I made my first million when i ws 25 yrs through NSE, lost a couple of millions too during the recession..Ventured into real estate made some really decent returns...now of out country contracting my skills..

The real secret behind my few millions of wealth is my lifestle, i live on less than 40% of my wage, i started investing way back in campus..

Started with farming, stocks, offshore, unit trusts, and now in real estate...

Some of the few lessons i can share..
-Saving does you make you rich
-Mutual funds is an investment vehicle for poor people
-Farming (to many variables ~~~~)
- Real estate is King of wealth- but you can also loose your fortune through conmen...wako wengi tu sana..
- Stock Options (I call it legal gambling- learn to harvest your returns before the market crushes)
- Its only the greedy people who get conned..

Wealth creation is never about how much monies you make or have, its your lifestyle, your thought process and most importantly of all where you get your advice....you wont get good advice from reading local dailies..

NB: All markets will crush at some point, learn to harvest your returns and reduce your risk exposure..dont leverage to much..otherwise you will be another bankrupt millionaire

Good on you!!...It is really tough to move back to Kenya after getting used 1st world lifestyle and culture..Convinient and effecient transport system, low inflation, more opportunities and variety of restaurants mexican, indian, irish, Russian, Chinnese, Thai etc......
Looks like you made right decision fella..

Got laid off sometime in 2004 and got a 'golden handshake' which i ploughed into EAC & MSC counters and a 3 acre piece of land. I got another job again after 3 months where i aggressively speculated and got enough cash to buy another 1/2 acre at Ksh 500K.

Later EAC would hit Ksh 500 apiece and MSC Ksh 60 apiece and bailed out, i made a stunning amount after offloading the two counters. In 2008 i cashed out on the 1/2 Acre at Ksh 1.9M and ploughed back into my farm, where i grow 'green gold' and that has made me handle huge amounts i wouldnt have dreamt of........

At 24 (10 years ago), I cleared campus and made a list of things that I wanted to achieve in life (both short and long term). And by the way, this was not just financial … included other aspects of life as well (education, family etc). I studied it every day for a long while then forgot about it. I started hustling here and there, then got a scholarship and went away for masters, came back, got a relatively good job and got married. We are both disciplined savers and investors, and we give away a lot of our money too (not to the church) … somehow it finds its way back. never really were the type to live fast lives (used to do that in campus as I had other sources of revenue, but I grew up). Right now we are worth just above 15 million in savings and investments (and debt free)and have regular jobs that bring in good monthly income. It’s amazing how some things just stick in your mind and guide the general direction that you take in life. The list is not yet exhausted but the life am living now to a very large extent bears a striking resemblance to what was on it those many years back.

My journey was kind of untraditional(in the typical kenyan scenario i.e) it happened online.I cleared high school and during that 1 year out I didn't go to any 'killing time' colleges,Instead I started visiting online forums,IRC channels and basically I became a very heavy internet user.I didn't have a computer at the time so the only way to access the internet was through my phone(it was a nokia n80).Eventually after seeing it all,I decided I also wanted to make money online like the people I used to interact with.Today I can say that am glad unlike most of my peers,I knew earlier that the internet was bigger than going to facebook to poke people and like status updates.So with that phone(you may chose to believe me or not)I created simple web pages that made me the 1st and 2nd payment as is in the screenshot below(read in an ascending order).

In those early days things were tough,I had sleepless nights,had to work like a horse,and nearly did give up(that first check you see of $215 which is ~ ksh.20,000 was for money generated over 4 months so technically I was making less than a maids salary working at times for upto 20hrs/day)
Frankly I dunno what kept me holding on but as you can see my resilience eventually paid off.That screenshot right there is exactly my journey to my 1st million,I've already done my second and it's only been 8 months.Am becoming better at this and it makes me happy that am using my own talent to take myself to the top.I made a thread a while back about wanting to be a multibillionaire by 30 and right now,that doesn't feel unrealistic at all.

in summary:
-Keep a positive mind(this is everything)
-A pure heart(when choosing who to bless,God doesn't look at your church attendance record,He looks at your heart,that's why you see very rich 'ungodly' people whom if you look closer turn out to be very philanthropic and very poor 'godly' people who haven't yet unlocked this secret...also here compassion is everything).

-This I came to learn the other day,unless someone shows you a clear and precise manner in which they intend to repay you a debt,do not lend them anything....I've loaned out some ~100,000 and so far I've only been repaid sh.500 so you can imagine.

