|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
A Kenyan man has narrated how he managed to save Sh450,000 in 2024 exceeding his target of Sh300,000.
According to a post that appeared on Money254, the unidentified man revealed he works as an accountant at an FMCG company in Eastleigh, Nairobi, earning a net salary of Sh70,000.
His saving journey was inspired by his financial goals, which included purchasing a piece of land, enrolling his child in school, and taking his family on a vacation.
The man, who is in his mid-30s, revealed that the Sh300,000 savings goal was a significant jump from the Sh200,000 he managed to save in 2023.
Below is his narration on his savings journey:
“With 35 percent of my income committed to savings, I had to carefully manage the remaining 65 percent (Sh45,500) to cover my living expenses.
The first step was developing a budget to balance my day-to-day needs with my savings ambitions.
I chose to keep my housing costs low by renting a modest one-bedroom apartment in Eastleigh for Sh17,000, which was enough for my partner, my three-year-old child, and me.
Living close to my workplace allowed me to save on commuting costs as I could either walk or, in a pinch, take a boda boda for a small fee.
The remaining 40 percent of my salary—around Sh28,000—covered essentials like food, utilities, and other daily expenses. Here’s how I broke down this part of my budget:
- Food and groceries: Sh15,000
- Utilities (water, electricity, and internet): Sh5,000
- Childcare and Miscellaneous expenses: Sh8,000
Apart from sticking to this budget, to ensure that I wasn’t overspending in any area, I need to track every shilling I spent. To achieve this, I recorded every expense and used a budgeting app me and my partner could edit.
Ndindi Nyoro: Building houses, apartments is not a good investment
To streamline my savings, I opened multiple accounts dedicated to different goals. Here’s how I allocated my savings for different savings goal:
- Land purchase: Monthly transfers to my SACCO account.
- School fees for 2025: Deposits to a fixed deposit account.
- Car Upgrade: A separate savings account at my bank.
- Holiday Vacation Savings: A high-interest money market fund (MMF).
Each month, a portion of my salary would be automatically transferred to these accounts.
In June, as the tax-filing season approached, I leveraged my accounting skills to find a part-time job. I offered tax-filing services to small businesses and managed to secure two clients.
One of them, impressed by my work, retained me as their part-time bookkeeper. This role involved reconciling financial transactions such as purchases, expenses, sales revenue, invoices, and payments.
I could complete the work remotely, spending around two hours daily and four hours on Sundays, for which I earned Sh15,000 a month.
Around the same time, I also requested a raise at my current job, where I had been working for three years. My employer acknowledged my dedication and granted me a Sh10,000 salary increase.
With an additional Sh25,000 coming in each month from these two sources, I made a conscious choice not to let lifestyle inflation creep in.
Instead of increasing my expenses, I decided to save this extra income, which helped accelerate my progress.
By maintaining my original savings plan of Sh24,500 per month, I was on track to save Sh294,000 by year-end. With the additional Sh25,000 saved monthly from July to December, I added an extra Sh125,000 to my savings. This pushed my total savings projection to Sh419,000.
In addition to my salary and part-time earnings, I experienced an unexpected financial boost in October.
Back in 2022, I had loaned Sh30,000 to a cousin who had lost his job and was starting a small business. Unfortunately, his business didn’t succeed, and he defaulted on the loan, which I eventually wrote off as a loss since he hadn’t gave me a collateral.
However, out of the blue, I received Sh50,000 from him on my M-Pesa in October. He had secured a stable job earlier in the year and had started repaying his debts. Not only did he return the principal amount, but he also included interest to acknowledge the delay.
Rather than splurging with this unexpected windfall, I allocated Sh30,000 to my savings while allowing myself a modest Sh20,000 to spend on some long-delayed purchases.
This additional Sh30,000 brought my projected savings to Sh449,000, significantly exceeding my initial target.”
Source: Money254
