Fireside Chat-Excerpt from Barbra Katende's Insights on World Savings Day Challenge

Fireside Chat Picture from Xeno

By Arthur Moses Opio

Yesterday, October the 31st, 2022, was world savings day.

 

XENO Uganda came up with a fireside chat, talking about savings. Andrew Kyamagero was flanked by Flavia Tumusiime Kabuura and Barbra Katende.

To go straight into some of the key things shared Let me start with this quote.

"A future without savings, you become an outcast in the family. You can't talk. At a funeral, you fetch water. You can't have access to credit. You become a burden to your kids. " —Barbra Katende

Barbra mentioned this to explain the above quote. Without savings, you become a beggar for life. This is so true, especially in a time like this where research shows that after retirement, the people who pick up their NSSF don't have it after two years. 

Uganda's saving culture (terribly low)

In an online article dubbed, "Why Ugandans don't save" by the Daily Monitor, first written on the 5th of November 2018 and updated on the 2nd of January 2021, it was mentioned that our saving rate is 12%. Compared to Kenya (23%), Tanzania (13%), and Rwanda (18%),

According to the article, they said, "Going by the statistics, the saving culture of Ugandans is terribly low."

Having celebrated the world's saving day, the question would be, where are you as an individual?

Ugandans' Lazy-Even a Fool Can Survive

The president of the Republic of Uganda, General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, while being interviewed on KTN News, said that his compatriots are unwilling or unable to exploit the natural resources in the country. He further asserted, and I quote,

"That’s why these Ugandans are lazy. They are lazy because a fool here cannot easily die. Even if you are a fool, you can survive by eating from your brother’s house. "

Maybe there is some truth in what the President is saying, and many of us here quite know that you can't go hungry. But doesn't that reflect on our savings culture with the 12% savings rate? Many have reasons for not saving, and one of them is that they don't earn enough. Some just have too many excuses about FOMO, YOLO, etc.  

Advice to Young People on Savings

Similarly, Barbra Katende says, "Most of us learn about saving when we have a job and make mistakes when we are young." 

She mentioned that money is not taught in schools, so someone has to learn about it outside of school. She said, "In your S.4 and S.6 vacation, as a student, you should be working. Get experience. She advised students to open savings accounts.

Money and Marriage (It's easy to discuss children, but not money).

In regards to money and marriage, Barbra Katende said, and I quote, "The most difficult subject to talk about in a marriage is finances. You can talk about kids, but it's hard to talk about money."

She was then asked how much couples should contribute.

First, she said, "We should have individual and joint accounts. If I want to do my hair, it is easily done. If the husband wants to watch football, it can happen with ease."

Flavia interjected and commented.

My husband and I decided to open a joint account. I asked, "What's the point of having money if all we're going to do is pay fees?" and we decided to open an account for the child. As a couple, we decided how much to put into the account. My husband and I removed love from money, especially for the money we pull together.

Barbra further asserted this by saying, "I recommend a percentage of the income one earns. E.g., from my salary, "I will contribute 40% of my salary to the joint account." If one earns more, the percentage is more even at 40%.

She concluded by mentioning that not discussing money leads people to problems. Once you agree on percentages, it ceases to be a discussion.

Lying About Money

Andrew Kyamagero asked a question: Why are men scared to talk about finances with women? 

Barbra said, "Men and women lie about money." In giving more light to this point, she said, 

"My brothers said the reason men lie about money is simple; if a man says I have one million Uganda shillings, a woman will say buy land, pay fees, etc., yet he has tires to fix, etc." #SheMoney refers to the money that women lie about. He doesn't know that I have it. If my child falls sick at night, that's the money that will rush the kid to the hospital when my husband says there is no money.

 

Steps to Financial Freedom

A person in the audience asked about the steps to financial freedom. This is what she had to say.

1. Get a job and start earning money. (Live on 50% of your income, the other 50% goes into an investment.)
2. Start to save (pay yourself first). If possible, automate it. Put in a standing order.
3. Start investing (use an institution like @XenoUganda).

