“I Paid Ksh4,500 For A Fake Visa To The USA.” 6 Lessons I’ve Learnt About Money

By Elizabeth Benu

How would you define money? I would define it as something everyone wants, works for and needs every day; scarce yet plenty.

Money is power so you can only imagine the feeling I had the first day I got paid. Bill Gates had nothing on me. The only thing I could think of was the list of things I had planned to buy.

Having your own money gives you the freedom to do anything – spending money on everything that catches your eye. This kind of freedom saw me make several mistakes.

I ended up paying for a fake visa to the USA for Kshs. 4,500 only to find out later that it was an online scam. Oh…the pain of losing my hard earned money and the so called ‘American Dream’.

Bound to make more mistakes I am wiser now. Here are my two cents on money.

1. Spend wisely.
It is better to do nothing with your money than something you do not understand. Think wisely before investing into something. Just because you have some little cash it does not mean you should spend it. If I had thought well before paying for the visa, it would have saved me the money and the shame of joining the “just got conned group.”

2. Everything shall come to pass.
I consider money like an event that will pass and be forgotten. If it is used without caution you cannot account for it. You remember that day you had only 20 shillings left after leaving the house with Kshs. 1,000?

No matter how hard you try to remember how you spent it, nothing meaningful comes to mind. Do yourself a favor and  plan for it.

3. Think before you spend.
I once sat next to an old man outside a roadside kiosk. He was approached by a younger man asking for 5 shillings to buy a cigarette. The old man told him off.

He gave me this advice: “When receiving money, use the widest basin but when giving money let it be through a needle hole. That way you think before you spend your hard earned money.”

4. Always bargain
I had a tendency of not caring how much I get charged for an item especially after receiving my paycheck. I later realized that I would get broke before the end of the month. This has taught me to bargain because you never know what tomorrow holds.

5. Do I really need this?
If you are a victim of impulse buying this is a habit I wish you’d invest in. Before buying something, have a mental questioning session with yourself. I wish I could say it was easy but it wasn’t.

6. Start saving
We have all heard of this so many times but it actually works. Life begins at 40 and it can either be a comfortable one or a hard one. Saving at a young age is hard because we are all trying to experiment and look nice in the latest fashion trends.

But having to struggle at the age of 45 with your bills will not be fun either

That said; realize the problem and make the right choices with your money.

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