When Brian got his first job, life seemed brighter with a good salary and a nice title, unlike his peers, who struggled to get jobs. However, silently, the pressure to support a cousin’s school fees, medical bills for a relative, rent for a sibling and home upgrades for his parents mounted. Brian, like many first salary earners, promoted professionals or Kenyans in diaspora face an invisible financial burden of being ‘the one who made it’.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, household dependency ratios remain high, with many working adults supporting relatives beyond their immediate households. In addition, rising costs of living leave little room for personal savings or investments.
According to Millicent, a Relationship Manager at ABC Bank, generosity without a plan can quickly become self-sabotage, noting that many Kenyans face a common pattern of financial success, yet their savings and investment stagnate due to emergency requests, culture and guilt, which replaces boundaries. Similarly, a report by the Central Bank of Kenya shows that despite the better employment rates and income growth in the formal sector, savings rates remain low and borrowing high.
Adding to this, Millicent explains that part of the challenge lies in emotional expectations, and structured financial planning becomes critical to introduce clarity and sustainability into how financial commitments are managed.
Financial planning can be made easy with banking products. For customers like Brian, having a goal-based savings account allows them to separate personal financial goals from support obligations, and investment products and services, like those through our ABC Capital subsidiary, help grow wealth while ensuring family commitments are met.
“In the long run, through proper planning, you can shift to sustained support that is not measured by how many people you can support without driving yourself to financial ruin, but by how long you can help them,” says Millicent.
Being “the one who made it” should not be a burden, but with structure and clarity, it can become an opportunity to grow and give.