Brian Ekajait further added:

1. 4. Seek advice if you don't know how to approach your saving and investment journey. 
2. 5. Be patient with it. It's not an overnight success project.

To conclude the fireside chat, talk, she said,

Don't touch the money for investment; it is money for your future. Set aside money for retirement on the first job or salary you get. Begin planning for retirement. You will retire at 55 and die at 90. It can be joyful or miserable.

Find out more about affordability and raising money-savvy kids from tweets made about the chat via @arthurkmo.

If you are thinking of starting your investment journey today, you can sign up with XENO Uganda @XenoUganda for as little as 10,000 Uganda shillings by dialing *165*5*7#, or by visiting their website myxeno.com to sign up. You can as well use the App. You can refer to my code XENO84105.

 

Happy saving and investment. 

 

Happy World Savings Day.

Understand Your Financial Seasons

“…. Winter is coming, how prepared are you? Because after that the sun will shine again to give us hope to get out once more and do a lot more before another winter season…”

Life has its cycles and it is true that you have to go through them. It is written that there is seed and harvest time. There is night and day, rain and sunshine. To you my dear reader, you are probably getting out of one season and getting into another.

I have heard this statement countless times, “There is a time for everything”. Now let’s talk about financial seasons. We need to know how our economy runs, and one of the ways we can know is when there are a few disruptions to the norm of life, one of the clearest indicators is when the price of fuel is sky rocketing, this has an impact on almost everything we purchase. There is a time I lamented why I did not buy Sugar in bulk yet that is what we normally did, the price went up so high that making juice at home was becoming a night mare, however the wholesaler we always buy from gave us sugar at a discount, I told myself that, “it is good to plan ahead because of a lot of uncertainty.”

Joseph and Egypt’s Story

Pharaoh had a dream and it was about the 7 years of plenty and the 7 years of famine. While listening to James Abola, co-author of “Make Sense of Your Money” and “Money and Marriage” he said that with the wisdom God had given Joseph, he made a 14 year budget. That budget was to take into account the 7 years of famine as well as the 14 years of plenty. We all know from the story of Joseph, the wisdom to store 20% of grain did not only save Egypt but also his family and neighboring countries (Even when money couldn’t buy they were GIVEN, eventually putting resources a side also help us give and support the needy). The grain was not to be touched until the 7 years of famine was to start, every saving plan we have should have a clear goal or higher purpose.

The question is what do we do in times of plenty? There are people who feel like a budget will restrict their lifestyle and rob them of pleasure. People are normally encouraged to budget even for pleasure. When you start budgeting, it helps you PRIORITIZE, you stop spending life and start living. It takes wisdom to discern and envision the end from the beginning. I hope we can start doing these uncomfortable things (making a budget) so that we can we can create comfort tomorrow. You will realize that stress starts dropping because you have started planning.

So many of us have probably been in that time frame where everything else was going well, if you are the type who is in formal employment, sometimes you might think that this job will take care of me forever, forgetting that entrenchment can happen, a company can choose to downsize or even terminate your services or you can choose to resign and venture into your own business. Even as business people, plan, businesses have cycles, when things are going well and when they aren't.

James said that, “The biggest challenge is, we don’t plan enough in times of plenty.” He also said that, “In your time of plenty save, whenever you are earning that’s when you save”. He then cautioned us and said if God can plan, why shouldn’t we plan? He quoted Jeremiah 29:11 where God says, … “I know the plans I have for you, plans to……”.

Take a lesson from the ants

It has been said and written that Ants have no ruler, no leader, no council or government but they work together to gather in harvest because they know that winter is coming. Ants have a clear purpose of why they gather, if they don’t do so, they will die of hunger. Ants are a clear example of how we should handle our lives, with little strength and strength in their unity and numbers, they are one of the most productive creations of God.

The truth about life is this, hard times will come, a time when you don’t have enough, to avoid lack, we need to be as strategic as Joseph and the Ants. It is an act of faith. James mentioned in his sermon that hadn’t there been a boy with two fish and five loaves that he had saved, then how would have God multiplied what wasn’t there, the story basically tells us that God will use what is in our hands, it is written that he guarantees a blessing on our store houses. So what do you have in your hand to start whatever you want to do – ask yourself and examine and act?

