Calculator Tools

We bring a great deal of baggage into our relationships, and this includes our money beliefs and fears which are often formed by the way we were raised and the lessons we internalised about money.
Use this Money Questionnaire to identify your money attitudes, and goals. For couples, use it to start a money conversation with your partner.

This is an example of a household budget. Capture all your expenses in this spreadsheet. Some of these items may not be relevant to you, or there may be other expenses you need to include. Simply rename as required.

This is a simple debt repayment calculator. It does not make provision for service fees or insurance premiums. Only fill in the debt repayment amount, otherwise this will distort the calculation. For example, your debt repayment may be R300 but with fees is comes to R360 per month. Only fill in the R300 as our current minimum payment. Your proposed increased payment should again be the net amount.

The “name” is the store/credit provider – for example it could be a Foschini or Absa Credit Card, etc. The “type” is it the type of facility, this could be a revolving credit facility or a fixed term loan. Does it have an end date? Check whether your credit agreement includes credit insurance. You will be paying a premium for this, so check your statements for any fees and make sure you understand what they are for. If you need to fill in additional lines, insert more rows.

This is a list of your assets vs your liabilities – or put in another way, how much you own vs how much you owe. This is a personal balance sheet and provides a good measure for your financial health each year. Obviously you want to have more assets than liabilities – a positive net worth – but the main reason for the exercise is to check that you are moving in the right direction each year. You want to know that each year your debts are decreasing, and your investments are growing.
To calculate your net worth, list all your assets. This should include your residential property, any property investments, retirement funds and other savings and investments. For your property valuation either use the purchase price if you bought the property in the last five years or the municipal valuation as an indication. Use the trade value of your car which you can obtain form the dealership. Then list all your liabilities. This would be your outstanding mortgage and all other debt including car finance, credit cards, store cards, etc.
Subtract your liabilities form your assets to give you your net worth. This is a figure you can use each year to keep track of your financial health. Even if you just commit a small amount of money to reducing your debts and growing your investments it will have a positive impact on your net worth.