My name is Christine. I am 34, married with two kids. I earn Sh120,000 net. I do not have many household expenses as those are taken care of by my husband.
My monthly expenses include tithe (Sh12,000), Sh8,000 for church offerings (Sh2,000 every Sunday), Sh10,000 to my mum, Sh18,000 college fees for my younger brother (Sh54,000 per 3-month semester), Sh20,000 merry-go-round, Sh5,000 church women investment group, and Sh25,000 for plot I am secretly financing in instalments along Kangundo Road.
I spend the rest on dressing (hair, shoes, clothes) and entertainment such as travel and airtime.
Since I don’t disclose what I do with my money, my husband believes I am wasting my salary instead of chipping in at home in paying some of our bills.
Sometimes I feel like I am on the wrong path but don’t know what to cut out and how to do it. Please help.
Duncan Irungu, a personal finance and investment consultant, says:
A breakdown of your finances shows that you spend Sh98,000 on what you classify as your essentials and spend the surplus of Sh22,000 on yourself.
Your breakdown indicates that you do not have a proper method of identifying and separating your needs and wants, and allocating financially logical allocations.
This can be largely attributed to your conservative approach towards family expenditure and the spending logic of “your money is our money but my money is my money”! You need to get out of this over-dependence cocoon.
Assuming that the end goals for your family are the same between you and your husband, I would recommend that you start off by opening up to your spouse about your true financial situation.
In fact, research has established that the majority of all married couples argue and fight more about money than sex.
As you prepare to open up to your spouse, understand what your actual net worth is beyond what you have listed as expenditures and investments.
Determine the amount you can hive off from this expenditure and redirect it to your household budget as a form of support. Take some expenses off your partner’s.
The Sh18,000 monthly you set aside for your sibling’s college fees can be placed into a short-term investment tool such as the money market fund account that will shield them from inflation and paid in bulk when due.
Apart from sending your mum some money every end-month, start to consider ways you can empower her to start making some money on her own.
For example, can she hack dairy farming, goat farming or chicken farming?
Out of the surplus of Sh22,000, you need to go beyond clothes and shoes to strengthen your career prospects to stay employable and marketable.
These could be short professional, certified masterclasses or medium-term pursuits such as a Master’s.
Once you figure out what courses you’d be interested in, determine what amount of money you can start saving for this. Spare at least Sh10,000 for this.
Out of the remaining Sh10,000, budget Sh5,000 for unforeseen emergencies and leave Sh7,000 for your private usage.
Remember, every coin set aside for saving on investment should be put in an interest-earning vehicle such as a money market fund or Sacco, depending on duration.
As your savings grow, you can gradually start exploring long term investment opportunities such as Treasury Bonds and shares. All the best.
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