My Story

I remember gathering coins that would be left after the purchase of an item or payment of a service. I happened to save close to 500,000 Ugx ($ 138), this money helped in many ways, this made my resolve to use the times of earning wisely and till to date, the principle of putting a side a proportion of my income from my salary or businesses I do, has helped greatly in everyday life.

There is a time at my workplace, something happened to my salary. For almost 2-3 months I was not getting paid yet others were, there was something wrong with my account details and it took time to get it sorted out, the coins I had been putting a side took my family and I through some of the tough days. I did not have to beg for anything because we also had other savings. We decided that we needed to also increase our income at that time and the same money helped us do a few things here and there. Around this time, I learnt the importance of building an emergency fund, this is good wisdom I learned from Dave Ramsey. He recommends starting with $ 1000 (3,600,000 Ugx). You can be helped in uncertain times when you take such simple acts seriously.

James’ Points to a good saving plan

1. Be wise and have discernment
2. Save proportion of your income
3. Save in a secure place
4. Have a Purpose

James concluded his talk by saying, “We don’t save because we are wasteful”. This reminds me of a scripture I have always shared, Proverbs 21:20 “The wise have wealth and luxury but fools spend whatever they get”. If Joseph did not take heed to the instructions of God concerning that dream, generations would have been killed, but I learn from this that one act of wisdom will not only save an individual but nations at large. Let us be wise in the way we handle the resources given to us by God.

#Impact #Empower #Transform

Do You Only Have One Saving Buffer like NSSF

“Don’t only look at NSSF as your only Savings, Create Other buffers & Invest to have more cash flows”

Recently NSSF Uganda announced it’s annual interest rate of 11.23% for financial year 2016/2017. This rate is  lower than the 12.3% paid out for FY2015/2016.

The bad economy sighted as one of the reasons for the drop on the fixed income earning portfolio,however it has been declared that the interest rate is still higher than the 10 year inflation rate of 8.68%.

I believe members who save with NSSF must have been very happy to receive message alerts on their phones about the interest that they were paid. I happened to tell my wife to do one thing. I asked her to divide that interest by 12 months and that she would know how much she would have earned per month. We did the division and came to the breakdown of how much she earned per month. Of course those who started working early and started saving early have surely benefited that tells you that they have been helped in many ways.

------------------- Interest is money made, more can be made though ------------------------------

The one good thing is that at least the money is gaining interest however small it is, you can even save directly as an individual just dial *254* on MTN and register and send money through mobile money, however when you sit down to articulate these issues, you get to realize that you can do much more with the money in the account by investing in other ventures but the only problem is that my wife has to wait until retirement age. At a personal level, where I do work am not getting any NSSF, what would someone like me do? I need to wake up at an individual level, I need to do the uncomfortable things of sacrificing and putting money aside, not only for me and my wife but also for the children, I need to think about investments, create passive income, production etc.

Economy isn’t steady, increased debt, high inflation

The only problem I have seen so far with our economy, is that it isn’t as steady as we think, we have been promised middle income status by 2020 but the signs are deem. You would expect interest to keep rising every year, why should it drop? what can be done to avoid the drop? What comes to my mind is that we need to create other savings streams to allow us make money work and grow. As much as your company/Institution/Organization/Church is saving for you, you also need to have your own savings, have your own investments so that when retirement comes, it finds you grounded doing something already instead of waiting to do things later in life - live with purpose, it will help you put your time to use.

Plan for your savings now, not when you're retired

It is so sad to hear of the fact that people’s savings have been depleted within a year or two of acquiring it, normally after retirement that is when people are thinking of what to do with the money and many times people’s plans and business aren’t well researched, you find they want to do each and everything and they end up becoming broke with no other way to go. Start thinking early while working, start venturing into different things, get out of your comfort zone, try and fail now but fail forward, create other streams, you could live longer than you expect, do the difficult and uncomfortable things now and life will be easier instead of doing the comfortable or easy things now otherwise life will be difficult.

