I earn between Sh70,000 and Sh90,000 net per month from my job and side hustles. I am married with three children. I have been married for 16 years. My family and I live in Murang’a County where I work as a secondary school teacher. My husband doesn’t have any formal job. He is a jack of all trades; hustler, broker, farmer, driver. The problem is that he is not able to hold any of the jobs that he gets or even make anything out of them, which leaves me as the sole breadwinner.

I have tried to give him money to start businesses, but they always collapse.

Five months ago, I borrowed Sh700,000 from Sacco and gave it to him to buy a second-hand pick-up vehicle for a transport business. This business is yet to break even as the pick-up is always in the garage with mechanical issues. He has suggested that we sell it and take a fresh loan to buy a small Isuzu lorry. In this deal, the owner of the lorry will take Sh750,000 and we shall take over the bank loan balance of Sh3.8 million with Sh122,000 monthly repayments. Is this a good deal or will this be another drain on me? How do I get my husband to be financially responsible? I love him.

Emma

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Gertrude Njeri is an accountant, personal finance and investment consultant and the founder of Financial Buddy Africa Ltd:

Emma, I want to start by acknowledging something that comes through very clearly in your question: you are trying to solve this problem as a team. You are not asking how to leave your husband; you are asking how to help him become financially responsible. That says a lot about your commitment to your marriage.

However, there is one sentence in your question that concerned me more than anything else:

"I borrowed Sh700,000 from my Sacco and gave it to him to start a transport business."

Five months later, the business has not broken even, the vehicle is frequently in the garage, and instead of fixing the current investment, the proposed solution is to borrow even more money.

From a financial perspective, that is a major red flag.

One of the most important principles in investing is this: do not solve one struggling investment by taking on an even bigger one. Let's look at the numbers.

You already have a Sacco loan of Sh700,000. Now you are being asked to take over a loan balance of Sh3.8 million, with monthly repayments of Sh122,000. Your household income is between Sh70,000 and Sh90,000 per month.

That means the proposed loan repayment alone is higher than your entire monthly household income. Even if the lorry performs exceptionally well, it will still need to cover fuel, insurance, maintenance, tyres, licences, unexpected repairs and periods when it is not working. Before it generates any income for your family, it first has to pay all those operating costs.

On the information you have shared, I would strongly advise against taking over this loan. The numbers simply do not support it. I also think there is a bigger lesson from the past five months.

Your husband has tried several income-generating activities. You have supported him by providing capital, and now the pickup business has run into difficulties. Before investing another shilling, I think it is important to pause and ask a difficult but necessary question: Is the problem a lack of capital, or is it a lack of execution?

Many people believe that a struggling business can be fixed by injecting more money. In reality, more capital rarely fixes poor planning, weak record-keeping, inconsistent management or a business model that is not working. It often just increases the size of the loss. That does not mean your husband cannot succeed. It simply means that the next investment should be based on evidence, not hope.

If he genuinely believes that transport is the right business, I would first want to understand why the pickup has not worked.

Is it mechanical reliability? Is it lack of customers? Is it poor pricing? Is it poor cash flow management? Or is the vehicle simply unsuitable for the type of work available in your area? Until those questions are answered, upgrading to a larger lorry is unlikely to solve the underlying problem.

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I also noticed something else in your story. You describe your husband as a hustler, broker, farmer and driver. That tells me he is willing to work and is not afraid of trying different things. The challenge seems to be consistency. Financial success is often less about finding the perfect opportunity and more about staying focused long enough to make one opportunity work.

As a couple, I think it is time to introduce some financial boundaries.

For example, agree that no new loans will be taken until the current pickup business is fully evaluated and the existing Sacco loan is under control. Any future business proposal should include a simple written plan showing expected income, expenses, loan repayments and the point at which the business is expected to become profitable. If the numbers do not work on paper, they are unlikely to work in real life.

It may also help to separate family finances from business finances. Right now, it appears that every business setback eventually becomes your personal financial burden. That creates pressure not only on your finances but also on your marriage. A business should be able to account for its own income and expenses instead of relying on repeated injections of family savings or loans.

Finally, Emma, I would encourage you to have an honest conversation with your husband, not about the lorry, but about your family's long-term financial goals. Ask yourselves what kind of life you are trying to build over the next ten years, how much debt you are comfortable carrying, and what level of risk your family can realistically afford. Sometimes the most responsible financial decision is not taking the next opportunity. It is protecting the opportunities you have already worked so hard to create.

Emma, love should encourage us to support one another, but good financial decisions must still be guided by numbers. Hope is not a business strategy. Before taking on Sh3.8 million in debt, make sure the current business has proven that it can generate consistent profits. Otherwise, you may simply be turning one difficult lesson into a much more expensive one.

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