START SAVING AS SOON AS YOU START MAKING MONEY!

Guys this is important. If you have started earning, this is the right time to start saving or is the right time to increase your savings. The longer you wait the difficult it will become as your life will probably become comfortable and you might have many responsibilities soon afterwards!!

Let me tell you the boiling frog story that I love to tell my fellow cooperators: If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death. The boiling frog story is generally told in a metaphorical context, with the upshot being that people should make themselves aware of gradual change lest they suffer eventual undesirable consequences (Wikipedia).

See yourself as a frog and of course like the frog dropped in boiling water, you will automatically clamber out like we do in uncomfortable/unpleasant situations. But if you were to be dropped in tepid water and the water be gradually heated, you will rarely notice change in temperature until probably it is too late. Life happens like that!! Change sometimes will find you still trying to adjust to it despite it being constant!!! Life has a way of sneaking onto you and gives you a surprise though most probably you saw this surprise miles away and you told yourself you had all the time. Living life without considerable savings is like water that is being gradually boiled with you in!!!

When you leave collage with your degree or diploma certificate and you get a job, do not wait to start saving. It is likely that at this time you are still single and you have a few financial obligations. So immediately you get a job, you should start saving and save as much as possible. This is so because once you start a family, your expenses will automatically go up or if you delay, you will get used to the pay you get and therefore it will become hard to adjust. You will have established a comfort zone. We all know getting out of a comfort zone is the hardest of things to do.

Saccos have a minimum savings per month that is allowed. So if you are in a Sacco DO NOT start saving the minimum allowed. It is thought wise that one should at least save 10% of his/her income. If possible when you have just been employed, save more than the 10%. It is also wise to save with a Sacco as they pay better dividends and interest on deposit than most financial institutions. Ask around the interest paid by banks on savings accounts then ask what Saccos pay! Saccos pay way better .

So my friends, start saving now for a better future.

ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE ALLIANCE....

• Worldwide more than 1 billion people are members of cooperatives.
• Cooperatives provide 100 million jobs worldwide, 20% more than multinational enterprises.
• The economic activity of the largest 300 cooperatives in the world equals the 10th largest national economy.

• 

  Money can't buy happiness, however it can rent it :-)

  In India and China combined, more than 400 million people are part of cooperatives.
• In Germany and the United States, one in four people are cooperative members while in Canada that number is four in 10!
• In Japan, 1 out of every 3 families is a member of a cooperatives.
• In Indonesia, cooperatives provide jobs to 288,589 individuals.
• In Kenya, 250,000 people are employed by cooperatives.
• Canadian maple sugar cooperatives produce 35% of the world's maple sugar production.
• In Colombia, the 8,124 cooperatives were responsible for 4.96% of the GDP in 2009. They employ over 137,888 people - 46% of which are men and 54% women.
• In Kenya, cooperatives are responsible for 45% of the GDP and 31% of national savings and deposits. They have 70% of the coffee market, 76% dairy, 90% pyrethrum, and 95% of cotton.
• In Poland, dairy cooperatives are responsible for 75% of dairy production.
• In the UK, the largest independent travel agency is a cooperative.
• In Vietnam, cooperatives contribute 8.6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• Costa Rica counts over 10% of its population as members of cooperatives.
• In Germany, 20 million people are members of cooperatives, 1 out of 4 people.
• In Singapore, 50% of the population (1.6 million people) are members of a cooperative.

1)    To observe and operate within provisions of the Co-operative Societies Act, Rules, Society By-law and the various policy documents.

2)    Operate within the budget, and avail the Trial Balances and Economic reports to the respective Government offices.

3)    To provide efficient, timely and quality services to their members.

4)    The members have obligation to elect leaders who are transparent and accountable.

5)    Committee have obligation of providing minutes of Management, Special and Annual General Meetings to the Sub-County Co-operative Officer at all times.

6)    The committees have an obligation to invite the Co-operative Officers to all their meetings.

7)    The society has an obligation to provide accurate, timely and up to date information to the Sub-County Co-operative Officer.

8)    The society has an obligation to pay audit and supervision fee to the Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development Department of Co-operative Development and Marketing.

Related articles

• Meetings in Co-operative Societies (funnyardstick.wordpress.com)
• Suspension and Expulsion of a Member of a Sacco/co-operative (funnyardstick.wordpress.com)
• Duties and Powers of the Management Committee/board of Directors (funnyardstick.wordpress.com)