2022 Money Makeover runner-up Zinzy says that when she entered the money bootcamp six months ago, she needed to find the courage to have difficult discussions with people who owed her money.

In this podcast discussion, Maya (@mayaonmoney) is joined by both Zinzy and Absa financial adviser Phumzile Dube, who Zinzy refers to as her “financial therapist”.

“I needed to be braver. I was an ignorer of note,” admits Zinzy. She had to take her head out the sand to tackle conversations with creditors.

Zinzy’s situation was one that many South Africans can relate to, and many of us can learn a lot from her journey.

Over the last six months, Zinzy not only improved her financial position, but faced challenging conversations with her family.

She learnt to set strong boundaries, hold others accountable, and to respect herself.

Her Absa mentor, Phumzile, had Zinzy list all her debt. This brought home to her how bad the situation had become.

Together they discussed the numbers and decided on the priorities and the budget. Apart from cutting back on her spending, Zinzy had to face the fact that she needed to confront her brother about his failure to repay her for the car finance as well as approach the lawyer to implement court proceedings for the maintenance order.

Find the courage for those tough conversations

Raising the issue with her family was challenging.

“I felt guilty and that I was betraying the agreement that my brother and I had together. But if had the courage to join the challenge and have my financial woes out there for the world to know, there was no point in hiding this one from my other siblings.”

Zinzy had other tough conversations, such as explaining to her son that he would no longer go to his weekly swimming lessons and telling her partner that he had to take over the payment for the internet service at his parents’ house.

Zinzy also faced her creditors. She though it would be fruitless to try negotiate a payment agreement, as she had ignored them for so long. Yet she was pleasantly surprised.

“The big company that I thought was out to get me was made up of humans who understand the difficulties of life, and who deal with their customers in a humane manner. I was able to set up a payment arrangement. I no longer dodge unknown phone numbers in fear that they may be a debt collector.”

Zinzy also reviewed her will to include a testamentary trust, and has discussed with her family the need for them to have a will in place. This is important as they will be inheriting the family home and they need to have a clause that deals with this inheritance.

Six months in figures: Debt free

• Reduced expenses by R2 000
• Saved R5 000 of Shoprite vouchers
• Saved R2 500 towards emergency fund
• Paid off R22 000 towards SARS debt
• Paid R33 000 to outstanding home loan
• Paid R22 000 to outstanding car finance
• Arrangement towards City of Joburg debt