset rich but cash poor" is when an emergency situation arises.
You've heard people detained in hospitals due to huge bills. This forces many to conduct fundraisers. Likewise, huge car repair costs forces many to surrender titles for short term loans.