As I enter my mid 30s, life has become a balancing act of responsibilities and dreams. I have a range of financial goals to achieve—from buying my first piece of land, enrolling my child in school in 2025,to planning a family vacation this December.
I set a goal of saving Ksh300,000 by the end of the year, a significant jump from the Ksh200,000 I managed to put aside last year.
I work as a mid-level accountant at an FMCG company in Eastleigh, Nairobi. At the start of the year, my net salary was Ksh70,000. With that income, I was determined to achieve this financial milestone by employing a more strategic approach.
As the year progressed, I realised that not only could I hit my target, but I could actually exceed it. Here’s the journey of how I exceeded my 2024 savings goal and I am on track to save Ksh450,000.
With 35% of my income committed to savings, I had to carefully manage the remaining 65% (Ksh45,500) to cover my living expenses.
The first step was developing a budget l to balance my day-to-day needs with my savings ambitions.
I chose to keep my housing costs low by renting a modest one-bedroom apartment in Eastleigh for Ksh17,000, which was enough for my partner, my three-year-old child, and me.
Living close to my workplace allowed me to save on commuting costs as I could either walk or, in a pinch, take a boda boda for a small fee.
The remaining 40% of my salary—around Ksh28,000—covered essentials like food, utilities, and other daily expenses. Here’s how I broke down this part of my budget:
Food and groceries: Ksh15,000
Utilities (water, electricity, and internet): Ksh5,000
Childcare and Miscellaneous expenses: Ksh8,000
Apart from sticking to this budget, to ensure that I wasn’t overspending in any area, I need to track every shilling I spent. To achieve this, I recorded every expense and used a budgeting app me and my partner could edit.
In June, as the tax-filing season approached, I leveraged my accounting skills to find a part-time job. I offered tax-filing services to small businesses and managed to secure two clients.
One of them, impressed by my work, retained me as their part-time bookkeeper. This role involved reconciling financial transactions such as purchases, expenses, sales revenue, invoices, and payments. I could complete the work remotely, spending around two hours daily and four hours on Sundays, for which I earned Ksh15,000 a month.
Around the same time, I also requested a raise at my current job, where I had been working for three years. My employer acknowledged my dedication and granted me a Ksh10,000 salary increase.
With an additional Ksh25,000 coming in each month from these two sources, I made a conscious choice not to let lifestyle inflation creep in.
Instead of increasing my expenses, I decided to save this extra income, which helped accelerate my progress.
By maintaining my original savings plan of Ksh24,500 per month, I was on track to save Ksh294,000 by year-end. With the additional Ksh25,000 saved monthly from July to December, I added an extra Ksh125,000 to my savings. This pushed my total savings projection to Ksh419,000.
In addition to my salary and part-time earnings, I experienced an unexpected financial boost in October.
Back in 2022, I had loaned Ksh30,000 to a cousin who had lost his job and was starting a small business. Unfortunately, his business didn’t succeed, and he defaulted on the loan, which I eventually wrote off as a loss since he hadn't gave me a collateral.
However, out of the blue, I received Ksh50,000 from him on my M-Pesa in October. He had secured a stable job earlier in the year and had started repaying his debts. Not only did he return the principal amount, but he also included interest to acknowledge the delay.
Rather than splurging with this unexpected windfall, I allocated Ksh30,000 to my savings while allowing myself a modest Ksh20,000 to spend on some long-delayed purchases. This additional Ksh30,000 brought my projected savings to Ksh449,000, significantly exceeding my initial target.
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Farah Nurow is an experienced Content Writer who enjoys writing creative and educative articles meant to provoke readers' thoughts. He loves sunny weather and thick books. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
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