A few days ago, I shared a video on TikTok encouraging young people to start investing, regardless of how little they earn.
Among the many comments, one in particular caught my attention. This comment is a reflection of the transformation I hope to inspire.
Notice that he didn’t begin by talking about investment returns. He spoke about discipline. He spoke about changing his habits. He spoke about changing the way he thinks.
That is where wealth begins.
Many people believe financial success starts when they earn more. In my experience, it starts when they begin thinking differently about the money they already earn.
The day your first question changes from “What can I buy?” to “How much of this can I keep and invest?” is the day your financial future begins to change.
Congratulations on your journey. Thank you for sharing your story.
Stories like yours remind us that wealth is built through discipline long before it is reflected in a bank balance.
Stay Guided!!
One of the more fascinating things about human beings is that we are remarkably humble in some areas of life and astonishingly confident in others.
When we feel a persistent pain in our chest, we don’t gather the family around the dining table and ask Uncle Kamau for a diagnosis. We go to a doctor.
When the car starts producing noises that sound like a gospel choir rehearsing under the bonnet, we don’t suddenly become engineers. We call the mechanic.
Yet somehow, money has convinced many people that expertise is optional.
A man will trust a pilot with his life at 30,000 feet, and gladly let a surgeon operate on him, but when it comes to his financial future, he will take advice from someone whose greatest qualification is beginning every sentence with, “Trust me, bro.”
I have always found that amusing.
Especially because money has no mercy for confidence. The market does not care how strongly you believe in a bad decision, debt does not disappear because you were optimistic and retirement has never postponed itself because someone was “still figuring things out.”
Yet every year, countless people hand over their savings to opportunities they barely understand, convinced they have discovered the financial equivalent of fire.
Six months later, they are nowhere to be found.
Except, perhaps, in a WhatsApp group called “Victims Association.”
The irony is that most financial success stories are painfully boring.
Nobody gathers their grandchildren and says, “Come closer, let me tell you the story of how I became wealthy.” And then proceeds to talk about building an emergency fund, buying insurance, investing consistently for twenty years, and avoiding unnecessary debt.
It simply doesn’t make for exciting conversation.
Human beings love drama.
Compound interest, unfortunately, prefers patience.
And that is why so many people chase extraordinary returns while ignoring ordinary wisdom.
They want overnight success, yet wealth has always preferred the company of time.
There is no shame in seeking direction. In fact, some of the wisest people I know have mastered a simple principle: they do not confuse independence with isolation.
They understand that being in charge of your life doesn’t mean travelling without a map.
It means having the wisdom to consult one. So before you commit your savings to the next “guaranteed” opportunity or take financial advice from a man who still owes you money from 2019, pause for a moment and ask yourself a simple question:
“Am I being guided, or am I simply being excited?”
Trends come and go.
But wisdom endures.
Stay guided.
@MathuAlfred Wow. Congratulations Sir Mathu. Your work and dedication to you financial planning is known. The fin. Planning industry is better coz of professionals like you. I'm glad to be your student.