Whenever I hold a personal finance planning session and we get to discussing investment strategies, the issue of personality type always comes up. People will say they’re not risk takers, and therefore they prefer investments that are not risky. Others will say that they are risk takers and prefer investments that have high returns and involve a bit of adventure. I must admit I do…
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2017 was not the easiest of years for Safaricom. First, the company got caught in the middle in a post-election political fight which saw a section of the opposition ask their supporters to boycott the company. There was no way whether the supporters did boycott and the effect of this on the company financially, but this was a position no business would want to find…
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I will tell this Kenya Airways (KQ) shares story in two parts. In the first part, I will explain what happened to our dear KQ shares during the recent restructuring that culminated in the resumption of trading on 29th November 2017. In the second part, I will illustrate the impact and in the spirit of sharing personal experiences – both follies and ‘wisdoms’ –…
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The NSE has some 66 odd listed companies. Unless analyzing companies is your day job or someone else is paying for it, it is impractical to obtain and analyze usable information on every single one. My strategy as shared in an earlier post is to keep my radar up and when something comes up at a high-level, it registers on my radar screen for further…
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There is a reason I do 100% of my stocks investment in Kenya, except for the deliberate adventure trip I took to Zambia some years back. It is because I believe in the philosophy of Investment By Walking Around (IBWA, not as cool as MBWA but hey!). Before I get to the technical analysis of a stock, something that appeals to common sense must first…
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While statements like “Usalama wako u mikononi mwako” (your security is in your hands) often told to us by politicians are debatable, there is no controversy about this version: your financial security is in your hands. Should your investments (or lack of) fail to help you meet the goals for which they are intended, you live with the consequences, no matter whose investment advice you…
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If you have consistently followed our stocks column so far, there is probably a good reason you are still interested. Your financial future matters enough for you to choose to learn and take some action. In the first part of this post, we covered the need for a Personal Financial Plan and I am sure that is now on your To Do list. Now let…
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Three weeks ago I was invited to give a talk at the Technical University’s Rotaract Club Meeting, and during the Q&A, one of the students asked me if I would advise him to buy Bitcoin. He started by giving us a bit of a background about Bitcoin and blockchain technology, which showed that he had invested some time reading up before asking the question. This…
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In our previous post, we addressed the “why” for getting involved in the stock market. That gives us a firm foundation on which to build the “how’. To meaningfully participate in the stock market, three things are fundamentally necessary – a personal financial plan, a stockbroking agent and some research. Owing to its importance, we will talk about the personal financial plan here, and then…
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When I was younger, I remember reading Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad Poor Dad and really liking that he took time to explain that the “why” for something is more important than the “how”. His argument is that once we have a compelling “why”, it will be much easier to commit to the “how”, even when the “how” is not as easy or as attractive as…
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