Good morning daddy,

Good morning Bella,

How was your sleep?

My sleep was fine!

What did you dream about?

Mummy and Daddy

Did you talk to Jesus?

Yes, and he said he would buy you a good house and a good car!

We have been having this interaction since she started talking. And at 31/2 years now she knows dads dreams. Although she can’t quite comprehend them she “understands” his frustration sometimes.

Isn’t this what most of us undergo most of the time? Thinking when will I complete the unfinished structure or when will I start at all? The pressure that comes with the growing children and the peers! There is no time like now to start on the road to financial freedom through improved savings and reduced domestic spending.

Every crisis is a blessing in disguise as spending reduces a new discipline is learned with continuous spells of low incomes. Alternatives need to be sought to finance those unfinished projects without necessary increasing debt. The corporate world pronounces that better policies and lower costs can almost guarantee you a healthy and successful entity.

But isn’t also true to our personal finances? Small wins and discipline equals to big wins which is the theme of this blog! Effective management of personal finances begins with understanding debt. 

Anything that provides long-term value or the repayment matches the useful life of the asset.  It is likely that we have debt in the form of salary loans, auto loans or a mortgage. Effective management of finances requires that we know where our money is going and making deliberate decisions about how it should be spent.

When you keep track of your money you minimize the risks associated with the debt problem.  This requires that you use a budget. However, the question that occasionally pops up in peoples minds especially here in
Uganda is whether really to take up a loan. And for what purpose the loan should be for?

With the increased cost of money and the supposedly stringent application procedures many potential applicants have been discouraged away from financial products. The fact is we can’t do without these products especially for the financially literate persons.

Completing a home requires large sums of money which are not readily available considering that our incomes are lower compared to the region averages. So the catch here is really what is the purpose of applying for a particular financial product as opposed to other products?

Knowing that in most cases assets are financed by liabilities is the beginning for those starting out for their search. An additional consideration should be the long term value provided as a result. So what loan product is the best? That depends on the individual and in which bracket of the “food chain” they belong!

My daughter prays for a car and a good house every day and has been doing so for the last 2 years! What is my priority here? You guess is as good as mine!