There's many ways to arm your future. One can literally make a futures contract to have ammunition delivered at a future date a a given current price (the beauty of futures market). This isn't the kind of arming I'm talking about though. I'm referring to increasing the probability of a secure and more stable future. Investing to be more specific. Many of us are investing subconsciously e.g. eating right, networking, purchasing shares,etcetera. I'll briefly focus on the financial investment bit in hopes of alerting or reminding you how important it is to think in the long-term.
I've been setting aside Kshs. 600 every week for the past month. It sounds petty right about now, but I'm sure this "petty" stamp will decrease exponentially to the function of time. I plan on owning/acquiring at least 1000 shares in a number of companies listed in the NSE by the time I graduate next year. Economics101 teaches us that the opportunity cost of having money set aside is the interest one would have alternatively earned. Last i checked, the interest rate offered by most banks floats around the 4% mark while that of inflation around the 20% zone. Without getting too statistical about the figures, one can safely say that my recent more sounds good. As an OPM member, I need to grow my income...somehow! So i picked one of the safer ways of doing it, buying shares. Anyone who kept their eyes on BAT around 7-10 years ago would have noticed their Kshs. 139 stock price. As with most, people kept away from it claiming it was too expensive a share. As far as I recall, the company has been paying dividends in the range of Kshs.14 - Kshs. 17.50 @ share....among the highest paid in this country. The stock is currently listed at Kshs. 255 per share, a decrease from the Kshs. 300 it hit some time last year. There are other examples in the opposite end of this spectrum. I'm certainly not advising you on what to do with your money. My plan is to keep setting aside this "extra"amount every week. What I'm asking you to do is to consider saving Kshs. 601, and pray I don't catch up to your wealth.
