Caroline Mutoko’s Lessons About First Jobs & Money Mistakes She Made

While in campus, Caroline worked as a waitress in several restaurants among them Tratorria located at the Nairobi Central Business District.

“I have worked most of my adult life. I have always had money in my pocket. I don’t know what it is to be broke!” she says. Her hard work at Capital FM paid off when she was employed after working pro bono for six months. She worked at Capital FM for four years before moving to Kiss 100 where she has been at for the last 10 years.

Lessons about money…
You get your first job and you want to dress like or out-dress the lady who has worked longer than you and has a bigger pay cheque. You want to drive a better car than her and live in an upmarket address just to impress your friends. Don’t do it. When you start working, get in debt and try keeping up with the trends, you are not just wasting money, but your time and energy. No one cares and it saps your creative juices and stops you from focusing on the things that really matter and ultimately you get burnt.

I have made many money mistakes. I should have bought less shoes and more land/property. I also wish I had lived beneath my means. I am doing that now and I can’t believe how much money I wasted on the “so-called-finer” more useless things. I wish I had learnt to automate my savings – there was a time when I relied on willpower. I wish I had spent more time with the crowd that was sensible rather than with the “in” crowd that was wasting time and money. I wish I knew then that you don’t have to wait to be a certain age to dream or think a certain way or do smart things like investing. In our 20′s we have the illusion that “there is still time” no! the time is now.

Story By: Murugi Ndwiga

{From Management Magazine}

Credit: Career Point Kenya