Use your cents to impress
“OUR prosperity as a nation depends upon the personal financial prosperity of each of us as individuals,” said George Samuel Clason, in his book, The Richest Man in Babylon. I thought of these words as Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan delivered his Budget speech on Wednesday. It was one figure that caught my attention. An estimated 103 000 South Africans ear n more than R1.5 million annually. It is a scary figure considering the number of black South Africans who portray lavish lives out there and live way beyond the R1.5m figure, and yet don’t make up 20% of the people who earn more than that.
We spend an astonishing amount of money on on-assets. And most doing this are educated people. One would hope their education would help them realise we have an economy to grow. I had hoped that as a generation exposed to bigger and better opportunities through this young democracy, we would make the best of it.
But we live for now. We live for today. We want to impress others, but what cost?
How financially savvy are you, black child?
How well are you managing your finances to create wealth? Splurging money on things we do not own is going to be the end of our financial emancipation.
It is no laughing matter that we live beyond our means just so we can appear to be “financially” successful even though we are not.
This takes me back to where I come from, the village of Pankop, where you have made it when you drive a Range Rover with a personalised number plate.
This is irrespective of whether you have retirement annuity, medical aid cover, life cover, an education fund or are still paying monthly car insurance.
Yet you do not even earn more R500 000 annually, but the car you drive costs double your salary.
Why is that scary? Because we have to wear clothes that match our social standing, and live in a suburb of the same class.
You could ask yourself why I keep on referring so much to what we drive in the black communities. It is because we seem to measure financial success based on the car you drive.
Financial literacy should be commonsense. But even commonsense is not common to everyone.
There is no harm in spoiling yourself, but make sure you have taken care of your financial security for the future.
Tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone, but it would be sad to be robbed of a chance to be financially secure in old age by foolishness, pressure, and temporary gratifications.
We do not earn a lot as blacks and our white counterparts still get paid more, even though we have the same responsibilities, or go the extra mile in your job.
Nevertheless, we can start spending less and wisely, and building beyond the R1.5m.
If your bank balance hasn’t got endless zeros after the first figure in it, there is a long way to go before you start looking at cars as something beyond a means to get from A to B. We need to prioritise. As Clason said, we cannot control how well our country can do financially, but can be responsible for our own household.
The bottom line is: as more of us do better financially, it will help our country.
Kabelo Chabalala is the founder of the Young Men Movement – @KabeloJay, e-mail: kabelo03chabalala@gmail.com