A salary of Shs 800,000 is a head-start in most companies but it is as good as useless for most young corporates. Renting a modest double room house alone goes for Shs 250,000 – Shs 350,000 in the surrounding areas of the city, including upcountry towns. Factor in the expenses of food, transport and the must-have of entertainment and the salary is completely wiped out.
In fact most fresh graduates from university lie in this category. Because they live above their means, such salary becomes insufficient and they end up soliciting for bail-outs from parents or they borrow from their friends, which makes the situation even grimmer with debts to pay. Completely convinced that they cannot survive on this amount for 30 days, mentioning of building a house becomes too much ambition to them.
Six years down the road and approaching 30 years, a girlfriend invades, a baby probably pops in and a take home of atleast Shs 20,000 daily takes surface. If you add other fixed expenses like rent, bills etc, the money will still not be enough.
Ten more years, such a gentleman will have two or three children going to school and the now 40 year old has probably only managed to purchase a plot of land with gritted teeth which he may even fail to construct. In the end, old age poverty becomes a must.
The trick to escape this however is to adjust your lifestyle downwards and live below your means if you’re serious about owning a home. You must do this during your young age.
As a youth, renting a single room at Shs 100,000 will set a preamble to save for your dream home. If you cut down on expenses in other areas as well, you may be able to save at least Shs 250,000 per month. If you consistently save this money for two years, you will have 6M, which buys a plot of land in city periphery.
After securing land, continue living below your means and the continuous sequence of saving 250k to start the construction project.
A modest house of two bedrooms, a living room and a small kitchen, with the toilet and bathroom outside, which is realistic in this case, will need about 5,000 – 7,000 bricks.
With each brick costing Shs 150, you can buy these in just three months (at sh 750,000) and put them at the site. Next will be to save for cement, sand, timber, iron sheets, doors and windows, labour,etc. Then sit with your site engineer and plan to start the project and get it done. You can build in phases given the amount of money you have and in just six years, you will be staying in your own home worthy 18M.
Start It Today – Yes, You Can Achieve It.
This article first appeared on Ssalongo Ssali’s Facebook page
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