My Father’s Money Mistake Got Us from a Mansion to Living in the Streets 

Misfortune never walks alone; it matches with a parade. Mine started when my dad passed away. I had never known tragedy until then. And five years later, I have just begun accepting life and doing what I have to.

My father was a very passionate man. He wanted the best for his family. A good lifestyle characterised by the latest fashion, a good house, a car for himself and another for his stay-at-home wife, the best private schools for his three children and not to forget annual vacations for the family.

Two weeks after he was buried, lenders were knocking on our doors. We were living in the streets 8 months after losing him. This is how I ended up being a hawker at the tender age of 17.

Read Also: I Financed Her Addictions, Now She Is Fully Dependent on Me.

No one in our paternal family wanted anything to do with us and my mum had not come from much.  We squeezed into my maternal grandmother's shack and I became breadwinner as my mother was lost in grief. 

The worst part was that we didn’t value a good savings habit. This became a source of our misunderstandings. The little I earned, we squandered, and since I felt the unfairness of it all, we would argue every now and then. But over time, we learned and grew as we reflected on my father’s financial journey.

Upon completing university, my father was recruited as a government official in the early 90’s. You know how those days having a degree was such a big deal. His teaching degree landed him a Regional Officer position with a good salary and he was ready for the good life.

Being a very traditional man, an educated woman was no option. He wanted a housewife to clean, cook and raise their children. That is what my mother became. She had only studied up to what was class seven in the early 80’s. She could read and write so that was an added advantage.

As the firstborn, my father was responsible for his five younger siblings’ education as soon as he started earning a salary. On top of that, he wanted to build a mansion, buy a car like other government officials, and care for his wife and children. 

Read Also: How I Missed Out on Generational Wealth - The Story of Money & My Grandfather

His monthly salary wasn’t enough. But luckily he had access to loans courtesy of his GoK payslip. But no one knew this. We were just living well. My dad took loans upon loans and we had a good childhood. All my uncles went to university, my mum was the best dressed woman in our local church, we got a househelp and a chef, and every December we were in Mombasa or other coastal towns vacationing in very expensive hotels.

Then he suddenly became ill, and after three weeks in a private hospital and a half-million-shilling bill later, he was gone. I remember how fast things moved then. His siblings wanted a good send-off, and somehow, they had access to his accounts, which my mother did not. The last of his money cleared the bill, and we were left with property owed.

When we first moved in with my grandmother she gave me Ksh10,000 and said it was all she had and she wasn’t expecting any money. That is how I started hawking. I met a stranger who showed me the ropes but I am so grateful for her. At first it was so difficult and I would cry myself to sleep every night but I did it.

Being a young girl in the streets was not so easy but you would be surprised at how fast you adapt when you have no options. If you had told my 10 year old self of the world I lived in in my late teens she would never fathom it. But I did what had to be done, learned to manage money to the last shilling and survived.

Read Also: Everyone Was Telling Me What to Do with My Salary, I Ended Up Broke: Money and Me

Looking back, I see how blind my father was to the real meaning of wealth. It’s not just about the cars, the big house, or holidays by the coast. True wealth is what keeps you steady when life shakes you to the core. If my dad had saved even half of what he borrowed, if we had been taught about sacrifice and saving, maybe we wouldn’t have fallen so hard. 

I learned, painfully, that money is more than just for spending—it’s for protecting. It’s about making sure that, even if life takes away everything else, you don’t lose your footing. I want to build that kind of wealth, the kind that lasts, the kind that no misfortune can strip away.

‍