“Its important to accept the fact that your own money situation will have its ups and downs. No matter how carefully you plan. Even if you every financial thing right. Money isnt always going to behave in ways you can predict.” Suze Orman
During the month of January I did really really well on reducing my normal expenses – I spent maybe half the money I usually spend in a month. However there were some abnormal expenses which meant that I spent more than I earned (Yikes!). As I am expecting a baby in about a month, I decided I would spend quite allot of money on baby purchases like a crib, car seat, stroller etc etc and I would use my credit card. I just decided to make my life easier by having these things and the idea is that when I am done using these items, I can sell them and they should sell since I tried as much as possible to get quality items. I timed the purchases so as to get a long interest free period and giving myself about 2 months to pay it off, so with my February salary I plan to pay off the ENTIRE balance of my shopping spree. So not considering these purchase I did really really well and I plan to continue the rest of the year with this momentum. This year is going to be very important in setting myself a good financial foundation and most importantly becoming debt free.
My net worth actually declined by 17% in January. Even though I invested some money in the equity market, the Kenyan equity market was one of the worst performing markets in the world which meant that the value of my portfolio declined 4% even with the additional funds invested. The rest of the decline in my net worth is due to the increase in my credit card balance because of my baby related purchases. I cant wait for this month to be over so that my credit card balance can go back to where it was at the beginning of the year.
For February, I still have a couple of abnormal expenses but I will try to invest some little money in the stock market as well as save some cash as part of the 52 week savings plan on Mshwari.
Wishing everyone a richer February!
Financial Independance in Africa 