Cents and Sense: You’re Broke Because You Lack Sense

When it comes to financial discipline, most Kenyans are running on empty. Blame the ever-rising prices of necessities that have pushed the cost of living right through the stratosphere all you want – but the real culprit is your bamboozling lack of sense.

Here are the top 5 lack of sense factors draining your finances and keeping you broke every single month:

Black Tax Trap

Just because you work for Safaricom, your village relatives think you have an account with the Central Bank of Kenya. Their purported misfortunes always wait until the end of the month to befall them, and are immediately directed your way. Being the good Samaritan, you’re always dishing out money that accumulates into a small fortune at the end of the day.

The WhatsApp benevolent trap

Every week, you wake to a new group for a wedding, a burial, a trip to Dubai for a nondescript job opportunity, a baby shower, pastor’s car contribution… the list is endless. You’re a member of countless committees you didn’t join, and have to drain your wallet to please your peers.

The party pooper culture

You’re broke because you’re always throwing a party – for surviving a Wednesday, reaching a Friday, securing a loan, starting an MPesa outlet, or even just being able to breathe. You’re on a crazy spending spree, and you don’t even realize it until you discover the month has 3 weeks left, but your whole salary is gone.

The fashion freak

You don’t want to go to two different events in the same outfit, so long as you know the photos will pop up on Instagram. It forces you to break the bank every time there’s a wedding, a graduation ceremony for a cousin’s PP2 child, and a burial ceremony. You end up with outfits you spent a fortune on, but can’t wear them to any other event.

The show-off façade

Why would anyone need 2 large TVs in the same house? It beats all logic. Since you want to look trendy, you spot a ridiculously priced wrist watch while your phone can do the time-telling job perfectly well and at no extra cost. You go to exorbitant salons and barbershops just to fit in and awe your peers, but at the end of the day, it’s your bank balance that bears the brunt of your folly.

You realize it isn’t your modest income or the dwindling economy that’s keeping you permanently broke. Ditch these repugnant tendencies, and you’ll get your financial discipline back on track. If you don’t grow sense, you’ll never grow cents.