In 2005 I was 24 and flat broke after working for about 5 years in full employment. I joined a sacco started saving religiously and investing in stocks. Took a loan of 800k in 2007 bought 1/2 acre on what is now the eastern bypass (1/8 is going for 1.5mil). Later in 2007 i bought 4 plots in Kamulu each worth around 40k (today going for 200k)
Same year I cashed 400k out of nse and bought a car.

Now I'm building my own house so as to move away from the landlord.
I am still scouting for a decent second source of regular cashflow and also hold some pieces of land bought with friends.
I have done alot of things wrong like drinking beyond my budget regularly, investing in forex blindly (cost me 250k), lending friends who never repay, getting into the tuk tuk business, buying livestock etc...

I calculated my networth recently and estimated it to be 3.5m. How did I get here ? Wouldn't have done it without taking the risks to invest in all this stuff, wouldn't have learnt if it was not for all those risks. It's been a fun ride. I'm targeting 10m by 2012.

2004
I joined JKUAT aged 19. I have always had a taste for the good life so I spent most of my free time in 1st year partying & drinking myself silly. I give myself credit for passing all my units with either A or B.
Net worth: 0
Income: 0

2005
In 2nd year I grew up a little bit. Juja town is like western province... lots of boda boda. I bought 2 at 3,300 each and paid a fundi another 1,000 to fix them with a strong frame and passenger seat. I gave them to two local boda guys & i was getting a fixed 120bob per bike per day (they took the rest and were resposible for maintainance and servicing). Total cost 7,600. Income approx 7,000 per month!
My father was giving me a monthly allowance of 10,000 per month - 3,000 rent and the rest for upkeep. I opened an CDS account at Suntra. At the beginning of every month I would deposit 7,000 and proceed to juja where my business was ready to take care of me! To put things in perspective, sample meal prices were Ugali 4/-, Rice 10/-, Mboga 5/-, Beef 28/-, Beans/ndengu 10/-, Chapo 8/-. An average meal of 2chapo+beans = 26/-! I was living like a milionaire already!
Net worth: 50,000 in CDS a/c
Income: I made 7,000pm from the bodas, maybe 2,000pm from miscellaeneous… I blew it all on the party!

2006
The Kengen IPO came in 2006, I was worth about 60K. I liquidated all my stocks and borrowed 100k from my dad & an older cousin. I invested 160K and sold for over 500k. I repaid my cousin his money (i think 40k) but my dad told me to keep what he had lent me. He had made upto 5m on my advice on Kengen. In retrospect, we had gone with the herd on that one & just gotten lucky.

I got a 50:50 partner and through a proxy (student of UoN, non students were not allowed to have businesses on the grounds) opened a cyber cafe in one of the students halls of UoN. We invested a total of about 550k in the project. 15 pentium 3 & pentium 4 computers, switches, cabling, a telkom adsl modem and some bribes for SONU officials. Daily income varied between 1,500 - 2,000. We paid a guy & a chick 200 bob each daily to run the place. Since we were in a secure location we operated 15-24hrs per day depending on demand. Sometimes my partner & i had to pull all nighters servicing the machines then catch a matatu at 5.30 am to juja, sleep for 2hrs then go to class by 8am only to remember we had not had a meal for almost 24hrs! This is where I learnt the value of hard work. We paid ourselves a standard 500bob daily. There rest of the money we banked in a joint account for replacing equipment and for contingencies. Rent for the cyber was 1,500 per month!
Net worth: about 150,000 in CDS a/c, 300k in other assets
Income: I made 15,000pm from the cyber, maybe 20,000pm from miscellaeneous… assembling clone computers for other students, selling electronics / comps parts etc. I blew most of it on the party!

2007
I continued investing in stocks. By the time i completed my 4th year i think i had 700k in cds. i also had various small businesses giving me income of around 40k monthly.

2008
I did some internships & professional studies as I tarmacked & continued with business .
Net worth: 800k
Income: 40k pm

2009
In Jan i got a good job, I bought my first car in Dec for 800k in cash, aged 24.
Net worth: 2m
Income: 150k

Extrapolate 2010 & 2011…
Life Principles & Lessons learnt
1. Learn from mistakes, never regret, move on quickly after failing
2. Work hard, play hard
3. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, never compromise on standards
4. Think & dream big
5. Invest before spending… I don’t budget my spending (whats the fun in that). Out of my total income there is an automatic check off for pension, my cds account, 2 saccos & a chama… whatever remains I take to the party. This works well for me.. eg. if I drink too much, I can’t buy that suit… the opportunity cost is always one expense for another.
6. Have fun with it

An easy way to make your first million for the conmen just in time for the campaigns next year:

I feel challenged.

I'm so tired of not being a multimillionaire