Financial choices in your 20's: Part 2

Invest or have fun first? That is the question

Continued from part 1

Many youth in their 20’s land their first decent paying job out of college and will do one or all of four things i.e. buy a car, move out of home and/or travel (includes shopping spree) and have fun!

I personally wouldn’t mind doing all the above.

However, saving and investing at a young age has always been one of my dreams. Most young people will not understand the golden opportunities from investing unless they talk to people who have experience in investing and have good knowledge about it.

For example if one invests in a piece of property in during their 20's just imagine how much the value of that property would have increased by the time he or she is in their 30’s! 

A writer at Kenyan Daily post wrote an article of 10 great rules that will help someone remain poor. They include;

1.     Never Wake up early.

2.     Never plan to spend your money.

3.     Don’t think of saving until you have very large amount of money.

4.     Don’t engage in activities usually reserved for the uneducated.

5.     Don’t think of starting your own business until an angel comes from heaven and gives you capital.

6.  Complain about everything except your own attitude: Blame the system, the government and the bank that refuses to lend you money. They are all bad and don’t want you to get rich.

7.    Spend more money than you earn. To achieve this, buy consumer products in credit and keep borrowing from friends and employer.

8.    Compete in dressing; Make sure you wear the latest clothes among all the workers in your office. Whenever your neighbour buys a new phone, get one that is more expensive.

9.     Get yourself a nice second- hand car that costs more than three times your gross monthly pay.

10.   Give your children everything they ask for since you are such a loving parent: They should not struggle for anything because you do not want them to suffer. That way, they will grow up lazy and hence poor enough to ensure they cannot help you in your old age.

Young people are full of energy, potential and excellent ideas. Let us not waste time and start saving and investing now. However, as a young investor, don’t rush to start investing without a plan. It is a good idea to have a mentor who will guide you on this.  Always have a goal, what you want to achieve, then put down a strategy and specific activities to help you achieve it. Definitely challenges will be there but when you have the desire to invest for a brighter future, you will make it.

Orison Swett Marden states that “there is no investment you can make which will pay you as well as the effort to scatter sunshine and good cheer through your establishment”.

We wind up this great post by highlighting five advantages of investing in your 20’s.

Which class of a person are you?

Guest post by Samuel G. Njenga

Are you always struggling to meet your expenses and constantly in debt? Does your expenses rise with more income? Do you realize that more money won’t help you? Sorry, you are on the wrong track (rat race) and it is time things must change.

OR

Do you endeavour to minimize your expenses column and built your assets column. Do you constantly ensure that you are acquiring more money-generating assets? Then you are on the right track (fast track). Sooner or later, money will work for you if at all it is not currently doing so.

When we say asset the number one thing that comes to most peoples' minds are personal 'assets' e.g. Household items. So, what is an asset? 

By definition, assets are economic resources (tangible or intangible) that are capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that are held to have positive economic value. Simply stated, assets represent ownership of value that can be converted into cash (although cash itself is also considered an asset).

Examples of intangible assets: copyrights, goodwill, , trademarks, software, patents etc.

Financial assets: stocks, accounts receivable, bonds etc.

Current assets: liquid cash and its equivalents (currency, deposit accounts, and negotiable instruments like money orders, cheque, bank drafts), receivables, pre-paid expenses, inventory etc.

Fixed assets: land, buildings, machinery, furniture, tools, equipment.

Now to the contentious issue: Your own house and the households therein are not for sale. And whenever you sell any of these, you'll most likely replace them with another. In essence you'll always have a house and household items all the time and they are not held for sale and they never generate income. Look at the house you live in, it actually consumes money to maintain and it does not generate money at all, and whenever you'll sell it, unless you plan to stay homeless you'll most likely acquire one at market value then. This is very different from a unit you built for rental purposes.

In a nutshell, an asset generates income periodically and / or will generate positive economic value at the point of disposal. So it could have the two attributes or at least one of them.

A common question, what, in your own opinion and even in general would be classified as luxuries?

This gets tricky my friend because by definition luxuries are products and services that are not considered essential and are associated with affluence. This definition is very general and in most cases subjective because, what you may consider a luxury maybe considered essential to somebody else. But let's understand luxury from the economics perspective. Economically where you are, there is what we'd consider a luxury, and that is basically something you can do without. Take for example, a guy who works in a mjengo (construction) site cannot afford to buy meat daily. At his level of income meat is a luxury which he can do without because if he insists on having it daily then, he'll do so at the expense of paying rent. Fast forward, the same guy gets a better job and can thus afford himself meat daily but he cannot be able to buy three beers for himself on a daily basis with the new income, at that point daily drinking becomes a luxury.

So, other than the generally accepted luxuries like Zanzibar holidays and the like, luxuries shift with economic levels. The big deal is being unable to analyse luxuries at your current economic level.

Next lesson will be on simple and practical things that can help the fellow in the rat race. You can never invest if you are in the rat race because all your money will always be taken up by the ever rising expenses.