Who was the first person to speak to you about money?

At the work fellowship last week, the head of finance in my company (her name is Linda), took us through the subject of financial management.

Rooted in bible principles of money, the teachings covered subjects like money management, budgeting, expense tracking, and gave us a template of the best ways to distribute income to take care of our living expenses (such as shopping, rent, savings, giving) in sustainable ways.

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Key points for me – which I think will be useful for you, too, include: Do not over-house yourself; this means do not live in a house you can ill afford.

If you spend more than 20 per cent of your income on rent, you will get into trouble because you are likely to struggle to meet other living expenses.

The other highlight was that nothing is good until you can afford it. In other words, do not get yourself into debt just because you want to have something you believe you will die without.

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See that four-burner cooker you are about to get on loan? It can wait. Debt is very expensive, and it can enslave you.

 A final take away was that there is so much that our expenses say about our values.

Here is a simple exercise: When you look at the things you spend money on regularly, how well do they portray the values you imagine you live by?

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In one of the sessions, we looked in great detail at what the bible says about debt.

The audience, which was a mix of different ages and income groups, seemed both shocked and sobered by the ‘discoveries’.

I mean, who would have thought the bible has some choice words for people who like ‘guaranteeing’ other people’s loans?

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Before you accuse me of spreading rumours, this is exactly where that verse is in the bible. Proverbs 22/26: Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for someone else.

Admittedly, I, too, was shocked when I first stumbled across that verse. It felt like one of those bible verses that make you stutter when reading aloud. Given, the bible has a few shocking verses.

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I still think some chapters in the book of Songs of Solomon should be embargoed – and only read by married people in secluded places.

My voice would scratch to a sudden halt if I had to read some of those verses to a congregation. But that is a story for another day.

Let’s go back to the conversation about money.

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I didn’t realise money is a taboo conversation for many parents, in the same way sex is, until a couple of years ago.

The court of public opinion has it that many teenagers and young adults make sexual mistakes (like get pregnant ‘accidentally’, catch one disease or other and so on) because parents and guardians do not take time to speak to them ‘about these things’.

Turns out, money belongs to this class of taboo, and people hop from one financial error to another, until they find themselves in a gridlock.

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While there are efforts to push for comprehensive sexual education in schools, there is a deafening silence when it comes to yet another critical aspect of young people’s lives: financial literacy.

Can we have a campaign on financial literacy for children in high school? We start teaching them how to budget that Sh200 they have for pocket money, so that instead of wishing they, too, were given Sh1,000 like their desk mate, they learn contentment from an early age?

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Three years ago, I wrote a feature about financial literacy among people in their 20s. One of the questions I asked them was: “Who was the first person to speak to you about money?”

Of the four I formally interviewed and about 10 others I spoke to on the side while brainstorming the feature idea, none had had a conversation about money with their parents.

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“I applied for my Helb loan even though I didn’t need it because no one told me anything about the consequences of financial decisions,” one of them said.

She was stuck paying a Helb loan she didn’t need and cannot even account for. The loan deductions were causing her significant financial stress because she was at an entry level job at the time.

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And like Linda told us during her sessions, “there is a financial decision you made this morning that is likely going to have far-reaching or even destiny implications, whether it was good or bad.”

And so my parting question is: What financial habits do you need to cultivate?

The writer is the Research and Impact Editor, NMG ([email protected]).