Dear friend,

In these days of COVID 19 Pandemic, just like there before many men, feel restless, bored, inadequate, and lost. Men have been socialized as hunters, providers and protectors. In days gone, men handled the physical activities such as tool making, warfare, canoe building and navigation and off-shore fishing. Women, the fairer gender, took care of the household, did weaving, food preparation, pottery making and child minding. Nowadays the roles are not as clear cut even though the socialization in the youthful days has not changed much.

While society has spent resources to empower the girl child, the boy child has fallen on the wayside and there is evidence all round which gender requires the affirmative action now. Do you agree? Surely, who has the higher suicide rates, more engaged in self destructive vices like drugs and easily steps aware from parenting responsibilities?

In an effort to count in a demanding society, a lot of men get caught up in the next thing that they’re going to have to do if they just have a little bit more money. It could be that girl, the car, a plot, a qualification or even a big size toy like a sports motor bike. What ends up happening is that there is always a next thing and there’s never enough money. Many men end up living this perpetually dissatisfied life, never satisfied with what they already have, always hoping to get something more. Comparing with peers, classmates, neigbours, siblings, and colleagues is real and drives many men up the wall. As a man, have you felt this compulsive competitive force within yourself? As a lady, have you seen it the menfolk in your life? Scan your boyfriend, brother, uncle, father, grand pa, nephews, cousins or just any man in you space? Seen it?

My spiritual leaders infer that this very thing, emotion, or fulfillment you think you will find in the next thing can be found in God. The have a pregnant point because we all have a hole that can only be occupied by God.
This next thing is bigger in a man’s money life and properties that anything else. How else do you explain the desire to earn more, own more, control more even if it calls for the use of wit, force, shrewdness, influence and in some cases cunningness, thievery corruption and violence for some men. Do women cheer them along?

Time and money are closely connected.
Did they say time is money? Is this the reason why many men say that they’re too busy, they’re tired, they feel like they can’t fit everything in. Multi-tasking is not their gift. There’s a busy-ness that has come with the pandemic especially to fathers of young children and many young men. Have you not seen them trashing COVID 19 protocols and government controls? They party in the car or in the house. In other days there would have been so many options available to them. These activities would include sports and all kinds of hobbies.
This status is a double-edged sword – busyness can drain us, but taking time to rest can make us feel guilty for not running as fast as everyone else. Let me challenge men to be proactive.
On the financial front I want to invite men to consider these three simple steps when handling finances.

1. Earn little by little.
2. Save little by little.
3. Consider where to store and multiply your money.

Call to action
And if I can say one last thing, it’s this: You have to start somewhere. Give the boy child a chance to explore the offerings by the Personal Finance Academy (www.pfa.co.ke) starting with listening to the testimonies of  fellow men who have gained by engaging with the Wealth Creation Masterclass ®
Let us meet at the front pouch to share more Wallet Words next week