Everybody wants to become rich but more often than not most of us do not have time to attend to the nitty gritty of getting there – the small things that one must do.

Picture this – party A owns a small business of selling fresh vegetables and thinks it’s the easiest way to get rich because of a high profit margin, but he/she does not keep records, takes away supplies for the evening meal, for friends and for relatives everyday and sells the rest.

They think they are making money but the truth is they don’t really know. For all I care they could be making huge losses but because they no longer have to buy food and have a high social position in family and friends because they are business owners and can even afford to give away some everyday, they feel ‘successful’.

Party B has a decent job with a monthly salary of half a million. They budget their income before the salary and try to stick to it, but somehow their budget reads all monthly expenses are under four hundred Rwanda francs but somehow by every twentieth of the month they hardly have fifty thousand francs to spare, so they decide not to save this month and wait for next. Every month that follows, they budget but find themselves at a loss of words. What could be their problem? Are they just spendthrifts or what? Usually, the only problem might be that their budgets are very good but they do not self audit to see any increases in spending and where the extra francs might be going.

They will never know these small holes in their pockets that lose money because they do not try to keep a simple financial journal that tracks these holes and helps one identify and block them. In this world of gadgets – phones that can do virtually everything – is easier to keep financial records, especially for those who think of pen and paper as too old school. But nothing beats the effectiveness of the age-old paper and pen.  

A monthly budget should not be longer than one side of foolscap. By ticking away any expenditure, noting some small increases and decreases in amounts of the side of the initial amount and noting any small new expenditures on the other side makes what we think is a very hard job the easiest in the world. Such a sheet of paper can fit in any woman’s hand bag (my stupid friend thinks those can carry a ton) and every man’s wallet (better warp the ATM card in it) so every time you get it out to withdraw you remember your financial responsibilities).  

To update this journal, it does not have to be a public thing. You can do it anywhere, in the taxi, office, even at your place of evening relaxation. It does not have to be a fuss.

And Ooh, before I forget, is it too embarrassing? Look, you are not alone to feel like wring down all your expenditure may appear to thrifty to your social circle – but wait when you a dirty poor, you won’t even have a social circle to talk about.

In the quest for financial freedom, there must be minimal levels of order .it starts with a small financial journal like the one sheet of paper I propose hear, but as you become richer, the need to organized becomes more of a job, or otherwise, you might just lose everything to a sense of lack of organization.

Ends