Money impacts everyone, but many of us don’t have the right view on how to use it. Growing up in the villages of Eshisiru, I never knew I would love money this much since mum used to tell me that this thing “money” was demonic, I grew up knowing that money can’t be trusted, today you have it, tomorrow it’s gone and in her own words, “we can either let money define us or decide to make it destroys us”. Allow me to call this article money moves since we are all puzzled by its moving target but still never keep that social distance from it. Hopefully, by the end of this piece you will be able to start your own conversations with friends not about spending but investing, to me these are the money moves as family or colleagues we should be keeping in our conversations.  Money Moves are action steps that get you involved with your finances. Wherever you are, there’s a money move to make. So, let’s get started. Allow me to say that you can’t make your dream come true if you don’t know what it looks like. The microwave generation please listen quite well; I meet a lot of you in my mentorship and coaching sessions excited to talk about wealth creation but we rarely want to picture how success looks like.

I also realize that we spend most of our time with friends, buddies talking about all manner of things though we fail to tell ourselves the need to invest or make money decisions. If I join a conversation with my peers now, it’s either we will talk of the works of Christ in our lives, the happy hours and party escapades but rarely do we talk of money moves or investment opportunities. It is even worse for buddies who have white-collar jobs. I am currently on a financial journey like everyone else and I have been able to discover three money moves that will always be right.  The first one is that when I decide to be diligent, I would save a lot more than the norm. Money is primarily a heart issue and not a numbers issue and its defined by stewardship and not ownership. A steward is someone who manages someone’s property according to the owner’s vision and values not his own so diligence always kicks in, you will think of accountability. My advice here is that diligence will help you track your expenses at all times and it helps one know the condition of your income sources. In simple terms always treat money as not yours, it makes you rethink expenses.

Money is emotive, when I was growing up, I used to judge adults by the weights of their wallets and when I acquired my own wallet, you know the Safaricom card holder wallet, I worked hard to ensure that I had some notes in it, any withdrawal from the wallet to buy stuff or pay transport came with emotions, nowadays am surprised I like my wallet thin, every coin on the debit card. Have you ever wondered why guys who pay their rent in cash get to move into their own spaces faster than those who pay via checks, transfers, or even M-Pesa. It’s the pain of handing over your hard-earned fifteen or thirty thousand to this other person “your landlord” then you see the smile on their faces, you know “the rural to urban migration kind of smile” and wish you had your own place. My generation lives in a cashless culture, spending is as easy as a swipe, paperless transactions in my own experience are difficult to track and with digital platforms, we can get a loan for a lifestyle product without a second thought. And banks, Oh these idiots have made us believe that points are more valuable than the cash, so I get to swipe my ATM card to earn points for free airtime so that some guys see am loyal. Today allow me to equate spending to earning. They have managed to rip off our emotions in this by making us think we are earning! Spend a hundred bob to earn a point equivalent to a Kenyan shilling. It’s a rip off! Then came credit cards, I don’t use a credit card and don’t think I will ever use it because with this era where everyone wants to fit in and trend a lot and have fun and YOLO you find yourselves quickly spending the money that you don’t have. When you receive the bank statement at the end of the month which by the way nowadays you have an option to receive or not to receive, then it hits you, it never felt like you were spending that much!

Allow me to Sip my Coffee, I will be right back with Money Moves 2

© JMS 2020