Protect your Money and Wealth from moths, rust, thieves & birds of the air

In many ways, this country is one hell of a place to earn honest money and grow your wealth in the long term. While it is absolutely true that this is indeed a blessed country with plenty of opportunities, there are equally as many cons, thugs, and fraudsters.

Many people work hard to earn their living through honest and just means. Many others at all levels from domestic workers, corporate employees, public officers, and cons masquerading as businessmen/women lurk at every turn preying to harvest where they did not sow.

Unfortunately, these cons and fraudsters get away with their crimes because often they operate in cahoots with security agencies, well-connected people in government, and sometimes respected community & religious leaders.

Around Christmas eve, reports of a Chama treasury committing suicide for ‘eating’ over KES.300,000 of members’ money was trending online. Days later, a story of people who lost amounts totaling millions of shillings in a land/housing development company in Kiambu/Thika followed.

Yet, these stories join a long list of similar scams before them. The storyline is always similar and the victims always cry out of innocence and ask the government to help recover their money. In the end, nothing ever happens to the cons who mostly later emerge with a new scam.

Ultimately, a few fraudsters mint millions without much sweat while thousands of innocent victims lose their life savings and others are left with painful loans to service.

The troubling question however is: Why do so many people never seem to learn from these money tragedies?

Why and how you can avoid it:

1. The reason why cons and fraudsters have a free and easy time in Kenya is that most of us are greedy – most people in the country, live on borrowed honesty because all they have missed is an opportunity to steal from others. It has become normal in Kenya for everyone to look for money shortcuts. It does not matter whether it is in places of worship, government, business, NGOs, or domestic workers. Many people are trying to con or defraud everyone else across the board;
2. We have become a society that worships money with no honest work – in this country you will get away with any crime for as long as you have the money. Nobody cares how you got your money – everyone will worship whoever has more money without ever asking for accountability on how the money was obtained;
3. We have lost the gift of humanity – while money is good and makes life much easier and more comfortable, it MUST never take away the basic human values that make us responsible members of society. When all is done under the sun, the only memories that will be left of you are the people & lives you touched while you were alive. People never remember the money you had but what you did with that money.

Some practical measures you can take to protect your money and wealth from cons in 2023 & beyond?

1. Learn the art of delayed gratification – the reality with money is that no one gets it overnight. To make real money, there will always be long hours and sacrifices behind the scenes. Even willing lotteries require you sometimes buy many coupons and spending of your money before you get to the winning ones. Extremely very few people in the world achieve very high success with money without a lot of work behind the scenes. Even then, it takes a lot of work and effort to keep money when you get it;
2. Listen to your gut feeling – if you have mastered your money, your mind and soul get united toward your goals. If it is a fraud, there is always that ‘ka-feeling’ that something is not right –never ignore your feelings during those times. Your gut feeling is almost always correct –I call them your guardian angels; and
3. Take your time before you decide – almost always never pay for something in which the seller seems to be in a hurry to get you to make the payment first. Cons & fraudsters capitalize on your psychology and want you to release the money before you think twice or start questioning. To them any amount they can get out of you before you realize you have been conned the better.

Finally, while the government tells us to brace for a hard year ahead in 2023, this does not mean there is no money flying around –the responsibility is for you to find out where that money is.