Barbara Katende Kivumbi: On a practical approach to personal financial freedom

‘We lose sight over the fact that genuine wealth is achieved over time after taking steps’

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES E NANTABA | Barbara Katende Kivumbi is a lecturer, personal finance coach, transformational speaker and author of ‘Money Cure.’ But her favorite reference is ‘mother of twins.’

Katende’s passion lies largely in helping people become financially empowered through personal financial management and that is what she strives to achieve in her book. In the book, Katende teaches the practical way to save, invest and accumulate genuine wealth.

Katende says, “We lose sight over the fact that genuine wealth is achieved over time after taking steps.”

The long term goal of saving and investment, according to Katende, is to prepare for retirement. And that is what she addresses in the first chapter. She maintains that preparing for retirement should be at the back of every individual as they start out on their career journey.

“If you don’t start saving the little money now, it will be very difficult to manage retirement,” she says.

In the subsequent chapters, Katende discusses the futility of banking on chance, the immense power of idea, the process of wealth creation through stewardship, resourcefulness and the significance of small but consistent choices among other principles that should be applied towards the attainment of personal financial freedom. With a wealth of experience in financial services, Katende says financial literacy is needed to make empowered and profitable decisions.

Katende says, “The lessons are simple, priceless and timeless.”

She says Ugandans have a low saving culture because many people seek instant gratification.

Writing the book was Katende’s own simple quest after reading ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad.’ And being a transformational speaker and coach, Katende would share a lot on personal financial management among the many areas. And to her surprise, the audience would request for copies of her presentations most of which were only bullet points. And these wouldn’t help much. Initially ‘Money Cure’ was in English only but she has translated it to Luganda and is working on a simplified version for Teens and Kids.

Katende comes from a family of lawyers and says excelling in academics was not a subject of discussion. And that laid a foundation for all that she has been trying to achieve. In a way of encouraging them to excel through extra effort, Katende’s father John W. Katende often ensured that she and her siblings were provided with information ahead of time.

“Our elder siblings passed on the information through coaching,” she says.

But they were also provided with lots of reading materials something that instilled a reading culture and laid a foundation for Katende’s acumen to write ‘Money Cure.’

Her father kept raising the bar higher and every time there would be something to achieve.

Katende went to Gayaza High School for both Ordinary and Advanced Levels before joining Makerere University for her first degree in Mass Communication graduating in 1994. She has a Master’s degree from the University of West Georgia.

In her pursuit to get everyone started on the path for financial independence, Katende says, “I would love people to say that I tried my best and ran my race.”