Learn how to keep wealth beyond your generation
Land has become very valuable due to a growing demand for sub-urban homes as a result of the ballooning population in the capital. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- First to arrive on the scene was the global mortgage meltdown that forced the poor and uninformed to sell valuable assets.
- Land has become very valuable due to a growing demand for sub-urban homes as a result of the ballooning population in the capital.
- I am not sure whether this can be equated to ignorance and greed, but what I am sure of is that the two are not good friends.
IN THE PAST five years alone, I have seen some of the most dramatic transfers of wealth from the poor to the wealthy.
First to arrive on the scene was the global mortgage meltdown that forced the poor and uninformed to sell valuable assets for fear of being wiped out.
The wealthy, with a higher ability to absorb the impact of financial loss, bought in droves and kept the assets just long enough for the tide to turn before selling at a profit.
Back home, something not quite noticeable is happening in Kajiado North, where a number of old men in the Maa community own large tracts of undeveloped land.
Land has become very valuable due to a growing demand for sub-urban homes as a result of the ballooning population in the capital.
As is traditional for the Maasai, they hold on to their wealth and live simple lives.
When the old men pass on, the land is transferred to their sons, who incidentally do not appreciate the value of holding on to the resource nor do they have the know-how to develop it.
SHORT-LIVED OPULENCE
I have seen the “poor” inheritors of land worth millions of shillings quickly sub-divide it and sell it in parcels and, of course, engage in short-lived opulence.
I am not sure whether this can be equated to ignorance and greed, but what I am sure of is that the two are not good friends.
The impact of the absence of a post-generational transfer of wealth management skills in such families is the quick depletion of family wealth without any enhancement of the lives of the inheritors.
Quite often, this happens in quick succession.
In Kiambu, Limuru, Redhill, Kajiado, and other sub-urban areas, many old parents are holding on to valuable land without a working wealth management skills transfer plan.
While I believe that they are not doing so for personal gain, by not engaging their children in developing the mental change required to manage the wealth, they are merely aggravating the problem.
They must face up to reality and share their skills and fears.
— Patrick Wameyo is a financial literacy educator and coach. [email protected]
