180K, comfortable?? maybe a bachelor, or someone without non-school going kids(2). Assuming 180K gross=(180K*.7)+5.6K=131.6k net

Very conservative Monthly expenses for a typical 180K p.m. Nairobian

rent 20K
Car loan 20K
Insurance 2K
Fuel 8k
Food 10k
Shopping 10K
Sacco 30k
Entertain 6k
Water/KP 3k
Misc 5K
Hse gal 4K
Extended fam 3k
chamaa 5k
kanjo/park 1.5K
mpangowakado 3k

Total 130.5K
Savings 1.5k

This is living from hand to mouth and only if u can stick to the budget.
This is a sad life!!!!!!

[quote=wilyum]

The guy maybe servicing a sacco loan he invested in DECI!!

Good salary depends alot on the social status you want to project.
In Nairobi, you will be good with anything below 200k if you choose to live in Eastlands/Zimma/West etc...
The minute you step into the upmarket and the rents go into 40k and above, huwezimake.

A good salary in my opinion ought to be 350k and above.
With that, you can rent in an upmarket neighborhood or build your own hse, drive a nice car and not worry about fuel prices, run a small project without necessarily running to the bank for a loan and most importantly you can save up, plan and retire early.

If you are below 350k p.m you are condemned to Eastlands, you will have to service loans for some petty projects and you better join a sacco if you are not already a member of one. If anything make sure you have a medical cover and a pension to cushion the shocks which will definitely come.

anasazi - can you do an alternative budget for somebody who already owns a house outright.

I would presuppose that a 'good salary@ is one that enables you to live a @good life@. It is then the definition of a good life tnat varies from person to person. For some this means kids in fancy private schools, holidays in kenya (& perhaps SA even) once in a while, gym/club memberships, shopping at high end malls etc while for others a good life can be had without any of the above but able to pay rent in a decent neighborhood, kids in kawaida private schools, holidays in coasto every dec and frequenting local establishments for pints and family outings without having to go into debt to pay for all this.

On a related tangent, i recently had a discussion with a high school pal who works a decent office job abroad and mentioned to them that managers in quite a few kenyan companies can pull upwards of 400k gross pm and it sort of was a shock to my pal coz i presume they left the country when a 'good salo' was 100k pm. He mentioned that if he could get such a job he would gladly relocate back home even tho his current salo is somewhere near 600k when converted to ksh. Was i wrong in my statement that salos of 400k upwards are no longer uncommon?

[quote=wilyum]
1. shopping and food fall in the same category. do not add them together adjust say 15K
2. School fees is not a monthly expenditure
3. Mpango wa kado and misc are in the same category. don't add them together but adjust so that mpango wa kado shares in the 5K allocated to that vote head
4. Car loan is a term expenditure so after you are done with the loan you save 20K.
5. Saaco is a saving/investment so not expenditure
6. increase rent to 30-35K and live comfortably
7. reduce costs like use car only on Fridays or when you have to run errands after work

NB I meant 180K take-home though 130 is still good

Football aside,would you prefer a 10% raise in your salary or same salary but a 25% lump sum in January and 75% monthly,assume 100K salary.

In reference to Arsenal and Man U woes

Nowadays, with the inflation and all, I guess 500k is the new "good" salary according to me, for a bachelor. If married, 800k will do.

And remember Net salary after tax for gross salaryof 500K will be around 360K.