It had been a usual day. After a hard day at work and the end of the 43 day long January, my employer had just done what I was so looking forward to – wire salary to my account.

I should tell you, it had been a hard month. I could hardly afford fueling my car through the month. I was running behind on a number of bills. In fact, I had to negotiate with the admin at my Son’s school that I would settle his fees at the end of the month.

I remember telling myself at the end of last year to be a little more organized during the festive season. But hey, I needed to get into the mix. There had been this advert in the media that was disturbing – “Pata Ploti na Forty at Forty”. My 40^th birthday was beckoning and I needed to justify what I had been doing with my incomes since leaving engineering school almost 15 years ago.

So when the banker walked to me with forms that I could get an unsecured loan, I could not hesitate to sign up for the 4 million – 2.5 million for a piece of land within the vast Syakimalu (almost 6km from the Highway). I was left with 1.5 million and thought to myself, my ramshackle needed a much desired upgrade. The temptation from IBCJapan.com was irresistible – I mean, who would say no to a deal of USD 11,000 CIF for a fully loaded BMW X3 2010 YoM? I convinced myself that I could dispose my Toyota Passo and use the earnings to top up for the Customs Clearance and other related charges. In fact, I had to get a soft loan of KES 265,000 from Mikolo my best friend to avoid incurring extra demurrage charges.

Enough of the good investments I had made. I was telling you what the day had been.

So with all the psyche I could surmount, I called up Mikolo for a meet up at our favorite hangout joint for a drink. Remember, this was going to be the first expenditure after a dry Januaaaaaaary! It was a good evening. We ate, we drank and even managed to call for cab escort services home just to be on the safe side with NTSA. I had just blown off half my salary!

All along, my wife had been calling me frantically to confirm when I would be home. But the carousing at the hang out was beyond my ability to be distracted. I can only liken the experience to what Maurice Chishimba chronicles in “The Weekend of carousal”.

Fast forward … I hardly had reached home. My two phones were ringing – one from my mother and the other from my Kengolo, the neighbor at my rural home. This is when I knew all was not well. Which phone was I to pick first? Dad was very sick. He had just gotten a stroke. They had been trying to reach me earlier, but nursing my January woes had taken a toll on me. Dad needed to be in ICU and the hospital needed a deposit of KES 500,000. Where was I going to get that heck of money? How was I going to sell the land in Kotani at that hour? Who was going to lend me cash against the BMW that I had hardly driven home to have dad “lay” his hands on it? My palpitations were rising by the moment. I couldn’t breathe well.

When I woke up, my body was full of sweat. It was a bright Saturday morning. What a bad dream that was! Thank God it was just but a dream.

3 questions:

1. What if it happened to be true?
2. What is my level of preparedness for the occurrence of such an emergency?
3. Do I have the appropriate plans in place to cushion not only myself, but my critical dependents from such likely shocks?

As we walk this journey, earn, save, invest but remember some risks are worthy transferring to a 3^rd party to manage in the form of insurance. Take that seniors medical cover for your folks today! Talk to me.