As interest rates increase, many homeowners are starting to feel the squeeze on their monthly mortgage repayments and are understandably wondering whether or not to fix their mortgage repayments to provide more certainty around what their...
Emergency fund: your defence against financial slaughter
Debt is the only option if you don’t have an emergency fund. I have just had one of those months where I’m wondering which of my ancestors or gods I’ve offended. You know those months were anything and everything seems to go wrong and all of it...
Time to stress test your finances
Many households are already seeing the impact of rising interest rates on their budgets. With interest rates increasing 100 basis points over the last three years, the prime lending interest rate has risen from 8.5% to 9.5% since 2012. To put that...
Setting up an emergency fund
Watch Episode 3 of the Change In your Pocket series for advice on setting up an emergency fund. https://youtu.be/zreJg6744II – Video supplied by BrightRock Welcome to The Change Exchange, where we're helping you find ways to make the most of out of...
Tell your money where to go
Watch Episode 2 of the Change In your Pocket series for tips on how to draw up a budget. https://youtu.be/x8yK7_RgzyU - Video supplied by BrightRock So you’ve just landed the job of your dreams along with that salary bump that’s going to solve all...
Cellphones: to contract or not
I have always had a cellphone contract. In fact, I am embarrassed to admit that I recently had to ask someone how to buy pre-paid data. The thing is, I got my first cellphone back in the dark ages when phones where the size and weight of a brick...
How much should I be spending?
So you’ve just got your first pay cheque and the temptation to go and blow the whole lot on a new wardrobe or a deposit on the car of your dreams will be huge. But you know that you also have to pay those boring expenses like rent, food and petrol....
Taxpayer-unfriendly changes to Tax Administration Act proposed
Proposals contained in the Tax Administration Laws Amendment Bill of 2015 would dramatically decrease the amount of time in which the Commissioner is permitted to issue a reduced tax assessment, writes David Warneke, Director and Head of Tax...
Is a wealth tax likely for South Africa?
Professor Matthew Lester weighs in on a wealth tax and whether it is a solution to South Africa's revenue needs. The Davis Tax Committee (DTC) believes that a wealth tax for South Africans is not the universal solution to South Africa’s revenue...
The One Rand Family: lessons from a social experiment
The One Rand Family project followed the experience of a relatively well-off family living on cash only ‒ in fact R1 coins ‒ for a month. If you haven’t followed the trials and tribulations of the One Rand Family aired on e.tv during July, it’s...
Previous Articles
How to make some extra cash
Cutting expenses isn't the only solution when it comes to balancing your budget; you can also try to find ways to boost your income. Here are three suggestions. With everything from interest rates to tax to electricity and petrol increasing faster than our salaries,...
South African guide to fundraising for entrepreneurs
Seed Academy has developed a free ebook to help South African entrepreneurs navigate the fundraising landscape. Donna Rachelson, chief catalyst at Seed Academy says that based on surveys and their training of hundreds of entrepreneurs, raising funds is the most common...
A trick to start you saving
If you've been putting off opening a tax-free savings account, here's a trick to help you get going. Last week I completed the herculean task of opening tax-free savings accounts for my kids and myself. I have had the forms ready to fill out since April, but they just...
Savings: it’s about a change in mindset
Open up your bank statement and calculate how much of your monthly salary goes to repaying debt. Imagine if, apart from your mortgage, you had no debt repayments – think of all that money now available for savings. The reality is that we have already spent our future...
How to win the lotto
There are ways to score without playing the odds. Our family has a game where we write down what we would do with our money if we won the lotto. This is not just a fruitless exercise of “what if” because what it does is show us what is important to us –what our dreams...
Tax-free savings accounts are not ideal for an education fund
Using your child’s tax-free savings account is not necessarily the best vehicle for their education fund. Since the launch of the tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) there have been suggestions that this would be an ideal way to save for your child’s education. But is...
The cost of bad habits
People often argue that the reason they don’t have any savings, or why they cannot pay off their debts, is because they simply don’t have enough money. Yet little do we realise how much our bad habits are really costing us. The real cost of smoking If you smoke a pack...
Bank smart, pay less
You’ve finally graduated and landed yourself a job, and you’re loving the flexibility that comes with earning your own money. But before you know it, the money has run out and you’ve been hit with a whopping amount of bank fees. We took a look at some of the best bank...
Interpreting REITs
Abrie Joubert, Client Services Specialist at Glacier by Sanlam, looks at the finer details of a real estate investment trust (REIT) and how it affects your finances. What is a REIT? You may have noticed an entry on your investment statements and IT3b tax certificate...
Hundreds of South Africans fall victim to loan scam
It was only when Patricia received a call from Wonga’s head of communications that she realised she had been the unwitting victim of a phising scam that has so far conned over 200 people into parting with their money. Two weeks ago Patricia received an SMS from – what...