-That is basically my story..gotta get back to work.
-

How about we elaborate how we made our first billy. No no,jus kidn. Anyway,good job people. I thank God for joinin Wazua. Though i do nt get pokd,lol.

Almost there. I have learn't a few things by exprience 1. Take insurance for your assets like cars, houses, etc 2. Keep aside some money for contigency. I changed jobs recently so had to forego a salary for 3 months to clear some liabilities, add my living expenses and it was surprising how much i had to dig into my savings 3. Budget 4. Live within your means

am alo an affiliate for this online trading, i got a free initial deposit from them so i start trading with their own money,its european by the way very legit try it http://www.plus500.com/T...5&tags=7100&pl=2

2004
I joined JKUAT aged 19. I have always had a taste for the good life so I spent most of my free time in 1st year partying & drinking myself silly. I give myself credit for passing all my units with either A or B.
Net worth: 0
Income: 0

2005
In 2nd year I grew up a little bit. Juja town is like western province... lots of boda boda. I bought 2 at 3,300 each and paid a fundi another 1,000 to fix them with a strong frame and passenger seat. I gave them to two local boda guys & i was getting a fixed 120bob per bike per day (they took the rest and were resposible for maintainance and servicing). Total cost 7,600. Income approx 7,000 per month!
My father was giving me a monthly allowance of 10,000 per month - 3,000 rent and the rest for upkeep. I opened an CDS account at Suntra. At the beginning of every month I would deposit 7,000 and proceed to juja where my business was ready to take care of me! To put things in perspective, sample meal prices were Ugali 4/-, Rice 10/-, Mboga 5/-, Beef 28/-, Beans/ndengu 10/-, Chapo 8/-. An average meal of 2chapo+beans = 26/-! I was living like a milionaire already!
Net worth: 50,000 in CDS a/c
Income: I made 7,000pm from the bodas, maybe 2,000pm from miscellaeneous… I blew it all on the party!

2006
The Kengen IPO came in 2006, I was worth about 60K. I liquidated all my stocks and borrowed 100k from my dad & an older cousin. I invested 160K and sold for over 500k. I repaid my cousin his money (i think 40k) but my dad told me to keep what he had lent me. He had made upto 5m on my advice on Kengen. In retrospect, we had gone with the herd on that one & just gotten lucky.

I got a 50:50 partner and through a proxy (student of UoN, non students were not allowed to have businesses on the grounds) opened a cyber cafe in one of the students halls of UoN. We invested a total of about 550k in the project. 15 pentium 3 & pentium 4 computers, switches, cabling, a telkom adsl modem and some bribes for SONU officials. Daily income varied between 1,500 - 2,000. We paid a guy & a chick 200 bob each daily to run the place. Since we were in a secure location we operated 15-24hrs per day depending on demand. Sometimes my partner & i had to pull all nighters servicing the machines then catch a matatu at 5.30 am to juja, sleep for 2hrs then go to class by 8am only to remember we had not had a meal for almost 24hrs! This is where I learnt the value of hard work. We paid ourselves a standard 500bob daily. There rest of the money we banked in a joint account for replacing equipment and for contingencies. Rent for the cyber was 1,500 per month!
Net worth: about 150,000 in CDS a/c, 300k in other assets
Income: I made 15,000pm from the cyber, maybe 20,000pm from miscellaeneous… assembling clone computers for other students, selling electronics / comps parts etc. I blew most of it on the party!

2007
I continued investing in stocks. By the time i completed my 4th year i think i had 700k in cds. i also had various small businesses giving me income of around 40k monthly.

2008
I did some internships & professional studies as I tarmacked & continued with business .
Net worth: 800k
Income: 40k pm

2009
In Jan i got a good job, I bought my first car in Dec for 800k in cash, aged 24.
Net worth: 2m
Income: 150k

Extrapolate 2010 & 2011…
Life Principles & Lessons learnt
1. Learn from mistakes, never regret, move on quickly after failing
2. Work hard, play hard
3. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, never compromise on standards
4. Think & dream big
5. Invest before spending… I don’t budget my spending (whats the fun in that). Out of my total income there is an automatic check off for pension, my cds account, 2 saccos & a chama… whatever remains I take to the party. This works well for me.. eg. if I drink too much, I can’t buy that suit… the opportunity cost is always one expense for another.
6. Have fun with it

Yeah, this post made me go back to a time i'd forgotten... it's inspiring to remember what trouble i had to go thro' to get 100 bob... can't get a beer for that now!