We need to remember that Uganda’s debt continues to increase, I saw in one of the papers recently that the government has 2.7 trillion in domestic arrears, such figures are worrying, not so long, it was declared that every Ugandan would pay 1 million in regards to the national debt.

We need to move from a consumer mindset to investment mindset, our expenditures at a personal level need to be checked if we are to start changing at a personal level. I believe what we do as individuals contributes so much to the economies around us, a nation whose debt is so high points to the fact that there is no production, which means also no jobs, which means increased borrowing and many others. It has been written, “The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down”

Reference:

1. https://www.independent.co.ug/nssf-members-get-11-23-interest-fund-size-compliance-grows/
2. http://businessguideafrica.com/nssf-announces-12-3-interest-rates-on-members-savings/

Making Sense Of Saving

Discipline yourself through the PAIN (Hebrew 12:11)

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening - it's painful! But afterward, there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

When a seed is buried in the grown, it first has to die before it can germinate, then it has to grow, for it to grow, it has to be cared for, fertilized, pruned and given the best care, so that after so many weeks, days, months or years, its purpose for planting is eventually realized, is it electricity poles, furniture, etc that you want, it will take patience and courage to wait, while you take care of it. Your faith and desire to cut will be tested, but if you wait a little longer, you end up appreciating because you are looking more at the END result (Future) than at the satisfaction of the moment.

I have had time to listen to people especially when we start talking about money, money touches everyone's heart. Personally, I have had to go through and continue to learn about money, I wish I learned somethings earlier but you can never have it all. The conversation normally stems from how money is not enough, how the economy is biting and prices of things are high, people keep talking about how they are paid little and that they aren't able to save since most of it is expended - we all are victims in one way or the other but there is a way around these things, they say it's not possible to budget with small money, even those who have a lot don't budget because they believe they have an endless flow, yet such money can be put to develop and transform the society, economy, people, etc. 

You know our actual wealth isn't in money only, there is much more to that, we know very well money can't make us rich, we know that we have to provide goods and services to attain wealth and I also know from what the bible teaches me, its God who makes me rich and he has given me the tools that pertain to life and godliness. Other conversations I listen to as well stem from those who talk about investing money, and in such stories you hear about their failures, bad investment decisions and how careful people are, you also hear of how people have won with money and are making the right decisions in different ventures. It is important to humble yourself to learn, indeed those who are humble are exonerated.

I want to focus on SAVING, I believe many times when people hear of this, they just give up before they even start or try, you know what, I was like that before I started appreciating what this simple tool can do, its hard, takes a lot of discipline, sacrifice, delaying gratification and the willingness to come out of debt and be financially free and have peace at that. People have created a notion around them that this can't be done but the amazing thing is that there are people doing it and there is a lot of success in this area.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "If you will be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting it". This basically tells me that we have to work at it. You know you can choose to ignore such a message but if you put your mind to the truth and power behind such a topic, then liberation has already started in your mind. Remember as a man thinks so is he, if we think of saving then we shall save, if we don't think of saving then we shall not save. Dave Ramsey, Americas trusted voice on Financial matters said this, 

"Successful folks don’t win at life because they have a magic pill or top-secret information. They win at life because they work at it for years."

Let us look at some of these reasons why people don't save. In light of some of the reasons, I want you to have this scripture in mind

Proverbs 21:20 (NLT) The WISE have WEALTH and LUXURY but FOOLS spend whatever they get (Each time I have read this, it puts me back to the drawing board)

let's see the reasons

1. I can't afford to Save
2. I can always save later
3. It's too complicated
4. I just need to get 'this' out of the way
5. I am waiting for less market volatility 
6. It's impossible to get ahead
7. I'm afraid to face my financial fears
8. I'm too busy
9. It's too late
10. I'm too OLD
11. I just can't do it and many more excuses

There are many more reasons, but if you see all this, it really gets down to attitude, we need to change our attitude towards this concept of saving, I have come to realize it is very biblical

See what is written in Proverbs 6:6 (NLT) Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise. And let's see further what Ants do Proverbs 6:7 Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, 8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter 9 But you, lazybones how long will you sleep? When will you wake up?

