Learn to cast your bread upon many waters. Had I known what I know now when I was around your age, I'd have gone real estate full throttle.

You sound like a bride about to get married to the village layabout and no amount of advice from the elders will dissuade. Go ahead, drink from the poisoned chalice. I guarantee you will waste 6 yrs of income ( if you are lucky) but will gain 10yrs in wisdom.

Seems you are still very young and naive.You still thing life is a straight line where you can put deadlines to getting married,getting kids etc.
I started buying shares from my HELB loan and still accumulating.Creating wealth is not an overnight process.
I told you to buy from trustworthy sources and you can search right here on wazua on some of the genuine sellers of land and property.
You will need to take a loan of loans in your life in order to grow.The idea is to fast track your loans and take another one once you are done.That way you will accumulate assets faster.There is no wealthy man that doesn't have a loan that they are paying.

I will take this opportunity to address majority of the posts addressed to me above here since this forum allows me to post one reply per hour then wait until another hours passes.

I have done virtual trading by trading with Kshs 3m on http://www.valuraha.com/platform since 2013 and on https://stf.younginvestors.co.ke/nsechallenge/ since last year coming to the top 3 on the respective platforms. I know the dynamics rapidly shift when in a real life situation but I am not starting from zero. I have also been a ghost reader with no account on wazua since Dec 2013 and I have actually read almost all posts in the different forums i.e. from investor to politics etc.

When in campus I was making 15k a month gross on internship here when the team was quite small and we didn't make much money. Before then my pocket money was 10k a month. Which means it's not something that I cannot do. Ever since I got this job I have been very lax on doing anything good for the long run and in fact just started saving recently when I got scared of living an average life throughout my life.

Losing my job is extremely unlikely for now since I am one of the highest performing members as of now...this can be attributed to the fact that I don't have a family like most members so I am able to get a leg up since they work strictly 9-5.

I am up for a promotion in fact and I have a few offers from companies that I get from time to time.

I figure my salary will just keep going up and up for those years plus I always have some side job i.e. small consultancy like every other tech guy, that I do every month which I can make an average of 25-50k a month mostly.

This does not include the annual bonus, though not guaranteed, which I got of 100K for the end of last year.

Masters is mostly evening classes and I figure I will not be the first to do it together with my work. In fact I started a full time internship at this company while on full time studies at a public university when I was in 2nd year and I did ace my tests eventually.

There will ALWAYS be an emergency to think about but statistically speaking this is the most low risk time for me to take upon such a project since I do not have the emergencies of other people to think about too for now.
I have really put some thought into it and I have come to the conclusion that I will go ahead with the loan.

And if everything does not work out it doesn't mean I will be at Kshs 0.00 like most people assume.

I have share options where I work that are worth around Kshs 650K as of our last funding which I can exercise at a cost of Kshs 103,655 as of now but I am not about to touch these anytime soon unless I get fired.




In this bearish markets I am not sure how well these funds are doing. Even their alternative investment, real estate is not doing so well right now.


Subtract the management fee which is how they make their money, you will see that the rates are really not as good as the agents make them sound. Also factor in inflation at around 6-7% you will find yourself making only around 4-6% actual interest on your money tops.

My end goal is to start a small fund of my own when I get to around 28-30 and obtain funds by posting my actual trading history to small time wazees back home and friends and asking them to give me a small sum of 500k upwards to start with.



That is a high probability too. But refer above to the reply I made to Swenani that I cannot have zero returns. If I gain that 10yrs of interest in 6yrs due to bad returns that won't be bad since I'm 23. I really do not want to start making this mistakes when I am in my 30s.

The main thing I fear is adjusted interest rates due to inflation.



The prime investment of late had been high end apartments and offices in nice areas. But if we look at the recent trend, real estate has been really slowing down. Most places that have rent above 50k have TO LET signs for even a year. There is a lot of unoccupied office space too.

