Money & Me: List of My Worst Purchases Ever

I recently decided to do some rearranging around the house, and that's when I saw it.

It turned my lazy Sunday into a rather sad and reflective one.

Tucked away in that part of the closet that I never really get to, was a suit that cost an arm, a leg as well as a kidney.

I had bought it after landing my first job under some sort of illusion that the suit makes a man. Or maybe I was influenced by a TV series I was watching at the time where everyone donned these designer suits.

What I do know is after seeing it on that Sunday afternoon, I just laughed at myself. Why on earth would I spend my entire salary on rent and this can't-fit-me-anymore suit?

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say, which is why I now find myself going down the memory lane and listing my worst purchases ever.

Let's be honest, we've all done it at least once. There's always that one item that you bought not out of a need, but just plain wanting, or impulse.

A Sure Bet Not so Sure

I think we should start with the big one, my masters program.

Now, before the scholars turn away, just hear me out. I'm not saying higher education is the big bad wolf, nor that it's a waste of money.

I'm just saying that for me it was.

I almost sold my small land investment in Nanyuki as well as my kidney just to get myself through this program, but I did it for all the wrong reasons.

At the time I thought having a masters was a surebet when it came to landing those lofty jobs and a house in Kitisuru.

This couldn't be further from the truth in the current market is what I came to learn.

Employers (at least in my field), I found, are looking for practical thinkers and most of what I learned in the program were theories that date back to Vasco da Gama. In an ever-changing world it is always important to stay in tune with what's new in the market.

This is why I have recently decided to invest in myself by taking myself through free online art classes, specializing in literature.

Speaking of art brought another impulse purchase memory to mind.

I still can't bring myself to believe that I actually went to an art gallery and bought several high-end paintings and paid an amount that could really help me out now.

I was in that semi-midlife crisis age and looking to impress everyone around me by living the 'good life' or at least what I thought the good life was.

You'd think the paintings would turn me into a millionaire after a few years but nope, they are all tucked away in the corner of my bedroom gathering fine dust. 

A Jalopy of Tears

Just like that second hand Toyota 100 that dusted my accounts dry.

Against the sound advice of my significant other, who was a girlfriend at the time, I went ahead and forked out 250k for a heap of garbage posing as a car.

I was a big fan of those TV car shows where some genius would get a car for almost nothing and turn it into this thing of beauty.

What they don't tell you in the shows is that the geniuses have a lot of disposable income to burn through, millions upon millions. The 250k was all I had.

I made so many trips to the garage that they created a working space for me. I could get some work done as they worked on my money pit of a car.

I eventually had to give up on my pimp-my-ride project and decided to put it up for sale.

Maybe I could actually get to salvage my money, I thought to myself. I have never been so wrong in my life.

Guy who bought it owned a junkyard along Kirinyaga road. He made it clear from the get go that he wasn't buying it to cruise around. He was buying it for any salvageable parts.

"Ntakupea 90, take it or leave it," I remember the words,  and just how much they stung quite vividly.

"Fikisha 100 and it's yours," I muttered in response.

I just wanted that money-sucking thing out of my hands.

Does age bring wisdom? Maybe, but what I do know is that with it comes experience. 

Have I made purchases I regret of late? Nothing comes to mind, and that's a good thing.