BY JOHN KARIUKI
At a casual glance, Kenyans love doing things the last minute.
A new vocabulary "last minuters" has cropped up in street talk. From the legendary travels by urbanites in the last possible vehicles, going to hospital only when one is bedridden to the late servicing of loans, Kenyans love holding back a little bit in the hope that the urgency of the problem will somehow ease. But problems intensify and prices actually rise.
Apparently, we equate our belated and "no costs spared" flurry of activity as a show of personal concern for the tasks at hand. But enormous amounts of money are routinely lost through this habit. And sadly we never seem to learn from these experiences, but live to repeat the same mistakes on a grander scale.
Witness the many absentee landlords who will only show up when their vacant lots are being fenced off by other allottees, when they had decades to pay up Local Council rent and acquire title deeds.
They will vigorously contest such reallocations in courts and spend fortunes. Other people never see the need to collect vital certificates in their lives while the going is still good.
They will only race in search of them when there is no option.
Spending spree
Parents annually conscript their children to the costly and late registration for national examinations on account of never bothering to get their birth certificates in good time.
But personal finance experts warn that these last minute spending spree can cloud one’s money focus and take away the good, old fashioned window-shopping and comparison of prices.
One can develop the habit of doing all purchases in a crisis and lose money in the process. But with a little planning and anticipation, one need not spend exorbitantly or at the last minute.
Ms Judy Wangari, a personal finance banker, says that people can beat the last minute and high expenses by planning well ahead.
"As it is clear that one will pay school fees for his or her children at the beginning, why not do so today and avoid the long queues and wasted hours in May," she poses.
Ms Wangari has seen people rush to banks to seek loans for clearing little things that were neglected and accumulated into huge debts.
Some people routinely overlook paying their overheads like rent and water and electricity charges regularly and these attract penalties and which compound in the subsequent months accumulating into runaway debts that drive them to taking loans," she says.
And of course such loans are costly and the purpose they are put to is not economical, adds Wangari.
She advises people to plan all their recurrent expenses ahead and never procrastinate in their payments.
"In fact paying upfront on such things like car insurance and holiday and travel expenses spreads one’s money burden across the year, easing it, and there are no costly surprises incurred," she says.
Paying upfront
And the preparations for weddings continue to be huge money sinks due to many people’s lack of foresight, she says.
"A wedding gown costs at least 30 per cent less when bought or rented months ahead just like hiring of the reception venues and outside catering services," says Wangari.
She says some event organisers forget to seek for the master of ceremonies (MCs) and guests of honour in good time and in true Kenyan fashion rush in the last minute, incurring extra costs.
"When an MC is ambushed at the last minute, he or she will correctly read the desperation in the organisers’’ tone and hike their fees accordingly," says Wangari.
Enock Kalama, a salesperson who travels regularly, has learnt the hard way to plan ahead and avoid the last minute rush.
"I used to literally pop into any town any time and seek accommodation where it would be available at whatever cost," says Kalama.
But in one instance in one local town, all hotel rooms were occupied owing to a religious convention.
The only available accommodation that Kalama could get was a deluxe room in an up market hotel, retailing at six times the normal prices.
"This set me thinking and I vowed never to be caught off guard again. I now keep contacts of all the competitively priced hotels in the towns that I frequently visit and call ahead to make reservations," says Kalama.
Amos Muya, a Generation Y accountant, says it is only recently that he discovered cheaper butcheries and green grocers in his neighbourhood. "I am a ‘last minuter’ to a fault.
I have always been deciding to prepare meals at home at the last minute, which is some minutes past midnight when all businesses in my neighbourhood have closed," he admits and adds, "This has been sending him back to the CBD in search of open supermarkets and convenience stores and nightclubs for a cut of fresh meat.
Costly ventures
But this practice has been costly in terms of the car fuel and time," he says.
The biggest cost of his last minute shopping came when his late night pattern interested local car thieves who waylaid him and robbed him of his vehicle.
"I now plan what to prepare for supper in the morning before leaving for work and buy all the ingredients cheaply at the local kiosks and shops," he says.
In many local communities, the ultimate insult a man can face is the last minute rush to pay dowry to the in-laws to be allowed to bury his wife’s corpse while he had decades to do so! In such scenarios, the in-laws can stake claim to any amount of money that they wish, compounding one’s grief.