This is mainly because of the concentration on the Nairobi market though. There is a lot of potential in the smaller towns but real estate is not for everybody to be honest. I can only concentrate on what I am good at, or what I think I am good at since we do not have a track record yet



Thanks a lot. I have already been tracking the market on a daily basis for about 2.5yrs now and I can almost recite by heart most annual highs and lows for a while.
My actual job involves making trading software for the firm I work for so I am very ready to take upon this challenge.

I have really really taken this advice to heart.



Thank for the reality check. I am very naive in terms of life etc to be honest. I just started making money the other day. The only thing I have known well is to code. That is why I posted here to get advice from people that have failed to do it, are doing it well or have done it all. There is everyone of that character on this forum so it made sense to me to be candid about my thoughts so that I get good feedback positive or negative.

And as you said, everybody has a loan that they are paying. I cannot put a straight line on life, but that does not mean that I shouldn't try to plan a little at least or have goals.

I know most people here know what they are saying but these 1/8th plots since what everybody is doing these days is buy 1acre, divide in several eighths and sell the individual pieces for highly inflated costs.

All the while though, I do think it is actually a good investment but I prefer something that I am only playing with numbers for now. Riskier but that is what I know best. Plus someone has to put some money into all of these REITS coming up



This information I treasure. Especially not to panic and sell when things start turning sour.


All in all. I will go ahead with this. Talk to my employer to get me documents and get started on the process next week when I am on a short leave.

Thanks to everybody that I have not replied to but what you've said is at the back of my mind. Especially more to the people that have been very critical and have not told me what I wanted to hear.

I have gotten responses from a lot of people that I admire here with the only person missing being Obiero not telling myself some KQ but his history of trades has been a great case study of mine including that thread about his portfolio

My take is @ulekijana will do just fine. He has a good head on his shoulders.

You are a smart young boy.However you are betrayed by your age.You are in a stage in life where unapeleka mambo mbio mbio.Everything is faster,faster,faster.
I dont blame you.Its a stage of life which everyone goes through.In that stage you really need a mentor otherwise you will make a lot of mistakes.
In 13 years time to come,you will regret very many decisions that you made in a hurry.Haraka haraka haina baraka.
At my age now,i regret many decisions that i made in the last 18 years.If i could go back,i will really make things different.But its impossible! i will only try to make it better for my children instead.
The age you are in now is the best to start creating wealth.So far you are doing well.I bought my first shares at 29 years old.Yet you started at 19 years old.In four years time you have built a portfolio worth 91k.Thats commendable for you.You will only get better.
Your major weakpoint is trying to go at 100km per second!
Since you have chosen shares as your main avenue to create well,thats great.I too is my main avenue.I believe in stocks.
But there is no investment which is a sure thing.All investments bear some risks to certain degree.Its for you to weigh your risk tolerance.
The rule of thumb is to diversify.My ultimate investment portfolio im aiming to build is: 1.Shares 2.T.bond 3.Real estate.
This will minimize my risks as i will not be too much exposed.
For your case,you should have started like this:
Buy the target shares in monthly bits of 50 k per month.
In one year that will be a portfolio of 600 k.
In the second year continue with the same discipline 50 k per month but this time for T bond.You will have another 600 k for T bond
In the third year aim for the real estate.With the 600 k discipline per year,it will be a capital to start in the real estate.
In three years you will have:
1.600 k worth in shares
2.600 k worth in t bond
3.600 k capital to start real estate.
Repeat the circle in another 3 years and you will have 3.6m worth in investment.And thats without any loan.You will then only bet 29!.In another six years you will have 7.2m woth of investment and at 35 years old,you will be fine with the annual returns of 700000k.
Think longterm my brother and it will be well with you.

take the loan but not now. you've seen nothing yet from the bear. it will keep going down and only pick up from feb 2018

Don't rely on your salary alone. find ways and means of swindling and stealing from your employer to increase your income!!!!!! This is Kenya bwana!!!

Bad mentality, YES! But just the reality

Am disappointed with the "advice" being offered to this kijana. People telling him not to take a loan to buy assets! Not cool. Same people will advice him to take a loan to buy liabilities like a personal car or a residential house smh.

Wise people invest what they will earn tomorrow today while foolish people spend what they will earn tomorrow today.