Am in one and it is growing steadily...10 good friends...we meet every quarter on a rotational basis with one guy hosting,contribution is 5k per month we have been together for 3 years now...all the cash is sent to the treasurer end month( before the 5th) and banked collectively...Max loan you can take is 100k payable in 3months,reducing balance....@10%...you need two guys to guarantee you for you to take a loan...Every quarter we buy long ended bonds...the 30 year (SDB with a return of net 10.8%,maturing in 2041) or the 20 year bonds are the most preffered...in the course of this year we are looking at each member doing a cash injection to boost reserves...They work depending on what you guys have in mind...The hardest thing is deciding collectively what to do with the cash after some time and i think thats why most chamas/investment clubs collapse...

I’ve been around too many Chamas to beat around the bush anymore. You may be attached to your Chama. Have great plans for it. You may even have started out with the best intentions. To be the next Centum or various other examples that people constantly use. But go out and talk to people who are in Chamas. Listen to the frustration. Listen to the discontent. Sometimes you will even hear squabbles between members. So many people are in Chamas but many are facing the issues I have just mentioned. Say a company came out with a new phone. Then out of the 10 models produced, eight did not work. It would then be fair to say that the phone doesn’t work. Hence why I am saying Chamas don’t work. Most people especially in modern day middle class Chamas are not wealthy because of that investment group that was started 5,10, 15 years ago. Most people are simply “hoping” that at some point something will happen to make their investment group become the next big thing. But sadly they keep doing the very same things that ensure that the Chama will not work. So at best it will be a savings scheme. Your Chama firstly will not work because you think like a Chama as opposed to a business. There was obviously something done different with the two phones that worked, right? Hence the few investment groups that do work are doing something different and it starts with how they see themselves. Are you in business or are you social? It’s amazing how in their everyday jobs people may be in charge of making money for others.

Gospel,I refused to join many guys still there contributing 5k to give to one guy.