Now to me, sleep means a state of inactivity, a state of no awareness or to be spiritually dead or suspended from something. If you haven't woken up, maybe this is the time, God told Joseph about the famine that would last 7 years and also about the 7 years of abundance, what he did in the year of abundance enabled him to serve not only Egypt but other nations and his own family. There is a serious lesson in this story, what do we do when we are making money? we all need to take advantage and do the right thing in such periods because its true seasons come and go, they do change but if someone is prepared they can be able to manage the changing seasons. Read Genesis 47:13-27 and look at the action he took in verse 

26 Joseph then issued a decree still in effect in the land of Egypt, that Pharaoh should receive one-fifth of all the crops grown on his land. Only the land belonging to the priests was not given to Pharaoh.

Here are a few things you can do to get you going and started on the saving journey.

From a personal point of view, I believe if you can learn the art of saving, then learning the art of investments becomes interesting because you get to appreciate that hard-earned money that has been saved for a goal should not just be squandered, you make calculated steps, even Jesus said that before you build a house, you must calculate the cost, so it is wise to know how to put money aside.

As a Christian, you know very well that everything we own is for God, even the money in our hands, so give to God first (10% or more), then pay yourself, then invest and budget for other things.

I have learned that the first thing to do with money is to save it first and not spend then save later, after saving it makes you appreciate the importance of budgeting (telling your money where to go, this is how Dave Ramsey puts it, "You have got to tell your money what to do or it will leave you").

• First of all, start by changing your mindset and this means feeding yourself with literature about saving, the bible has wonderful scriptures and we all know the bible talks a lot about money, 
• Buy books of renowned men and women who have talked about money extensively, the total money makeover by Dave Ramsey, Thou shall prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Money won't make you rich by Pr Sunday Adelaja, Make sense of money by James Abola to mention but a few.
• Research online there people who are blogging a lot about how to win with money and read those articles. listen to success stories like this one see video below 

• There are many stories out there and in Uganda as well. I encourage you to buy the book Make Sense Of Your Money by James Abola, it's simple, precise, and clear on what to do.
• This story  could get you going or started as well, see link http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2013/05/09/how-my-mom-inspired-me-during-a-savings-slump/ 
• While still young and energetic, I encourage you to start early, have a goal in mind, be visionary and take advantage of one the best words in financial literacy that is called COMPOUND INTEREST (Interest upon interest). On a personal note, I have seen that work and having started not so early, my wife and I are already seeing the benefits, you can't believe it until you start seeing your dividends.

However know what to do with the money, make it work for you, make more of it by investing in what you know, is clear and you understand. You can also invest in UNIT TRUST FUNDS like UAP Financial Services, ICEA, StanLib, you can start with as low as 100,000 UGX see this link for more information about UNIT TRUST FUNDS http://www.monitor.co.ug/Business/Prosper/Grow-your-savings-using-unit-trust-funds/688616-3929192-57g2qyz/index.html take advantage.

If you feel like you can't take that money to your savings account, then talk with your bank so that a standing order of a particular amount is created, and on a particular date that money is deducted into your savings account. Don't have excuses that you can't save, because you need the savings to enable you to invest that is if you going to build your own capital base.

If you manage to start self governing yourself, it pushes you to start planning for your children whether you have or don't have and Insurance has come in with good packages to help many people out there. This also puts you in a place to be able to give back to the work of God, family, community, church etc

To find out more about COMPOUND INTEREST check out this article on the Dave Ramsey blog https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/how-teens-can-become-millionaires.

We shall continue talking about this, I believe in financial freedom, financial peace, financial independence, God who owns everything. He given has the wisdom to create wealth, the question is Can we put that wisdom to Task, all the answers are found in the bible and I am on a journey of discovery as I read from it and see stories of day to day successful people.