Solving your personal finance riddle

Millions of people are constantly seeking for one solution to sort out their personal finances. Salaried people constantly grapple with increasing expenses which always appear to be much more than the latest increase in salary. So how is it possible that some people can cover their living expenses, and still find some money to save or tithe? Thousands of personal finance advisers have written volume of books about the topic but all of them seem to repeat the same message. In order for one to be able to put their financial house in order, they have to spend less than they earn, however small. Trent Hamm in his “One Page” summarizes personal finance literary on one page. He writes that “Spend less than you earn. Earn more. Live frugal. Do something sensible with the difference and be in control your own destiny.” In One Page, Trent stresses that there are four ways in which one your destiny. The easiest way to increase the gap between your income and expenses is to decrease your expenses and increase your income. In order to earn more one should be ale to start a side business, turn a hobby into an income stream and learn to network with people who add value to them. Warren Buffet, the iconic owner of Berkshire Hathaway, and also the richest man in the world says that, “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.” There is no single formula for earning more money. If you have the skills of Jimmy Gatete, you might start playing for a football club during your extra time. If you have that never dying entrepreneur sprit, you might consider buying a motorcycle taxi and rent it out to someone who will give you a fixed amount of money every week and if you are good at it in a few months you might buy yourself other one and another one and another one. Learn to use your spare time well. Television is not the worst thing in the world, but if at least half of your television time is spent on constructive skills, say, if you are really into fashion, it doest hurt to watch fashion programs or watch programs in which different people in the world don different fashions. At the end of it, you might become a cloth designer or own a cloth shop in town. Meanwhile, even if your salary is increased by 1,000 %, if you do not watch your expenses you will not sort out your personal fiancés. Have you heard of lottery winners who use their money on lavish life and unrealistic spending sprees only to return to absolute poverty in a few years? Think about how much money you spend on entertaining yourself and the crowd from which you learn nothing from. How much money goes into impulse shopping, when you walk into Nakumatt to buy a flat iron and you end up with crisps, canned beer, baked beans, everything that looks nice that you would have never thought existed. Always make a shopping list and try to stick to it and if it helps choose one central shopping place like Nakumatt or Simba Supermarket and instead of doing ten shopping trips in a month, reduce those to only two trips and make sure you by all the necessities you need for at least two weeks. Also, personal finance advisers say that the only way to reduce your monthly expenses in to take a record of all your expenses however small for at least one full month and you will be amazed at how many ‘holes’ you will spot. Such holes represent things like beer, fast foods and snacks etc. After eliminating the holes in your expenses, make a monthly budget and stick to it. Buy most of what you need once or twice in a month and if you don’t need it, don’t carry your whole salary around in your wallet. You won’t fail to find where to spend it. kelviod@yahoo.com